Error 9c on Boot

[FiestaRed]

Recently, whenever I boot my PC up in a morning it sticks with 9c showing in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It get through but can take up to 30 or 40 seconds to get through. Everything after that is fine.

Looking on Google, 9c seems to refer to a USB device. Can I ask if that will be something plugged in externally or is it possibly something inside the PC?


OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit
Processor: AMD A8-7650K Radeon R7, 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G, AMD64 Family 21 Model 48 Stepping 1
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 15319 Mb
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon(TM) R7 Graphics, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 237 GB (108 GB Free); E: 931 GB (513 GB Free); G: 931 GB (535 GB Free);
Motherboard: MSI, A78M-E35 V2 (MS-7721)

 

[Box Brownie]

A couple of thoughts:-
I surmise you have a/some USB connected devices? Try switching which sockets they are plugged into.

Check Windows update list and see if in its wisdom it has installed USB driver recently? If so and the date of install co-incides with the error showing.......just maybe re-install your original driver or maybe "roll the driver back"?

 

[Tori_T]

It seems MSI boards may do this if a USB drive has priority in the boot order, and it isn't bootable or present.
Try setting your internal hard drive to be the first boot device and see if that cures it?

 

[FiestaRed]

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a try and let you know how I get on.

 

[FiestaRed]

It seems MSI boards may do this if a USB drive has priority in the boot order, and it isn't bootable or present.
Try setting your internal hard drive to be the first boot device and see if that cures it?

Thanks Tori_T. I'm afraid to say it but the sound of that scares me to death. Is it pretty easy to do? I have recently had a replacement SSD drive installed.

 

[Box Brownie]

Thanks Tori_T. I'm afraid to say it but the sound of that scares me to death. Is it pretty easy to do? I have recently had a replacement SSD drive installed.

If you mean the new drive is the one with Win10 on and it was done by a workshop technician......then he should have, arguably, set the boot order in the most appropriate manner i.e. Drive first then USB second or later!

PS IMO accessing and changing this aspect in the BIOS is normally straight forward enough ........just step through to find the 'page' needed . If you don't have the motherboard manual best to download it as they should have such a section to walk you through it.

Download link.....if nothing else and educational tool
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/A78M-E35-V2#down-manual

 

[Tori_T]

If you mean the new drive is the one with Win10 on and it was done by a workshop technician......then he should have, arguably, set the boot order in the most appropriate manner i.e. Drive first then USB second or later!

With Mike's Acronis setup, the system may have been configured with USB first to allow that to be started first in the event of another config fubar.
OP mentioned C:, E:, and G:, but didn't say if those drives are internal SATA, or external. A non-bootable external USB drive may be causing the system to while it waits for the drive to time out.

 

[Box Brownie]

With Mike's Acronis setup, the system may have been configured with USB first to allow that to be started first in the event of another config fubar.
OP mentioned C:, E:, and G:, but didn't say if those drives are internal SATA, or external. A non-bootable external USB drive may be causing the system to View attachment 255858 while it waits for the drive to time out.

Ah! my bad for missing the multi drive setup. Or that his rig has a history.....so to speak.

Of course subject to a tad more clarity re: USB connected devices and whether the error started (immediately?) after the SSD installation/upgrade.

 

[FiestaRed]

Thanks for all the help, it is really appreciated. As a basic check, I just turned my PC off and disconnected the USB drive (G) that stores my Acronis back ups. When I booted up again, the main screen came on almost instantly.

Regarding the drives, C: is my internal SSD, E: is an internal HDD and G: is an external drive where my Acronis back up are stored.

 

[Tori_T]

Is Acronis performing periodic backups while you work?
If not, and the drive is just storing the system image made by the engineer, it'll be safer to leave it unplugged until such time (hopefully never!) as you need to restore your system again.

 

[FiestaRed]

Thanks Tori.

Acronis, through the USB makes a full back up every Monday evening and then does incremental back ups Weds, Fri and Sundays. These happen in the evening when I'm not at the PC.

 

[Box Brownie]

Is Acronis performing periodic backups while you work?
If not, and the drive is just storing the system image made by the engineer, it'll be safer to leave it unplugged until such time (hopefully never!) as you need to restore your system again.

Thanks Tori.

Acronis, through the USB makes a full back up every Monday evening and then does incremental back ups Weds, Fri and Sundays. These happen in the evening when I'm not at the PC.

I was of the understanding that if you need an OS backup as a "backup" the last thing you should do is leave it connected! Why, well in the event of a power outage/lightning strike or other potential power surge disaster it could 'take out' all connected devices.... .including what you consider to be your (USB connected) backup drive. A bit like some folk still consider a NAS as a data storage backup solution!

 

[FiestaRed]

I was of the understanding that if you need an OS backup as a "backup" the last thing you should do is leave it connected! Why, well in the event of a power outage/lightning strike or other potential power surge disaster it could 'take out' all connected devices.... .including what you consider to be your (USB connected) backup drive. A bit like some folk still consider a NAS as a data storage backup solution!

Thanks for the information Box Brownie. Something to add to my growing PC knowledge, and it makes great sense. As the backups only take place four times a week (evenings) would I be better off if I only plug the USB in when I know there is a back up due? If I did this, would I also need to shut down the PC before unplugging the USB or could it safely be unplugged while the PC is powered on?

 

[gramps]

Thanks Tori.

Acronis, through the USB makes a full back up every Monday evening and then does incremental back ups Weds, Fri and Sundays. These happen in the evening when I'm not at the PC.

My Acronis backups goes to one of two external drives in a mains powered dock.
Although it is constantly plugged into the USB port it is only plugged in AFTER the laptop has booted up and ONLY on the days it is due to receive a backup.
If I power it up before boot-up I too will get a delay.

 

[Box Brownie]

Thanks for the information Box Brownie. Something to add to my growing PC knowledge, and it makes great sense. As the backups only take place four times a week (evenings) would I be better off if I only plug the USB in when I know there is a back up due? If I did this, would I also need to shut down the PC before unplugging the USB or could it safely be unplugged while the PC is powered on?

Again purely my understanding
Devices like keyboard or mouse are simply 'hot swapped' i.e. plugin and/or plug out should not cause an issue.

Drives however can be hot plugged in.....windows should detect and show thrm and available in a few moments. But unplugging must be preceded by "ejecting" them do that the OS can make sure that all read/write actions have ceased

Hope that makes sense and @Tori_T will echo my understanding?

 

[FiestaRed]

Thanks again for the help. It's just the bit about "ejecting" the drive that I'm not clear on.

To add to the above, I've now looked on the taskbar at the Safely Eject Hardware bit and although there are three USB devices there, the USB drive that does the Acronis backup is the only one "greyed out".

 

[hashcake]

I had a similar problem years ago, even though I only had one device set to boot from in the BIOS.
For some reason the external hard drive I used at the time for backing up Acronis would delay the boot up and I had other external USB hard drives connected that didn't cause a problem.
Nowadays my backups are done on a Synology NAS.

@FiestaRed These days BIOSes are much more user friendly using a point and click system just like when you are in Windows.
For some reason it took the companies who produce the BIOS software year to impliment this rather than faffing about using the arrow keys to navigate the BIOS.
Updating the BIOS is straight forward as well, I'm sure other members like me remember the days of crossing their fingers hoping a BIOS update would work