Boot issues on Dell Inspiron

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bazzer

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#192123 28-Feb-2016 09:49

I don't know too much about UEFI etc, but I've got a bit of a problem with my Inspiron 15 5547 hopefully someone can shed some light on.

I went through and updated all the drivers etc. in preparation for finally moving to Windows 10 on this thing. The last two things Dell suggested to update were the harddrive (ST1000LM014) firmware and BIOS, in that order. I'm pretty sure they both went OK since I'm able to boot into Windows and everything is working but my problem is at boot.

The harddrive firmware update rebooted into some version of Linux, did some stuff, and then rebooted (through a weird menu) and back to Windows. Checked the firmware on the drive, updated, great!
BIOS update did the same, into some other strange system, updating the BIOS, restart. F2 into the settings and see that the version has updated, great!

Reboot for the last time and end up in the weird menu (below) from 1. again... Unless I do something within a couple of seconds it boots into the default option ("Boot WindowsBootMgr from ESP") which seems to work OK.

I just don't understand why it's doing this now and if I need to do anything about it. In the UEFI boot settings (below) the first entry is the Seagate Firmware Tool which I think explains why rEFInd comes up. Should I move the Windows Boot Manager option up the order? Is that the same thing that boots when the default option is chosen from rEFInd?

Can anyone explain this stuff to me? Thanks!

lNomNoml

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#1500622 28-Feb-2016 10:36

It should resolve when you upgrade to Windows 10.

gzt

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#1500678 28-Feb-2016 11:59

Should I move the Windows Boot Manager option up the order? Is that the same thing that boots when the default option is chosen from rEFInd?

Short answer yes. Long answer, I would expect the driver install to clean up after itself and restore the original book sequence. That didn't happen. It could indicate a failure in the process, but you got the firmware installed so that is all good. Options a) run the firmware install again and see if it cleans up this time. b) find the hotkey to boot to the uefi boot menu and select windows boot manager. If that boots correctly then change the uefi boot order.

a) and b) may be overly cautious and a) could even complicate things if it goes wrong.better to skip a) ; ).

bazzer

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#1500689 28-Feb-2016 12:17

gzt:
Should I move the Windows Boot Manager option up the order? Is that the same thing that boots when the default option is chosen from rEFInd?

Short answer yes. Long answer, I would expect the driver install to clean up after itself and restore the original book sequence. That didn't happen. It could indicate a failure in the process, but you got the firmware installed so that is all good. Options a) run the firmware install again and see if it cleans up this time. b) find the hotkey to boot to the uefi boot menu and select windows boot manager. If that boots correctly then change the uefi boot order.

a) and b) may be overly cautious and a) could even complicate things if it goes wrong.better to skip a) ; ).

That (a) was my first thought, but it didn't do anything different (other than note that the firmware was already up-to-date during the process, so I guess that's a good sign). A quick google suggested that I'm not entirely alone, so who knows?

OK, I'll give b) a try later. To be honest, I'm not that bothered, since everything is "working". I'd just like to know what went on!

Thanks!

gzt

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#1500696 28-Feb-2016 12:28

Just a failure of some kind in the install wrapper logic.