{"id":426,"date":"2016-07-05T15:29:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T20:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2016-07-05T20:43:07","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T01:43:07","slug":"solution-no-bootable-devices-found-on-dell-laptops-ssd-not-detected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/casestudies\/solution-no-bootable-devices-found-on-dell-laptops-ssd-not-detected\/","title":{"rendered":"SOLUTION: “No bootable devices found” on Dell Laptops – SSD not detected"},"content":{"rendered":"

A relatively new form of problem which has\u00a0been introduced by the wider adoption of solid-state drives (and other drives with more particular power requirements than standard mechanical hard drives) is that of drive detection and compatibility. \u00a0This applies most notably to sleep\/resume and cold boot detection of these devices, which sometimes are not detected\u00a0at all\u00a0<\/em>on specific systems. \u00a0Occasionally a BIOS update on the computer\u00a0or a firmware update to the drive can resolve the issue, but other times, the drive may simply be incompatible.<\/p>\n

I have seen this most recently with Crucial brand SSDs, which by and large have\u00a0proven to be a good value — when they work. \u00a0Reliability hasn’t been a concern\u00a0with regard to\u00a0the drives I’ve purchased for my clients, but on occasion, drive detection\u00a0is<\/em> a problem. \u00a0Specifically, some of the newer Dell Latitude laptops (of which I purchase and service quite a large number) seem to struggle with Crucial SSDs.<\/p>\n

The message you will see on a Dell Latitude if\u00a0this happens to you is:<\/p>\n

No bootable devices found.
\nPress F1 key to retry boot.
\nPress F2 key for setup utility.
\nPress F5 key to run onboard diagnostics<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, if the user presses F1 to retry, the machine then boots normally. \u00a0This indicates that the problem has to do with the machine not detecting the drive quickly enough during POST to continue with the boot process.<\/p>\n

With other machines, the problem can be resolved by\u00a0switching ON “Hot plug support” (or similar) in the BIOS Setup. \u00a0However, this option does not exist within Dell’s BIOS Setup.<\/p>\n

So, then, what’s the solution? \u00a0Actually,\u00a0it’s\u00a0precisely the same thing\u00a0<\/em>I posted in my previous update as a response to\u00a0a completely different problem: bypass the RAID controller and use AHCI interface instead. \u00a0The problem apparently seems to be related, at least in part, to how the system processes the communication between the drive and the\u00a0chipset via the Intel RAID controller. \u00a0Disabling RAID does require jumping through a couple of hoops, but it’s relatively quick and easy. \u00a0See my post here for full instructions!<\/a><\/p>\n

Once this is complete, the machine boots normally each and every time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A relatively new form of problem which has\u00a0been introduced by the wider adoption of solid-state drives (and other drives with more particular power requirements than standard mechanical hard drives) is that of drive detection and compatibility. \u00a0This applies most notably … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-casestudies","category-hardware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triplescomputers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}