[SOLVED] Cannot get windows to install in UEFI

[Gfost73]

This is a bit of a strange situation, My PC specs are in signature,
Ryzen 7 2700 wt Wraith RGB cooler
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS PRO WIFI //
DEEPCOOL MATREXX 50 wt/ 5x CORSAIR iCUE SP140 RGB PRO + CORSAIR iCUE SP120 RGB PRO
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super Gaming X RGB 8GB @ 1800Mhz
XPG GAMMIX D10 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 @ 3200Mhz
CORSAIR AX850 PSU
HP S700 Pro 2.5" 512GB SATA III SSD // SEAGATE BARRACUDA 1TB Internal HDD

I had windows 11 running fine until the last update, (a few days ago) just the other day everything was fine, I shut down the PC but when I restarted the PC, I received a BSOD, I tried all I could think of to fix this issue with no success, So I attempted to reinstall windows, seemed the easy fix, however it failed to install stating secure boot was not present. At this time, I checked in the Bios and It does show the TMP as "enabled" however it also shows CSM enabled with storage boot as legacy. ( I had never changed any of these settings previously with any install.) I have read so many forms and many say to disable CSM and enable secure boot using "standard" settings. So, i thought if disable CSM and follow the steps to for secure boot settings I could reinstall windows as a UEIF rather than Legacy. however, every time I do this, the second it attempts to load I get a blank blue screen. I have seen some say that this issue is (or could be) related to the GPU, All my Drivers are up to date, I have the newest Bios that is applicable to me (there is one newer for Ryzen 5000/7000 chips) Checking system info it states that Bios is Legacy and Secure boot is "unsupported" which is expected in a Legacy Bios, I am just at a loss on how to fix this issue, as stated all was working perfect until I woke up, started the PC and received a blue screen, If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this, That would be great, I apologize if this is solved on another post, I have read several (which is where i learned it could be the GPU causing it) however I do not have Intergrated graphics nor another card I can toss in, it seems when I disable CSM I am not able to enable it either, it says it is, I save and restart to see that it is once again disabled, I can do this a dozen times with no change, only way it seems I can get my bios back to "factory" is reinstalling the Bios, which I have had to do now several times, and every time it works and loads windows that is on the M.2. I hope someone knows the fix to this, it's pretty annoying knowing my PC was running windows 11 without issue and now It does not even allow me to install it due to the secure boot.
I have even attempted to change the drive patrician (as suggested) using MBR2GPT command as well as DiskPart neither fixed anything, same results, as soon as PC tries to start with the insulation USB it goes to a blank blue screen, I made the install USB using rufus as many suggested, but no change in results.

 

[Colif]

try putting latest bios on, it won't enable secure boot by default though. It will enable tpm though. I have secure boot off and TPM on, on a Gigabyte board. But then I am running an update from 10.

When you first installed win 11, was it an update from win 10? As well, you wouldn't need to have secure boot on in an update, it just uses the settings there from win 10. Happily run on mbr. Its only when you reinstall it insists on some things. Guess I should turn secure boot on before I reinstall 11 one day.

Odd you had tpm enabled in a legacy environment. I didn't think it extended that far.

did you see this: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...t-on-amd-based-gigabyte-motherboards.3753105/

try that and then try installing windows. Shouldn't really need to convert mbr2gpt though if you clean installing anyway. Probably help to wipe windows from drive before you start, hate to see you start in a black screen at boot.

 

[Rendarius]

Ges... Im sorry to ear this. I do know we had the same problem but mine was resolved but I had removed all of my boots... other han the entries that asked me to use /f... which were other settings like options etc.. BUT.. I did leave UEFI secure boot at Custom... cleared the keys and cleared the TPM.... its possibly just an incorrect setting making this more of pain in the ss than it hould be, - after our initial installations... Not to mention some other of our own differnt confusing issues involved.. IE - like your NVME issue, - and my issues.
I also was questioning my NVME which was new - WD SN850 - 500 GB as I read bout faulty ones people were having o return for eplacements.. But your issue is too similar to mine.

There ARE other ork-arounds for installing Windows 11 though if you care to ry those.... Also I will be trying to play with installing mine again in a minute, - and I have no way to install Windows 10 anymore I dont hink... although what I think worked last time was something I dnt do on purpose, - and actually installed from UEFI a Win10 boot stored there, - but I entered y Windows 11 Product Key and it installed Windows 11... Also I was NOT connected... I did it locally, - as a Local account...

I did notice a couple potential roblems in my settings that may have been causing some problems in past attempts that Im going o ry now.. Maybe some of these got set for you that are also contributing your problems... shrug

I agree, - this on op of the other issues that Im dealing with on top of his ave been a royal pain in the ass...

So sorry it didnt help. But as I mentioned earlier, - there may e more o this related to tored nfig ttings in the UEFI at are calling function and effecting how he boot loads and preventing Secure Boot for Win 11..

