S205 & Win8 - How to force legacy BIOS mode?

Hi,
as far as I know the S205 has got two different interfaces:
UEFI and legacy BIOS.
Windows 8 supports both.
Using UEFI, Windows will partition the drive with GPT.
Using BIOS, it will be done with MBR.
The main problem is that - probably due to malfunctioning drivers - there are some major problems when using GPT with this netbook. You can find numerous threads about not working WiFi cards for instance.
What I'm looking for is an option to boot the Windows 8 installation through the BIOS interface from a thumb drive.
The S205 hasn't got an optical drive and I haven't got one either.
Thanks in advance for any help.
PS: As this is not a driver issue, I'm not posting this in the Windows 8 forum.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

After doing some research, this is how to successfully use the Ralink Wifi with Windows 8 on the s205 - clean USB install.
You must install Windows 8 in legacy mode (choose "IDE" in the BIOS).
BUT - you must *also* remove "bootmgr.efi" and \efi\ from the USB, before you install. If you don't, the USB will still install in EFI!
If you already installed Windows 8 in IDE mode from USB, you must check if your install is IDE/legacy or EFI - open this log file:
\Windows\Panther\setupact.log
Look for this text:
Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS
=you have IDE/legacy install
...or
Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: UEFI
= you have EFI install
(This information is from http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=209045)
If you see EFI/UEFI in the log file, you must reinstall Windows 8.
The only problem I have now is that Windows is freezing sometimes, so I plan to reinstall from a different USB in case of file corruption etc.
Hope this helps.

Similar Messages

[ solved] K8MM-ILSR Bios 3.8 how to force AGP 4X Mode ?

Hi all,
like a lot of people, I've some problems with my 9600 radeon and my mainboard.
Using games usually end with a freezing black screen.
I've updated my system (ATI drivers, VIA drivers et.c), checked for PSU, temperatures and disabled fastwrite without success.
My brand new mainboard was shipped with a bios version 3.8 wich is not availlable on the MSI site.
I would love to try to set the AGP mode to 4X except that when plugging my 9600, The only setting is AUTO, when plugging my old 7500 the setting goes to 4X.
Does anyone know if there is a vay to overide the AUTO setting or if an older version of BIOS support it ( 3.7 ?).
Thanks for your feedback.
Edit : I've forced AGP 4X in Catalyst Control Center and now it works fine even if this option is not availlable in the BIOS.

Hi all,
like a lot of people, I've some problems with my 9600 radeon and my mainboard.
Using games usually end with a freezing black screen.
I've updated my system (ATI drivers, VIA drivers et.c), checked for PSU, temperatures and disabled fastwrite without success.
My brand new mainboard was shipped with a bios version 3.8 wich is not availlable on the MSI site.
I would love to try to set the AGP mode to 4X except that when plugging my 9600, The only setting is AUTO, when plugging my old 7500 the setting goes to 4X.
Does anyone know if there is a vay to overide the AUTO setting or if an older version of BIOS support it ( 3.7 ?).
Thanks for your feedback.
Edit : I've forced AGP 4X in Catalyst Control Center and now it works fine even if this option is not availlable in the BIOS.

B570 - Booting in Legacy-BIOS-Mode (without UEFI)??

hi folks,
do you know how to boot a dvd in legacy-mode (without UEFI)?
my lenovo B570 UEFI has very little options, so i assume the other options (e.g. booting in legacy mode) are hidden somewhere.
i also found a guide from lenovo for the thinkpad series, but the option (see step 3) clearly is missing with my notebook.
any ideas??
thank you very much in advance..
-benni

Hi,
i got my new T420 in may this year. As I am a student i get the new Windows 8 out of Dreamspark one month ago. Before I installed Windows 8 x64 I made all bios and firmware updates i can get.
After the successfull installation I got some startup hangs, not regular, but most of the boots. A few days ago a new bios was available, so I hope this one will get me rid of the problem. But the same thing happens, well I think it is the powermanagement, because the hang always happens at this point, when the display is going to dim. If I have the power plugged in, I don't get this problem.
Hope this will be fixed in later versions of bios / powermanagement.
Best Regards

