Dual Boot Menu Won't Display with New Nvidia Card

AllenRM · 05-25-2015, 12:25 PM

Just installed new Nvidia GT-610 graphics card a few days ago and now dual-boot menu will no longer display. When I turn PC on I get a blank screen for about 30 seconds and then the computer boots to Linux Mint 17.1. As a result I can never boot to Windows 7 which I need to do from time to time. Nvidia card works fine in Mint, especially the HDMI output. The main reason I bought the card was because the HDMI output on my Asus M4A785-M motherboard quit a few months ago. If I remove the Nvidia card, then the boot menu displays as usual. (MB has built-in video.) This problem is not unique to the Nvidia GT-610. I had the same problem earlier with an EVGA card and the technicians at EVGA had no clue as to why I was having this problem. If anyone has any idea why the dual-boot menu (which I believe is generated by grub) will not display with these "outboard" video cards, I would love to hear from you. I'm totally baffled by this.

TobiSGD · 05-25-2015, 12:44 PM

It might be related to the defective output on the motherboard. What I would try:
- Remove the discrete card.
- Go into BIOS/UEFI and disable the onboard videocard
- Save the BIOS settings and turn the machine off.
- Insert the discrete card and see what happens.

AllenRM · 05-25-2015, 01:40 PM

TobiSGD, thanks for your response to my post. I don't have UEFI, just the standard BIOS. I had planned to remove the Nvidia card today anyway since I felt I needed to find out for certain if Windows would boot properly with the Nvidia card on the board, and since I could not get Windows to boot in the dual boot situation, I had decided to temporarily remove Mint from the hard drive. I backed up home folder two or three days ago. Before I do that, however, I will check the various sections of the BIOS to see if I can find any reference to disabling the on-board video. By the way, I had spoken to Asus about this very issue and I was told that once a graphics card was in the socket, the MB would automatically disable the onboard video. Whether that is accurate information is anybody's guess. I've learned over the years that the accuracy of the information that I've gotten from technical support staff depended on when I called and who I happen to talk with. Any particular section of the BIOS I should look in?

TobiSGD · 05-26-2015, 04:09 AM

OK, I just checked the manual for that mainboard and there seems to be indeed no option to turn the integrated videocard off, so I am out of clues now.

AllenRM · 05-26-2015, 05:56 PM

TobiSGD, thanks much for your attempt to help with my problem. I checked the BIOS last night and did find a section on Internal Video. The information there suggest that when you plug a video card into a PCI or PCIe slot, that does shut off the onboard video. I went ahead today with my plan to temporarily remove Mint from the hard drive but after that Windows still wouldn't boot. Evidently I didn't delete grub and it put up a message saying some device didn't exist. I assume it was referring to the Linux Mint partition. It gave a 32 character ID. I assume that's the ID of the Mint partition. I just went back to Gparted and checked the ID of the partition but I have not tried to boot Windows so I don't know if the numbers and letters are the same but I suspect that they will be.. I tried using the Boot Repair program but that couldn't fix the problem. Grub obviously was not on the Mint partition that I reformatted. Any suggestions how I fix this problem? I suspect grub is on the extended partition /sdc1. Linux Mint was /sdc6. Would it make sense just to delete the extended partition or is there a better way?

TobiSGD · 05-27-2015, 04:03 AM

To reinstall the Windows bootloader you will have to start from a Windows DVD or USB and either run the boot repair program it offers or do it manually from the repair shell with

Code:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot