Intel Motherboards : BIOS Bug: CD/DVD doesn't boot in certain setups

Author: nuc
Subject: BIOS Bug: CD/DVD doesn't boot in certain setups
Posted: 27 Mar 2016 at 9:01am

Dear Forum members!

I have been a happy user of the ASRock P55 Deluxe3 for years now. Unfortunately I happened to come across a nasty bug:
I have noticed that my bootable CD/DVDs won't work in certain cable configurations, when using two HDDs.  For instance if I setup my drives like this:

SATA2_1 => HDD1
SATA2_2 => HDD2
SATA2_3 => DVD-Drive
or
SATA2_1 => HDD2
SATA2_2 => HDD1
SATA2_3 => DVD-Drive
or
SATA2_4 => HDD1
SATA2_5 => HDD2
SATA2_6 => DVD-Drive

booting the DVD will only give me a grey blinking cursor.

Setups like those work and let the drive boot:
SATA2_1 => HDD1
SATA2_2 => DVD-Drive
or
SATA2_1 => HDD2
SATA2_2 => DVD-Drive
or
SATA2_1 => DVD-Drive
SATA2_2 => HDD1
SATA2_3 => HDD2
or
SATA2_1 => HDD1
SATA2_2 => DVD-Drive
SATA2_3 => HDD2

So it only works when I am using either only one HDD, if I am placing the DVD-Drive into the middle, or if I place it first. It will not work when placed at the end with two HDDs. Did not try with more HDDs...

I think this looks like a definitive BIOS bug and I hope we can resolve it - it *should* be pretty easy to reproduce if you still have the mobo :) My next mobo shall be from ASRock again :P

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
nuc

Edited by nuc - 4 hours 53 minutes ago at 5:43pm