How to force a failsafe mode in runlevel 3 (kdm) [SOLVED]

This is probably quite basic but I am wondering how I can get a console after X is hanging (last xorg-server update with catalys). The usual c-m-f1 is not working. I don't seem to be able to kill X with c-m-delete either.
I would like to force a runlevel 3 session.
I don't seem to be able to get a console even in failsafe mode. I am using kdm as a daemon in rc.conf.
I have tried with the live cd but then I don't know how I can mount my lvm partition (which is not seen as a device).
Thanks for any help.
Last edited by PierreR (2009-08-29 09:23:15)

PierreR wrote:I don't seem to be able to get a console even in failsafe mode. I am using kdm as a daemon in rc.conf.
that's the main reason you can't enter in runlevel 3. that daemon will run on every runlevel excepting runlevel 1. how can you fix this?
when you are on grub menu, type "e" and then select the kernel line and type again "e" then append to that line, at the end, "init 1", enter to make the changes and then hit "b"
after you type root password, edit rc.conf and remove kdm from there. after you fix your xorg, use /etc/inittab way to start kdm
Last edited by wonder (2009-08-29 09:04:06)

T420s & Windows 8: startup problems in legacy bios mode (and workaround)

a heads up for anyone looking to install windows 8 on a t420s. after my inplace-upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8, the os would only boot every 10-15 tries. most of the time it was stuck on the blue windows bootloader logo.
after being annoyed too much by this, i went ahead and manually converted the MBR to GPT with the help of gparted/gdisk . then i switched to UEFI-only mode in the bios and used a UEFI-enabled windows 8 boot stick to use the win 8 recovery tool to make the disk bootable again.
since then, no more boot problems.
TL;DR: if you plan a fresh installation of windows 8 x64, make sure to switch to UEFI only mode in bios before running setup.

Hi,
i got my new T420 in may this year. As I am a student i get the new Windows 8 out of Dreamspark one month ago. Before I installed Windows 8 x64 I made all bios and firmware updates i can get.
After the successfull installation I got some startup hangs, not regular, but most of the boots. A few days ago a new bios was available, so I hope this one will get me rid of the problem. But the same thing happens, well I think it is the powermanagement, because the hang always happens at this point, when the display is going to dim. If I have the power plugged in, I don't get this problem.
Hope this will be fixed in later versions of bios / powermanagement.
Best Regards

BIOS mode-UEFI or Legacy in Lenovo G580?

I have lenovo g580. in bios setup under boot tab, it says UEFI boot 'Enabled'. but when i go to cmd and type 'msinfo32', it says my system has LEGACY bios mode. what actually is it? if i have UEFI mode enabled, why it shows legacy in msinfo32? please help........

hi firozmkhatri,
According to this FAQ, the UEFI BIOS has to emulate legacy BIOS so that existing applications aren't broken (this means 32bit programs since UEFI only works with 64bit versions of Windows). If you have UEFI enabled under BIOS and see it's saying Legacy under msinfo32, you probably have a Windows 7 system installed on legacy mode as the Lenovo G580 supports UEFI with an emulated Legacy.support.
To check if you have Windows installed on UEFI (GPT) or Legacy mode (MBR), check your drive volume:
1. Click Start, right-click Computer and then click Manage
2. On the Computer Management window, choose Disk Managemment
3. Right click on any of the Disk (i.e. Disk 1), choose Properties and on the Volumes tab, see Partition Style
Windows with MBR Partition:
Spoiler (Highlight to read)
Windows with GPT Partition
Spoiler (Highlight to read)
Reference:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/tkb/articleprintpage/tkb-id/Special_Interest_General@tkb/article-id/22
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463149.aspx
Hope this helps.
Did someone help you today? Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
Follow @LenovoForums on Twitter!

