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To prepare a PC for an upgrade from Win 10 to Win 11 and making triple-booting into Linux and Haiku easier, I switched the partitioning scheme of the boot drive from MBR to GPT. This worked fine.

Then I disabled CSM (enables booting from MBR media) in the BIOS settings to switch to UEFI boot only. This also worked fine.

But Windows System Information still showed "Secure Boot State" as "Off" (BIOS Mode is correctly shown as "UEFI").

No settings in the UEFI BIOS seemed to allow Secure Boot to be turned on or off, or to reset some TPM keys.

Googled a bit. Found articles on how to access UEFI settings from "within" Windows.

Booted into the blue "troubleshooting settings" option from Windows restart. There I selected to boot into the UEFI settings.

Since then the BIOS splash screen is no longer showing, the keypress to enter the BIOS is no longer accepted, and the PC boots straight into Win 10 (so not into the BIOS as it should after using that troubleshooting option at boot time).

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370M-DS3H with AMI BIOS F14 (latest version) CPU: Intel Core i7 8700K ("soft" TPM2.0 supported) OS: Win 10 Pro 64bit 22H2 fully patched

BIOS settings: Fast Boot was disabled. Splash screen should be shown. Integral GPU off (2 displays are connected via an NVidia GFX card).

What I tried already:

  • Holding down the key to enter the BIOS setup, even when no splash screen is showing. Boots into Win.
  • Reset via reset switch
  • Power down, power up again
  • Windows restart via "Restart" and "Restart" + SHIFT and then troubleshooting boot into UEFI settings again (just restarts into Win again)
  • "shutdown /r /fw" in an admin shell doing the same as "Restart" + SHIFT + troubleshooting boot into UEFI settings again (just restarts into Win again)
  • Removed SATA connector from boot drive. Leading to some checking of the other disks, then the main monitor turning off without a signal. No error msg whatsoever.
  • Re-flashing BIOS F14 from inside Windows again. Downgrade of BIOS is not allowed there. Cleaning DMI settings also not allowed from the GUI flasher.
  • Short the pins on the MB to clear the CMOS RAM. Didn't do anything. Maybe I hit the wrong ones, didn't do it long enough, whatever.

What I can still try:

  • Try to clear the CMOS RAM again, maybe now with removing the battery, but this is tricky with this board and the GFX card blocking easy access.
  • Boot some Linux or Haiku from optical disc or USB stick. But then, err, what?
  • Connect internal GPU to one of the monitors. But the internal GPU is disabled in the BIOS, so should not work.

Any more ideas?

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  • You will never get to Windows 11 that way. Can you do a vendor certified BIOS (UEFI) update? Also use virtualization instead of triple boot. Triple boot will be a fine way to hose Windows 11.
    – anon
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 1:11
  • You absolutely cannot access UEFI from within Windows Whatever you read was likely generated by ChatGPT or a clueless individual. It honestly sounds like the device is bricked
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 1:34
  • And in addition proper UEFI (you need to get into BIOS (UEFI)
    – anon
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 1:35
  • @Lunovus - That is common knowledge. Unfortunately, without access to UEFI, you are sort of stuck.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 1:36
  • You seem to be going in circles somewhat. Do a Manufacturer certified BIOS (UEFI) Update and see if you can get working that way.
    – anon
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 1:42

1 Answer 1

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For anybody having the same or a similar problem:

What finally helped me was clearing the NVRAM (or CMOS RAM) by shortening the needed pins on the mainboard with a detached power cord.

Then I didn't re-disabled the CSM option (the setting that allows booting older (MBR) boot sectors).

Windows 11 would still boot, and still showed the boot mode as "UEFI" in System Information.

It seems Windows (or the UEFI BIOS) is still messing with some BCD entries somehow. But I got the access to my BIOS settings back, and even managed to add boot entries for Zorin OS and Haiku.

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