# Can not boot from Windwos 8.1 DVD (Asus VIII Ranger)



## Artas1984 (Sep 19, 2015)

I never liked motherboards with fancy BIOS. I probably had over 70 motherboards to test, and the best ones were with classic BIOS menu. Ever since these "UEFI" motherboards appeared on the market, i've always encountered some BS problems with them.... Now, my friend bought a totally new rig - Core i7 6700K and Asus VIII Ranger.

I came to his place to assemble a PC and install Windows 8.1. To my surprise the boot manager could not load from the DVD, even though i clearly wrote the settings in BIOS to boot from a DVD first. 

The Windows 8.1 DVD is a copy. Perhaps the secure boot "application" that is present in the BIOS prevents booting from unsigned ROMS?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 19, 2015)

depends. Did you modify both the CSM or UEFI boot order?


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## Artas1984 (Sep 19, 2015)

Solaris17 said:


> depends. Did you modify both the CSM or UEFI boot order?



I don't know what CSM is and i do not recall seeing it in the menu. One thing is certain - wihtout UEFI mode, i won't be able to install Windows 8.1 64 bit, right? I need UEFI mode, right?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 19, 2015)

Artas1984 said:


> I don't know what CSM is and i do not recall seeing it in the menu. One thing is certain - wihtout UEFI mode, i won't be able to install Windows 8.1 64 bit, right? I need UEFI mode, right?



No sir you can install without UEFI for sure! Typically with UEFI bios there are 2 critical changes this depends on manufacturer what they are named and some OEM boards only have one option wich subsiquently automatically disables the other they are as follows.

These must be DISABLED

Secureboot
UEFI Boot

Sometimes Disabling secure boot will automatically change the boot type (UEFI/CSM) but sometimes it doesnt. The boot type setting is usually on the boot tab or on the same tab as secureboot.

UEFI booting is also sometimes named

UEFI Mode
UEFI
UEFI Boot

^ that also needs to be turned off/changed

and CSM booting (what you are used too) is sometimes named

Legacy Mode
CSM Mode
CSM
Legacy
Legacy Boot

^ that needs to be turned on.

some boards also have "Fast boot" which usually disabled or makes it almost impossible to hit the boot key fast enough. disable it if you wish or you are having trouble after the other settings have been changed.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 19, 2015)

Installing Windows 8.1 in UEFI mode is preferred, but not required.  You can install Windows 8.1 in legacy mode as well.

With most modern UEFI boards there is a boot bypass menu somewhere in the UEFI that lets you pick a boot device, so you can pick the DVD drive directly from the UEFI shell and boot to it immediately.  You'll want to pick the option that says UEFI: <Your DVD Drive Model>

In your case, you want the Boot Override option under the Boot menu.  Also, you want to have CSM set to disabled, and leave secure boot settings to default, secure boot won't even do anything unless you set it up.


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## Aquinus (Sep 19, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Installing Windows 8.1 in UEFI mode is preferred, but not required.  You can install Windows 8.1 in legacy mode as well.
> 
> With most modern UEFI boards there is a boot bypass menu somewhere in the UEFI that lets you pick a boot device, so you can pick the DVD drive directly from the UEFI shell and boot to it immediately.  You'll want to pick the option that says UEFI: <Your DVD Drive Model>
> 
> In your case, you want the Boot Override option under the Boot menu.  Also, you want to have CSM set to disabled, and leave secure boot settings to default, secure boot won't even do anything unless you set it up.


This. @newtekie1 described exactly, to the letter, how it works on my ASUS board. I've encountered zero issues with UEFI since I started using it, so I guess our experiences differ for some reason or another. The boot override menu is a very nifty tool since you don't really have to guess what drive is booting based on the order. It also gives you the option of choosing how you want to boot as newtekie described with the "UEFI: " prefix on the boot device in the menu.

Personally, I perfer UEFI because of how booting is handled. I personally like looking at my boot order and seeing "Windows boot loader" and "Ubuntu" spelled out without any "attachment" (visually in the interface that is,) to the device it's installed on. You simply choose what you want to boot and being able to simply the boot process down to something like that and giving the OS more control over the system can only help the user experience.

Quick question though, is the DVD drive even detected by the BIOS? I ask because you said it doesn't even show up in the boot list which makes me think, it's not detected.

Also this might sound strange but, DVD burners have died a lot on me in the past and have done some pretty crazy things before croaking. Point being is don't discount the DVD drive itself either.

Edit: Do you have the ISO on another machine? Could you get it on a flash drive instead?


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## cadaveca (Sep 19, 2015)

Artas1984 said:


> I never liked motherboards with fancy BIOS. I probably had over 70 motherboards to test, and the best ones were with classic BIOS menu. Ever since these "UEFI" motherboards appeared on the market, i've always encountered some BS problems with them.... Now, my friend bought a totally new rig - Core i7 6700K and Asus VIII Ranger.
> 
> I came to his place to assemble a PC and install Windows 8.1. To my surprise the boot manager could not load from the DVD, even though i clearly wrote the settings in BIOS to boot from a DVD first.
> 
> The Windows 8.1 DVD is a copy. Perhaps the secure boot "application" that is present in the BIOS prevents booting from unsigned ROMS?


First, I hope you made custom OS disc with USB drivers. You might get lucky with Windows 8.1 install. For sure WIn8 and WIn 7 require custom OS disc or alternate method, which is listed on the support page of your board under the "manual & document" section

2nd, press "F8" as the board boots up to access the boot menu, and choose your DVD from there.


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## Artas1984 (Sep 22, 2015)

Thank you for suggestions. It seems the problem was the secure boot indeed, which actually could not be disabled in Asus Maximus VIII Ranger UEFI.  The DVD drive was good and no matter what options i had to choose, Windows 8.1 just would not boot. I installed Windows 7 disk instead and all went fine.


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