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I have a nasty problem with Windows 7 and a CF card in a SATA card reader.
Hardware specifications:
- Asus P8C WS (Intel C216 chipset) with BIOS version 3202
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8C_WS/ - Intel E3-1245V2 3.4GHz CPU
- SATA CF card reader (Delock http://www.delock.com/produkte/S_91670/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en or Addonics http://www.addonics.com/products/adsacf.php)
Procedure:
- Insert CF card into CF card reader
- Insert Windows 7 SP1 32-bit DVD
- Boot from DVD
- After Windows DVD has copied install files and the animated Windows logo appears it hangs/gets stuck (the logo still animates), when this occurs the CF card readers LED turns off (being turned on when power is switched on).
- If the CF card is removed when Windows "hangs", the setup boot process will continue as normal.
- The CF card can then be found after windows has booted (e.g. using HotSwap!).
- However, any boot with the CF card inserted will hang the boot process. This happens when "classpnp.sys" is logged when booting with bootlog on (i.e. no windows logo). Note this means Windows boot hangs after classpnp.sys has been loaded. Just before the logon screen should appear.
What has been tried without any solution:
- Booting into safe mode does not help
- Updating BIOS
- Both IDE and AHCI SATA modes
- Moving HDD and/or CF card reader to other SATA ports
- Moving CF card reader to PCI express SATA card
- Customer Support Module=Auto
- Customer Support Module=Enabled using only "legacy opROM" under CSM (Customer Support Module) in Asus UEFI BIOS
- Customer Support Module=Disabled
- Changing SATA port with CF card reader to Hot Plug=Enabled
- Secure Boot OS Type=Other OS
- Using Windows 7 DVD without SP1
- Tried removing CF card from boot order
- Tried disabling legacy USB support
It seems that the boot does not hang forever, but actually boots after a very long time. Hours as far as I can tell. Once booted, most things work, except the CF card does not show and running "Disk Management" just displays "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service...", for about 10 minutes until the CF card shows up.
Clarified hang occurs after classpnp.sys has been loaded. Also tried installing latest Intel Chipset Driver 9.3.0.1025. No change.
Tried some boot order stuff combined with hot plug enabled, no luck yet.
Note this problem exists on 3 identical PCs with the Asus P8C WS board, but does not exist if using a different motherboard + CPU, but otherwise the exact same hardware. Thus, everything points to an issue with the Asus P8C WS board/Intel C216 chipset.
No matter what, as long as the Compact Flash card is inserted into the card reader during boot and no other hardware except DVD drive (from which Windows 7 install is booted) the problem persists. I also tried different CF cards.
I have read a couple of places that this might be a SATA/mass storage controller issue e.g. chipset issue, so I have also tried putting the card reader on a separate PCI express - SATA controller (ASRock SATA3 CARD/ASR). However, this did not resolve the issue either.
There are a lot of similar questions on superuser and elsewhere, but none appear to resolve this issue, as far as I can tell. Below I have listed possible questions that might be considered duplicates but are not pertinent to this case or do not indicate proper solution:
Windows 7 Pro x64 hangs on boot when loading classpnp.sys (no solution)
Windows 7 - frozen during "starting windows" DISK.SYS/CLASSPNP.SYS (Legacy BIOS option or disable firewire - does not appear to work in this case)
Windows 7 stuck at loading screen during installation (no solution pertinent)
Windows 7 won't boot past starting windows screen / stuck on Classpnp.sys in safe mode (no solution or not pertinent)
How do I troubleshoot Windows 7 when it is stuck booting on classpnp.sys?
Windows 7 setup hangs after "Starting Windows..."-screen (disable floppy drive in BIOS - board has no floppy drive, but I presume there might be a similar issue here with the CF card being treated the same way as a floppy drive, but I can not disable it.
I've faced similar issues before (had a tough time with a friend's laptop before we finally figured out there was a forgotten SD card inside the in-built card reader). For this reason I always carefully check that no USB sticks, memory cards etc. are present before installing Windows. I recommend you do that same instead of trying to figure out what went wrong during the installation process and where Windows might have mixed up drive IDs and so on. – Karan – 2013-03-21T17:10:40.497
1Do you need the card during installation? Can't you just remove it and put it back after the install has finished? – terdon – 2013-03-21T17:10:50.057
I do not need the card during installation, but as I said the problem is the same after installation i.e. when Windows has been installed and it boots the problem persists. And we really need to be able to let the CF card stay in the PC during normal usage ;) – nietras – 2013-03-22T08:21:46.227
I have had some suggestions from CF card reader suppliers, that this might be a mass storage controller driver issue. However, I have no idea how to fix this, since I tried updating the chipset driver, and since the builtin class driver in Windows 7 should work. – nietras – 2013-03-22T17:19:29.050
Have you ever tried toggling the EHCI Hand-off? – Der Hochstapler – 2013-03-26T14:46:01.743