Help! Can EasyBCD ruin BIOS?

[nickolai]

Hi everyone, sorry to be another person complaining that I can't boot after using EasyBCD, but that's the case and I can't seem to find enough info regarding my situation. Let me start at the beginning. I got a new laptop, Asus X55C, (I can give more specs if that would be helpful) with Windows 8 on it. I want to dual boot with Linux Mint So I installed that on it's own partition but I got no GRUB menu. It just went to Windows every time. I found EasyBCD and decided to give it a try. I added a boot option under Linux/BSD and pointed it to the partition with Mint on it. Then I rebooted and got the Windows 8 screen for selecting which OS to boot. I selected Mint and the computer rebooted. Then a screen came up indicating that it was trying to boot from the NIC card but failing. I rebooted the computer and went into BIOS. The ethernet controller was at the top of the boot list, with 5 options below it, 4 of which read "windows boot manager". I moved the highest one to the top and rebooted. Now computer will barely turn on at all. Nothing at all on the screen. Not even the boot logo. It doesn't even flash like the backlight is coming on. The HDD and numlock lights flash on for a second or so then go off. The power light stays on but thats it. Pressing f2 gets me nowhere. A bootable USB with Ubuntu gets me nowhere. I am at a loss for what to do. I don't think this is a hardware issue, especially after reading some other peoples posts who are in similar situations. Is there a way for me to reset BIOS? Is that the issue? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Nick

 

[Terry60]

EasyBCD alters the contents of the Windows Vista/7/8 BCD according to your instructions. It doesn't touch the BIOS.
Your problem, as you described it, came not after you'd updated the BCD (the PC rebooted normally and allowed you to make a selection), but after W8 tried to chain to Linux unsuccessfully and you made changes to the BIOS.
Does this laptop have UEFI or legacy BIOS ?
You might find useful information here about accessing your BIOS again to reset it to its defaults.

 

[nickolai]

Thank you for the reply.

EasyBCD alters the contents of the Windows Vista/7/8 BCD according to your instructions. It doesn't touch the BIOS.
Your problem, as you described it, came not after you'd updated the BCD (the PC rebooted normally and allowed you to make a selection), but after W8 tried to chain to Linux unsuccessfully and you made changes to the BIOS.

I sort of understand this but if that is the case then why did it reboot to the NIC? And why were there options for Windows boot manager that were never there before? And not the usual options for HDD, CD, USB, etc? If it is only making changes on the hard drive then I should still be able to boot a USB.

Does this laptop have UEFI or legacy BIOS ?

It is 64 bit so according to this website it should be UEFI. What is UEFI? - Microsoft Windows Help

You might find useful information here about accessing your BIOS again to reset it to its defaults.

Thanks for taking the time to find that, but like I said, hitting f2 doesn't do a thing.

 

[Terry60]

I think you have fallen foul of Windows secure boot.
A UEFI Windows 8 PC will be protected from pre-boot malware and will not allow multi-booting to "foreign" OSs.
The only way to dual-boot with Linux, is to let the Linux boot manager take control and use it to chain Windows.
The list of boot options in the BIOS were all of the Windows reset and recovery choices which are normally offered through the extended W8 GUI boot
Microsoft Explains Windows 8 Boot Options -- Redmondmag.com
You appear to have short-circuited the boot process by randomly selecting one of those options in the BIOS.
I don't know if the "shift" option mentioned will get you back into something recognizable, but you need to undo the BIOS change you made somehow.

 

[nickolai]

Thanks for your help. I have contacted Asus and they said to send the laptop in to them. I'll post again when I know more.