[Solved] Laptop wont boot from USB

bowlesg

Estimable
Dec 16, 2014
2
0
4,510
Hi there,

So I decided that I would install a piece of software called DiskCryptor (you may have heard of it). It encrypts the windows 8 drive. They recommend that you create a live CD or USB drive that has disk cryptor on it so that if anything goes wrong and you can't access the drive you can decrypt it from there. One one option is called HBCD, I used Universal USB Installer to Intstal HBCD and went into my BIOS to change the boot order so that in the event of things going wrong I could just put the USB drive in and it would boot off that. Here are my specs to help with that 'Every BIOS is unique' problem:

Dell Inspiron 15 (early 2014)

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz
Manufacturer Intel
Speed 2.4 GHz
Number of Cores 4
CPU ID BFEBFBFF00040651
Family 06
Model 45
Stepping 1
Revision

Video Card 1 AMD Radeon R7 M265
Manufacturer ATI
Chipset AMD Radeon R7 M265
Dedicated Memory 2.1 GB
Total Memory 4.0 GB
Pixel Shader Version 5.0
Vertex Shader Version 5.0
Hardware T & L Yes
Vendor ID 1002
Device ID 6900
Plug and Play ID VEN_1002&DEV_6900&SUBSYS_06401028&REV_00
Driver Version 13.352.1008.0

Video Card 2 Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer Intel
Chipset Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Dedicated Memory 32 MB
Total Memory 1.8 GB
Pixel Shader Version 5.0
Vertex Shader Version 5.0
Hardware T & L Yes
Vendor ID 8086
Device ID 0A16
Plug and Play ID VEN_8086&DEV_0A16&SUBSYS_06401028&REV_0B
Driver Version 10.18.10.3383

Memory 8.1 GB

Operating System Microsoft Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit
Service Pack 0
Size 64 Bit
Edition Basic
Version 6.2.9200
Locale 0809

BIOS A05
Version Dell Inc. A05
Manufacturer Dell Inc.
Date

------------Specs End--------------

So to get into my BIOS I held shift while pressing restart on the start menu.
I went Troubleshooting> Advanced Options> UEFI Firmware

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(Sorry if that's not exact) and then pressed restart this took me into boot manager

M0K5YWf.jpg


This was when things start to look weird (to me at least) as I only have 3 options under "UEFI:" so I went ahead and hit enter on "Enter Setup". Most of "General" was greyed out as they are just details and are not changeable, there is nothing in "Advanced" to do with booting. I do have a system password and admin password installed.

GMfn7aZ.jpg


However I know them and have never got them wrong. So then I went into the boot menu and yep, sure enough there were only 3 options.

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I tried playing around (turning off secure boot, switching to legacy, rebooting and all of that stuff) but all that did was remove the 3 options all together leaving a blank screen. So I went back to this menu:

n94iV1u.jpg


and selected use boot device> USB EFI device or something like that and so it rebooted and asked me for my password and I entered my admin password. It accepted. I waited a bit and then got this:

XNRpNmG.jpg


I hit enter and it took me back to the boot manager where I selected the Onboard Lan IPv4 just to see what it did.

CFzG0L2.jpg


It said something like "Reading Media" and then displayed "Failed" and booted windows 8.

So in conclusion my Laptop is refusing to boot from a USB (It doesnt have a DVD drive) and wont allow the boot sequence to be changed.

Thank you for actually reading this far. I know it was long, sorry! But BIOSs are very unique and I wanted detail.

Any help is extremely appreciated.

Thanks! :)