Requesting legacy BIOS firmware for N750TI-2GD5TLP

This may be different from most of the UEFI requests. I have an older computer (supermicro X7QCE) that requires legacy BIOS support (or hybrid bios support) and also requires the low profile version of the card or I would have gotten the version with a switch between the two.
SN: 602-V809-319SD1501091120
As the motherboard shows no signs of recognizing the card, I can't easily retrieve the current bios version with my computer. If it is absolutely needed for a downgrade to a legacy BIOS, I can use a friend's computer. I thought I 'd check here first.
There's no hardware problem with the PCIe slot as I'm using a zotac gt 740 right now, and no power restriction problems.
I don't know the terminology that well as far as GOP or vBIOS, so sorry if Im using the terms incorrectly.

Quote
Actually, NM, I found the answer in another thread. The switch explicitly switches between EFI mode and legacy BIOS mode.
These are not just modes. The switch allows to use the card with a plain legacy vbios or a UEFI/GOP (hybrid) vbios.
Quote
As this is the case, I can come to no conclusion other than there is a problem in the EFI/legacy mode handoff in the vbios for essentially every other version of the gtx750ti.
Like already said UEFI or legacy is not the only problem that can stop the card from working in an older computer but the support for later cards in general.
Quote from: flobelix on 22-May-15, 17:46:07
We don't know what "Supermicro" computer you have and what it works with since we are not Supermicro support. Legacy and UEFI mode or GOP compliance is not the only things that determine if a card runs in your machine. Newer cards must work at all on that older machine what is not guaranteed on oem machines that are very rarely updated. With latest gen vgas that is surely a problem and has nothing to do with the vga's vbios. Only Supermicro can tell you if current generation vgas are supported.
Quote
I guess if I want to get this card to work and not just return it, I'll have to hack the firmware. Dont suppose there's any tools for making that any easier?
Get used to the fact that the problem is not the card or it's vbios but your pc's oem mainboard and it's lacking support for newer cards. Else it would at least work with card switched to the legacy vbios.

How do I set EFI mode in Z68A-GD80-B3 BIOS?

I am trying to install Windows 7 64-bit onto a Seagate 3TB drive on a brand-new MSI Z68A-GD80-B3 motherboard but Windows keeps insisting on using an MBR style partition. When I connected the drive to another computer and used the Seagate utility to create a GPT partition, Windows refuses to install to it because it thinks the BIOS is in BIOS mode and not EFI mode.
There is a complicated guide to force the EFI installer bootstrap here http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=184349 but having to do all this seems ridiculous for a motherboard UEFI BIOS that is advertised as having 3TB+ support.
So where is the setting (as I have seen on some other motherboards) that tells the bootable DVD/USB device that the BIOS is EFI and not legacy? Thanks!

Putting the system into RAID mode wasn't too bad since I was only experimenting with the setup anyway. However, after doing some research on how to use the EFI console it appears it is currently not possible to boot into a GPT disk when the ICH controller it set to RAID mode. :(
I tried wiping the drive, I tried installing the GPT boot and then installing Windows to it. Interestingly, the error message isn't a showstopper - it is merely a warning unlike the other error messages. If you click on the GPT partition and say install Windows will indeed go ahead and install to it. But when the BIOS tries to boot to it, it cannot. My investigation with EFI console shows that when the controller is in RAID mode the hard drive doesn't even show up in the list of available devices in the console. Also when using the console to list the available EFI drivers, they only have 2 IDE drivers (one Intel, one Marvell) and 2 AHCI drivers (same deal) - no RAID.
Furthermore, we appear to no be alone. I also have a Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 for evaluation and it too has the same problem, both confirmed by my own tests and a message thread much like this one that states the EFI BIOS manufacturers have not written the EFI RAID driver for the Sandy Bridge architecture yet. (I don't know if this is true for any other mobo manufacturers besides MSI and Gigabyte.)
Anyway, I'm giving up for now on GPT and have formatted the 3TB drive as MBR. I am then using a special driver from Seagate that makes the remaining space appear as a separate drive. I suppose it would still be possible to combine this space if one were to create a spanning volume in Windows or Linux and combine the real 2TB volume with the virtual drive that contains the remaining space. But I'm going to just leave it as a separate volume.
The only troubling thing is when or if MSI finally releases a BIOS with an EFI RAID driver I'll feel compelled to format the whole system as GPT and start again. *grumblegrumble*
Isn't being on the bleeding edge of tech fun?

