# Can't disable UEFI boot on HP 250 G3



## Uplink10 (Jul 26, 2015)

I have HP 250 G3 and I intend to install Windows 8.1 and Linux on it. I do not want to deal with UEFI and bad UEFI support outside Windows environment and that is why I prefer to disable it, unfortunately I cannot find an option to do so:





UEFI also takes priority when Legacy boot is enabled:




I hope the road does not end here because then installing Windows and Linux the Legacy way will be harder. I do not know what are they thinking, if HP wants only for Windows to run on their computers then they should release a press release or warn everyone before purchase.


----------



## Pill Monster (Jul 26, 2015)

Use something like Rufus and select MBR as the partition type. U may have to delete the partition first if the disk is already GPT.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jul 26, 2015)

Uplink10 said:


> I hope the road does not end here because then installing Windows and Linux the Legacy way will be harder. I do not know what are they thinking, if HP wants only for Windows to run on their computers then they should release a press release or warn everyone before purchase.



There is no disabling UEFI boot on any computer that has a UEFI BIOS in my experience.  You can only enable Legacy support or some call it "Compatiblity Support" or CSM.  But the UEFI boot path is always active and available.  This has nothing to do with HP wanting you to use only Windows, this is just how UEFI works.

Also, you say installing Windows and Linux the Legacy way will be harder, but that is exactly the way you would have to do it if UEFI wasn't available...

It is super easy to install Windows in non-UEFI mode on that system.  Put in your boot media and hit the button(I think f9 or esc) to bring up the boot options menu.  Then you will have options like "UEFI:CD-ROM" and "CD-ROM" or "UEFI:USB Flash Drive" and "Flash Drive".  Select the option without UEFI: in front of it and install Windows, this will install Windows in non-UEFI mode.  Do the same with Linux.  It really isn't that hard.

You may also want to change the POST delay to a few seconds while you are setting up the OSes to give yourself enough time to hit the Boot Menu button.  You can change it back to 0 once you have the two OSes set up.


----------



## Solaris17 (Jul 26, 2015)

with secure boot off try hitting F9 during post to access the legacy menu.


----------



## McSteel (Jul 26, 2015)

Not to mention that GRUB2 is perfectly UEFI-capable, and Syslinux is good enough to be serviceable. You can have either one chainload the Windows UEFI bootloader if you make them primary.
Or, as has been said, if the CSM exists on the machine, it should be selectable through the boot menu, no matter what has priority in the UEFI settings.


----------



## Pill Monster (Jul 26, 2015)

The drive must be initialised as MBR to install in legacy mode. It won't work on GPT disks.


----------



## Uplink10 (Jul 26, 2015)

Pill Monster said:


> Use something like Rufus and select MBR as the partition type. U may have to delete the partition first if the disk is already GPT.


Rufus does not have an option "MBR partition scheme for only BIOS":






newtekie1 said:


> There is no disabling UEFI boot on any computer that has a UEFI BIOS in my experience.


I have HP ProBook 4540s and I can disable UEFI and leave only Legacy. And on other Asus H61 motherboard I can also disable UEFI.



newtekie1 said:


> Also, you say installing Windows and Linux the Legacy way will be harder, but that is exactly the way you would have to do it if UEFI wasn't available...


I meant that if there is no option for disabling UEFI installing Linux and Windows is more difficult and not as straightforward as if it would be if you could  choose betwen BIOS, UEFI and CSM.


McSteel said:


> Not to mention that GRUB2 is perfectly UEFI-capable, and Syslinux is good enough to be serviceable.


Some distributions still have problems with UEFI.


newtekie1 said:


> It is super easy to install Windows in non-UEFI mode on that system. Put in your boot media and hit the button(I think f9 or esc) to bring up the boot options menu. Then you will have options like "UEFI:CD-ROM" and "CD-ROM" or "UEFI:USB Flash Drive" and "Flash Drive". Select the option without UEFI: in front of it and install Windows, this will install Windows in non-UEFI mode. Do the same with Linux. It really isn't that hard.


I'll try that but BIOS only booting option would be easier for all future dealings.


----------



## Pill Monster (Jul 26, 2015)

Uplink10 said:


> Rufus does not have an option "MBR partition scheme for only BIOS":



I didn't say that. I said use the MBR partition option, specifically the top one in the dropdown list.  You'll have to check the disk is MBR though as I said earlier.

