MJ installed as bootable device in BIOS??

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jesonger
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:21 am

MJ installed as bootable device in BIOS??

Post by jesonger »

Has anyone checked their system BIOS since they installed MJ? Specifically, their boot order?

When I powered my system back on after the first shutdown after MJ was installed, the boot loader told me to insert a system disk. I was fearing that my hard drive died. I looked at the BIOS setup to verify the drive was detected, and happened to scroll over to boot order. I couldn't believe what I saw, but there it was:

Magic Jack was listed as having highest priority boot status! I cleared it out and my system booted fine afterwards, but what the hell? My system wouldn't start because the BIOS was configured to find a system disk on the Magic Jack!

I challenge anyone to explain this as normal installer behavior.
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lenagainster
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Post by lenagainster »

:D
Last edited by lenagainster on Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
LikeMagic
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Post by LikeMagic »

It's your motherboard boot order setting to give highest priority to usb drive. Just change the boot order of usb flash drive to lower priority.
HolmanGT
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Post by HolmanGT »

As likemagic said or turn off boot from a thumb drive all together. By the way it is not uncommon for machine to come pre-configured to do that, boot from a thumb drive is it is their. HP does that all the time.

In fact the very same thing caused me some problems just the other day. But it is not anything MJ did it is just that your computer was set to look for a boot-able thumb drive firs if not found go to the HD. Makes it easier for the "Geek Squad".
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jesonger
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Post by jesonger »

HolmanGT wrote:As likemagic said or turn off boot from a thumb drive all together. By the way it is not uncommon for machine to come pre-configured to do that, boot from a thumb drive is it is their. HP does that all the time.

In fact the very same thing caused me some problems just the other day. But it is not anything MJ did it is just that your computer was set to look for a boot-able thumb drive firs if not found go to the HD. Makes it easier for the "Geek Squad".
I wish the real explanation was that simple. I already knew of the probability that USB devices would boot first, but the MJ isn't even a drive, not to mention nonbootable. And the boot order was:

1: Magic Jack
2: USB FDC
3: USB ODC
4: USB HDC
5: INT ODC
6: INT HDC

As you can see, MJ was specifically called out, whereas my actual USB drives are indirectly mentioned by controller type. So there's something else going on besides the computer merely detecting a USB thumb drive. I moved it to the bottom, and the system booted fine, but I still really want to know why my, and only my, MJ installation temporarily rendered my computer unbootable.
LikeMagic
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Post by LikeMagic »

jesonger wrote:
HolmanGT wrote:As likemagic said or turn off boot from a thumb drive all together. By the way it is not uncommon for machine to come pre-configured to do that, boot from a thumb drive is it is their. HP does that all the time.

In fact the very same thing caused me some problems just the other day. But it is not anything MJ did it is just that your computer was set to look for a boot-able thumb drive firs if not found go to the HD. Makes it easier for the "Geek Squad".
I wish the real explanation was that simple. I already knew of the probability that USB devices would boot first, but the MJ isn't even a drive, not to mention nonbootable. And the boot order was:

1: Magic Jack
2: USB FDC
3: USB ODC
4: USB HDC
5: INT ODC
6: INT HDC

As you can see, MJ was specifically called out, whereas my actual USB drives are indirectly mentioned by controller type. So there's something else going on besides the computer merely detecting a USB thumb drive. I moved it to the bottom, and the system booted fine, but I still really want to know why my, and only my, MJ installation temporarily rendered my computer unbootable.
MJ by design is a non-bootable USB Flash-memory drive (on boot & first detected by OS) and a virtual CD drive when installed in OS. That's why your motherboard/PC is waiting for boot instruction from the MJ device (if USB device is set as 1st boot order). And since MJ is a non-bootable flash drive, your PC would not boot :)
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