Optimus V: Unable to boot from USB for Bios update

acffordyce973

acffordyce973

Bronze Level Poster
I had asked PCS to send me a bios update for the Optimus V to hopefully fix the fan issue. The USB arrived today and upon reading the instructions it said to repeatedly hit the 'F7' key during boot.
Doing this done absolutely nothing. It just booted to Windows 8 as normal. I then tried hitting 'F8', again, nothing happened.
I installed Ubuntu via USB so I decided to try and boot from the USB the same way I done with that.
Repeatedly hitting the 'Del' key to get into the bios, going to boot devices, disabling all apart from the USB device and Saving the changes. Again, this done nothing. It just stayed on a blank screen. I tried pressing some keys just in case but to no avail.
I then tried force booting to the USB but it just chucked me straight back to bios.
Finally, I tried disabling UEFI boot and booting to the USB. It still didn't work.

Both the port and USB stick work fine (and it's a USB 2.0 one, like the instructions say). The USB stick has the following files:
169f920a7c.png

Does anybody have any ideas? If not then I'll probably phone PCS on Monday. Whatever happened to .exe bios updates...
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
acffordyce973 said:
Well, I installed Ubuntu via USB when I first got the Laptop but I'll try that same USB later. That would be good to check.
Click to expand...

If the Ubuntu stick boots then the problem is obviously with the PCS stick. It might be that they just forgot to make it bootable, in which case you should boot Windows, plug the PCS stick in, open up an elevated Windows command prompt and enter the command "Diskpart" (without the quotes).

You'll see a Diskpart> prompt, enter the command "List Disk" (without quotes). Make a note of the number of the USB stick.

Enter the command "Sel Disk n" (without quotes) when "n" is the number of your USB stick.

Enter the command "active" (without the quotes). This will mark the stick as active (bootable).

Enter the command "exit" (without the quotes). This ends the Diskpart session.

Reboot and select the USB stick. If it still won't boot then you need to call PCS.
 
acffordyce973

acffordyce973

Bronze Level Poster
ubuysa said:
If the Ubuntu stick boots then the problem is obviously with the PCS stick. It might be that they just forgot to make it bootable, in which case you should boot Windows, plug the PCS stick in, open up an elevated Windows command prompt and enter the command "Diskpart" (without the quotes).

You'll see a Diskpart> prompt, enter the command "List Disk" (without quotes). Make a note of the number of the USB stick.

Enter the command "Sel Disk n" (without quotes) when "n" is the number of your USB stick.

Enter the command "active" (without the quotes). This will mark the stick as active (bootable).

Enter the command "exit" (without the quotes). This ends the Diskpart session.

Reboot and select the USB stick. If it still won't boot then you need to call PCS.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I done this and it wouldn't work but I then disabled UEFI and Secure Boot again. After disabling those two in the BIOS 'F7' worked and I was able to boot from the USB.
Seems like the instructions need updating for UEFI and Secure Boot.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
acffordyce973 said:
Thanks. I done this and it wouldn't work but I then disabled UEFI and Secure Boot again. After disabling those two in the BIOS 'F7' worked and I was able to boot from the USB.
Seems like the instructions need updating for UEFI and Secure Boot.
Click to expand...

Glad it's sorted. Secure boot is probably more trouble than it's worth. It's caused booting issues for others. I have it off and I'd suggest you do too. :)
 
M

Mobius

New member
I can double confirm this on my new Optimus V. I had to disable Secure Boot and UEFI in order to 'reveal' alternate boot options (Optical/USB/HDD) than just a useless listing of "Windows Boot Manager". I actually found this out by just restoring the BIOS settings to factory default.

It was necessary to disable this to be able to install Windows 7 via CD - Laptop purchased without OS!
 
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