Pavilion Sleekbook 15 won't display boot menu with usb. Restarts continuously.

[technik]

Hi,

I have an HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15 (Model: 15-b022es) in which i'm tryig to install Linux.

Since the day I bought it, I've been unable to boot anything directly through USB. I've searched a lot on this topic, and the usual causes are Boot devices order, Secure boot or Legacy Support options. That is certainly not the case, since I have tried all possible combinations. In fact, the exact symptoms that my laptop exhibits aren't described anywhere I've found. This being:

If I insert an USB drive in any port of the laptop, it renders the computer completely unable to boot. It's not that it freezes, it restarts again and again, but never goes beyound a black screen and making some HDD sounds (usual boot up sounds, nothing weird). Within this state, with the USB still inserted, I can access the BIOS configuration by pressing F10, but can not access boot devices menu (usually available at F9), because pressing F9 will just cause a new reboot.

In the past I accessed the boot menu by not inserting any USB and then pressing F9, then I entered the USB, entered and left some random folder to force refresh the display (and so show the USB), and finally selected my USB. This is a bit hacky, and I can no longer apply this solution, since my HDD is completely erased now and there is no folder I can enter to refresh the screen and display the usb drive.

Now the thing is: I can't manage to install any operating system back into my laptop if I can't boot from USB, so how can I do that? Right now all I get are continuous resets of the machine before even getting to the boot menu.

And what is the cause for all those resets? Maybe if I figure that out, I can guess a way around this problem.

[mahemac]

Hi,

           Once you enter into BIOS screen---->Go to System Configuration---->Boot Option---->In the next screen you will be able to change the boot order. If this does not works, then try tapping ESC key when you hit the turn ON button and you will get options to select to boot device.

[technik · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the quick answer, but that's not the problem, I had tried that already.

I can manage to the boot menu as long as I don't start the computer with a USB inserted. If I insert one, it will prevent F9 to enter the boot menu, causing the machine to restart again and again indefinitely.

However, after trying everything I could think of (even different file formats in diferent USB drives and for diferent BIOS configurations), I went paranoid and tried with every USB I have at home.

I've been able to boot properly with an 8GB Toshiba pendrive formatted in fat32 (I've tried fat32 with other pendrives).

So finally it seems to me that this is a bug in the EFI firmware of my computer. In the first place, the incomplatibility seems to stand for a wrong implementation of some standard either on the side of various pendrive makers or on the side of HP. But anyway, continuous restarts instead of an informative message about the error (as happens for some other errors) seems like a buggy behavior to me.

[SunToss]

Thanks a lot.... So happy 2 tell u dat ur advise was so usefull... Earlier i got win8 with 64 bit... Doesn't suit wit my 2GB ram... But cudn't install d 32 bit one from usb until i found out ur tips... Thanks again... God bless u....