Ask your question here...how to enable legacy mode in e1-510 (Z5WE3).

how to enable legacy mode in e1-510 (Z5WE3).

first of all you need to update BIOS at least to 2.11, this is the link for 2.12http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_2.12_A_A.zip?acerid=635677775458144547&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE%20E1-510&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6 once you updated to 2.12, you will find an option on BIOS to enable Legacy mode.

Change the already installed Win 8.1 BIOS mode from Legacy to UEFI

Hey,
It seems that my Windows 8.1 is installed in BIOS mode: Legacy as "msinfo32.exe" shows. I can boot into it with no issue, but when I go to my laptop's BIOS settings and change the mode back to UEFI, it gives me an error "Operating system not
found" (not sure about the exact error message).
I am just wondering if it is possible to change the Windows 8.1 BIOS mode to UEFI so when I change the laptop's BIOS settings back to UEFI, it can boot into it?
Regards.

Hi Amin CiscoSoft,
Since UEFI mode need an EFI system partition (ESP) which has the partition type ef00, usually contains a FAT32 file system. We need to recreate the partitions needed for booting the installation media in UEFI mode.
Before you doing that we VERY recommended for you to read all contents including Prerequisites and warring paragraph in links below, then perform a backup of your data. If you have a second disk drive big enough, you can simply create a system image and
able to recover the full installation as it was before you started this procedure if anything goes wrong.
Since the steps are complicated, please follow the steps in
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14286.converting-windows-bios-installation-to-uefi.aspx
Regards

How to enter BIOS mode on Satellite 5200?

Hello!
I own a Satellite 5200-801 and Ive recently bought a new CD/DVD - rom cause the original just died. The thing is that the drive I bought is from US market and my laptop is European. So Ive double checked all the serial numbers on it and everything was correct except the manufacture serial number that I suppose makes no difference to be different.
My problem is that when I install it the light indicator flashes normal but when it boots it shoes IDE error boot and windows doesnt see it at all. Do u know how can I enter BIOS setting to change master/slave cause I believe that there is a difference among them at this point....the original is master and the second is csel.
Also is there a key to enter BIOS because I cant enter at all no matter key combinations. Finally if I change the reading head of the DVD/ROM and put back the original would make the change I need?
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!

As far as I know you cannot change anything in BIOS but check it again. To enter BIOS settings press ESC button at start up.
Good luck!

Switch from uefi to legacy bios

How would you go about switching from uefi to legacy bios/boot? Would you have to reinstall windows? Can you use the hidden partitions for this? Would you need a windows install disk?

how do I switch my partitioning scheme to MBR so I can use legacy boot/bios?
In the System Configuration section of the UEFI, for starters, set the Boot Mode to CSM Boot. That essentially bypasses the UEFI.
The easiest way to change the partitioning from GPT to MBR is to use old fashion tools like a Windows 7 installation DVD to delete the existing partitions and create new ones.
-Jerry

GS70 2PC stuck in legacy bios

Im new to the forums please be gentle.
I recently updated the Bios of my laptop due to some compatibility issues I had.
Im running windows 7 and before the update I was running in UEFI, but now the only way to get out of the BIOS menu and have windows actually boot is to keep it in Legacy mode.
When I try to get back to UEFI mode and reset. I see the MSI logo and instantly get put back into the BIOS menu with no way to get around it.
has anyone else had this issue? if so what can I do to get it back into UEFI?
Thank you in advanced, ive looked all over the internet and this is my last hope.