I can't help with Linux sorry as I don't use it, someone else will know I'm sure.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jul 26, 2015)

Uplink10 said:


> I have HP ProBook 4540s and I can disable UEFI and leave only Legacy. And on other Asus H61 motherboard I can also disable UEFI.



There is literally not something UEFI allows.  If those options do exist they likely just disable all the boot options under the UEFI boot section, but you can't entirely disable UEFI booting.



Uplink10 said:


> I meant that if there is no option for disabling UEFI installing Linux and Windows is more difficult and not as straightforward as if it would be if you could choose betwen BIOS, UEFI and CSM.



If you really must, just disable every option under the UEFI section in the BIOS.


----------



## Pill Monster (Jul 26, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> There is literally not something UEFI allows.  If those options do exist they likely just disable all the boot options under the UEFI boot section, but you can't entirely disable UEFI booting.


 Yes u can.

Gimme a sec and I'll post a link to some info.




https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825112.aspx

See the bottom paragraph where it states: 
*Use the GPT file format for UEFI mode, or the MBR file format for BIOS mode. When Windows Setup runs, if the PC is booted to the wrong mode, Windows will fail to install.*


The legacy/UEFI options in the OP's bios is the equivalent of CSM.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jul 26, 2015)

Pill Monster said:


> Yes u can.
> 
> Gimme a sec and I'll post a link to some info.
> 
> ...



He is talking about completely disabling the UEFI boot path, you can not do that on a UEFI BIOS.

Enabling CSM just adds the legacy boot path, it does not disable the UEFI path.  He is not talking about just enabling the legacy path and installing Windows in BIOS mode.  He wants to completely disable the UEFI boot path from within the BIOS, you can not do that.  Even if Windows and Linux is installed using the legacy path, the UEFI path will still be active.


----------



## Uplink10 (Jul 27, 2015)

I got it, I was not accustomed to UEFI (because on HP 4540s I disabled it) and I automatically thought that if I boot from the first menu it will boot in UEFI mode, but I have to go to second menu "Boot From EFI File" to get a list of EFI boot options:




I installed Ubuntu Mate and Windows 8.1 from the first menu (the picture) and they both installed in BIOS mode. Quite simple really.


----------



## Alicia (Dec 31, 2015)

Uplink10 said:


> I got it, I was not accustomed to UEFI (because on HP 4540s I disabled it) and I automatically thought that if I boot from the first menu it will boot in UEFI mode, but I have to go to second menu "Boot From EFI File" to get a list of EFI boot options:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I am really interested in this. I could not install Linux and I don't know why. Was it so simple to install it? The linux I want to install is elementary OS, but I can install other one. How can I do it? Thanks!


----------



## Uplink10 (Jan 1, 2016)

Alicia said:


> I am really interested in this. I could not install Linux and I don't know why. Was it so simple to install it? The linux I want to install is elementary OS, but I can install other one. How can I do it? Thanks!


I think you should create a new forum post for your problem but it is pretty easy to install Linux alongside Windows, even easier if you install both in BIOS mode because some Linux distributions have problems with UEFI. But I tested Windows 10 and openSUSE using UEFI in a VM and it worked fine.


----------



## lZKoce (Jan 1, 2016)

Last time I had to deal with HP G- series, I did this : 







 , worked right off the bat and  then I continued with the installation. I've never encountered such an issue before that.


----------



## Alicia (Jan 1, 2016)

Thanks to all. I finally (and almost as a miracle of the last day of the year) doing this. I had to use rufus after reading this forum. It created one bootable disk with the OSI downloaded. But, the fuck*** HP installs by default one little pain-in-the-ass like a DOS that is not compatible with the new Linux. Well, after two tries of installation, yesterday I did it successfully. Thanks to the idea of rufus software. It seems as the software I used before was not the adequated or I used it not properly.


----------



## OneMoar (Jan 1, 2016)

you are a idiot if you aren't using UEFI


----------



## Aquinus (Jan 1, 2016)

Uplink10 said:


> because some Linux distributions have problems with UEFI.


I have zero issues with UEFI and Ubuntu, for what it's worth.


----------



## OneMoar (Jan 1, 2016)

Aquinus said:


> I have zero issues with UEFI and Ubuntu, for what it's worth.


I can't think of a distro that has a issue with EFI pretty much all of them are using grub-efi with signed certs


----------

