PC fails to boot to Windows after Express Cache software installed

System used:

Intel DG41TY MoBo, Intel Core 2 Duo E8500, Western Digital 500GB HDD, GEForce 560 Ti Graphics card, 4GB Ram running dual channel.

Everything appeared nominal with installation. System was fresh, 1st time use. Completed Windows 8.1 install, flawless…powered down, added the 32 GB Sandisk SSD. Restarted the system and verified it recognized the SSD, it showed good in the BIOS, and in Windows. Proceeded to load Express Cache via the website, It indicated that version 1.3.2 would be loaded. All appeared to be going well. At the end of the installation the dialogue box came up stating that a re-boot would be required…do you want to re-boot now or later. I choose “now”. The system proceeded to reboot, went through the POST and when normally it would transistion from the blinking dash mark to the Windows start up it stalled on the blinking dash mark. Never to move from there. After waiting for approx 30 minutes. I tried a re-boot, no-go, same problem. 

Now I have unplugged the SanDisk SSD and performed a clean install of Windows 8.1.

Anyone else had an issue like this? Suggestions on how to proceed? I’d like to see the performance improvements of Ready Cache, if I can get it to work.  

Did you install intel inf driver? or Intel® Chipset Device Software for Discontinued Intel® Desktop Boards. You might also install intel storage driver

Yes all the updated drivers, including the Intel® Chipset Device Software for Discontinued Intel® Desktop Boards, had been installed prior to Express Cache. Although the storage driver referred to is a question in my mind. I will have to review the driver download list in the Intel website to validate. I did verify the BIOS also and it was the most current available. Thanks, any other ideas are welcome.

I did verify the the Intel Chipset Device Software for Discontinued Intel Desktop Boards was installed and that there is NO Intel Storage Driver available via the Intel website.

If you are aware of such a driver and that it might be what is needed…Do you know where it can be found?

Changing the Default Boot Device During POST
Pressing the <F10> key during POST causes a boot device menu to be displayed. This
menu displays the list of available boot devices

Might got the master boot record corrupt on last install and make sure you do everything with adminaster level. Might put the drive in with out loading softwarer and go to storage mangament and format the drive first. I think it was trying to boot from the ssd. aslo check bios boot order. Was you using XP before the upgarde?

The board’s Serial ATA controller offers four independent Serial ATA ports with a
theoretical maximum transfer rate of 3 Gbits/sec per port. One device can be installed
on each port for a maximum of four Serial ATA devices. A point-to-point interface is
used for host to device connections, unlike Parallel ATA IDE which supports a
master/slave configuration and two devices per channel.
For compatibility, the underlying Serial ATA functionality is transparent to the
operating system. The Serial ATA controller can operate in both legacy and native
modes. In legacy mode, standard IDE I/O and IRQ resources are assigned (IRQ 14
and 15). In Native mode, standard PCI Conventional bus resource steering is used.
Native mode is the preferred mode for configurations using the Windows* XP
operating system

Do you know if this board has a ich7 controlor or ich7r

Intel ® 82801GB I/O Controller Hub (ICH7)  or 7R

If this happens again might shut down turn off power hold down power button to discharge all board power. Reconect power and try booting up again and if this fails might clear bios by power off remove board battery

All operations are done at admin level. This was a fresh Windows 8.1 install on a new system, no previous OS. The contoller is an Intel 82801GB (ICH7). I see the response quotes the verbage straight out of the board spec. I will try the formatting options you described and will get back to you