Quote from: runningman on 30-March-15, 14:25:24
Hi, that's because Legacy mode is for WIN7 OS, UEFI mode is for WIN8, therefore you should set boot mode to Legacy in order to enter WIN7.
No not really, WIN7 can be runned in UEFI as well just that you need to make WIN7 UEFI version on USB so it installs in UEFI if it wasnt windows 7 wouldnt of had boot.efi file just like windows 8/8.1 has

MSI GTX 750 Ti with Motherboard Legacy BIOS

I was wondering if I could run the MSI GTX 750 Ti with a Legacy BIOS. I recently purchased an EVGA GTX 750 and it is not compatible with my motherboards Legacy BIOS (had no idea before purchasing it). I know MSI's has a Dual BIOS switch on the card, so I was wondering if it would work?
I have a pre-built HP system, the HP P7-1233w. I know the GTX 750 Ti has a TDP of 60w, my power supply is a 300w HP with two +12v rails. The +12va has 12a and the +12vb has 16a.
So if anyone can tell me if the MSI GTX 750 Ti (specifically this card: MSI N750TI-2GD5/OC) will work with my Legacy BIOS Motherboard that would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

Quote
What does the Dual BIOS switch do on the card? Does it relate to the motherboard BIOS, or no?
No, it offers a legacy and UEFI/GOP vbios for Win8 feature support (fastboot/secureboot). If using a board with a legacy bios it is irrelevant what vbios is selected as both are supporting legacy mode (UEFI/GOP vbios is hybrid). Only for boards with a UEFI bios which is not GOP compliant using the legacy vbios is required.

Cannot Access BIOS or Boot Windows 8 After Changing UEFI BIOS to Legacy BIOS

Acer V7-751, 500G HD, Windows 8.
I changed the BIOS settings from UEFI to Legacy BIOS when I was working on a problem. Now I can't even get into the BIOS (F2)
or change the Boot Order (F12). All I get is an error "Operating System not found". I can boot with a Win7, Win8, or Win8,1 DVD. I suppose I could boot with just about anything else bootable as well.
The problem seems to be caused because it's set to Legacy BIOS and Secure Boot Manager as default #1 boot device. Legacy BIOS
can't boot a Win8 drive that has been installed under UEFI (Secure Boot). I have to change the BIOS back to EUFI to boot the WIn8 drive, but the only way to change the BIOS is from within Win8. It's a very flawed way of doing things but it's the way it is.
Does anyone have any suggestions that they KNOW work. Please don't Google answers. I've already done that. And please (please)
don't tell me to power on and press "F2" (or any other key) to go into BIOS. If I could do that I wouldn't be posting.
Once again, I cannot get into the BIOS without going into Windows first. I cannot load Windows because the install was done
under UEFI. I cannot change from Legacy to UEFI because I can't get into the BIOS.

In this case, I flashed the BIOS with a newer version of the BIOS/Firmware and that returned everything to the Defaults (not Legacy BIOS). I believe you could also flash with the same version. I don't think you could flash with an earlier version, but no harm
in trying it. if you've flashed the BIOS previously, you may be able to restore the previous copy. It all depends on the manufacturer and how they handle flashing the BIOS.
I wasn't able to, but you may also be able to boot from a correctly formatted USB drive with another OS (Windows XP/Vista/7) because Legacy BIOS allows you to boot from external devices. Essentially, you need to be able to boot from a valid OS that is not on
the Hard Drive that was configured using the UEFI BIOS setting.
Please let me know if you have any more questions, and I'll do what I can to help. If this solves your problem, please mark my post as the answer. Thank you.

S205 & Win8 - How to force legacy BIOS mode?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for