One thing that worked also was - to reset TPM, have secure boot Custom, - and CLEAR the Keys and leave blank. NOT default, and have Secure Boot DISABLED on both of my settings... - Not sure how or why that worked... But never did it that way before, - and usually have all that set the SAME except to have both Secure Boot set ENABLED, - not disabled.. Difference his ime hough was all the keys got set to Forbidden and idnt install and set themselves as usually would. This was also the time it was installing Win10 but I entered Win11 product key...

Maybe some of that info will help... If I think of something else I can provide I will.... Again sorry.. I know how frustrating and annoying this is...

 

[Rendarius]

Also thought I should mention this because it is something I had planned to look into if I run into problems till... Bootloader nd Boot have a setting for OS'es, - and Duel Boot options etc. But here could be something set for that specifically keeping Win 11 from being the default loaded OS, - even though its been installed, and ther OSes removed tc... which is a VERY likely possible suspect... Ill addd more as I find out more nd how to check or remove his, - or if you read and find this irst, - Id appreciate the info as well. I havent had the time today I had hoped o even ouch my cpu at all yet. And am considering waiting until tomorrow so I can be free to get deeper into things f need be. If I do it now time will be limited and short. Just woke up after few hours sleep. And prob should have stayed in bed honestly... Yet might try a boot... since just finished that cmos and re-flash was planning earlier.... sigh

 

[Gfost73]

try putting latest bios on, it won't enable secure boot by default though. It will enable tpm though. I have secure boot off and TPM on, on a Gigabyte board. But then I am running an update from 10.

When you first installed win 11, was it an update from win 10? As well, you wouldn't need to have secure boot on in an update, it just uses the settings there from win 10. Happily run on mbr. Its only when you reinstall it insists on some things. Guess I should turn secure boot on before I reinstall 11 one day.

Odd you had tpm enabled in a legacy environment. I didn't think it extended that far.

did you see this: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...t-on-amd-based-gigabyte-motherboards.3753105/

try that and then try installing windows. Shouldn't really need to convert mbr2gpt though if you clean installing anyway. Probably help to wipe windows from drive before you start, hate to see you start in a black screen at boot.

yes originally the windows 11 was installed through an windows 10 update, I have the newest Bios 63c I believe it is I will try the secure boot method above as I already seen a mistake Ive made , when I wiped the keys and received the "restart without saving" , well I guess I am old and thought, Umm NO I want it saved. So I saved each time. perhaps this was my mistake , just seems everytime I disable CSM I am unable to see any of the drives other than the USB one and thus far every attempt to install failed. I was thinking of starting the win 11 install within windows 10 and see if that would not fix any issues, but I have spent last few days on this and its annoying as hell. but I will try that method and not save settings

 

[Gfost73]

As well, you wouldn't need to have secure boot on in an update, it just uses the settings there from win 10.

Sadly without secure boot or maybe just being in UEIF windows 11 tells me my system is incompatible with it. stating I do not meet the requirements, this was the same before the Bios update that enabled the Ftmp properly on the board (BiosF62 ) but that one was needed to install windows 11, could it be that somehow became corrupt and even installing newer ones did not address what that bios was intended for. if I recall that was all I had to do first time installing windows 11, I have reinstalled it a few times prior and never needed to do anything.

 

[Colif]

its UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)

Spoiler

Explanation of terms:

If your PC is less than 11 years old, you have a UEFI bios now

In 2006 or so Intel decided the bios as it was at time was too limited and needed to be replaced so that it supported newer technologies as they were invented
By about 2009 a consortium of hardware makers had combined to create UEFI standard

Old bios were limited, they didn't know what a mouse was for, so everything was keyboard driven
they weren't expandable, everything had to fit in a small amount of memory
they only supported Master Boot Record (MBR) which can only have 4 partitions per drive (there are tricks to get around this) and max drive size is 2.2 tb

UEFI bios overcame all the limitations of legacy bios (as it came to be called)
it supports mouse, it has a GUI so it looks better than previous bios could
Its expandable, it can be added to to grow as new hardware is created.
UEFI supports MBR & GPT Drives

GPT = GUID Partition Table

GUID = Global Unique ID = Every GPT drive on earth has a unique ID
GPT drives can have a max of 255 partitions on them
Max size of a GPT drive/partition is 18.8 million TB

just seems everytime I disable CSM I am unable to see any of the drives other than the USB one and thus far every attempt to install failed.

do you mean in bios? it means all the other drives are either not boot drives or formatted as MBR
but the installer should see the drives once you go to install on them.

Only have the drive you want windows on in PC when you install.

have you tried using a different USB drive to run installer? 16gb drive might help. Are you using media creation tool to make it?

if you want, install 10 and then update, you know that works. It would help if you let windows install as GPT and not MBR as it will make the next step easier. Win 10 will likely insist if it sees board can run GPT.

@COLGeek what are the consequences of

when I wiped the keys and received the "restart without saving" , well I guess I am old and thought, Umm NO I want it saved. So I saved each time. perhaps this was my mistake

since you wrote the guide... sort of.

 

[Gfost73]

its UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)

Spoiler

Explanation of terms:

If your PC is less than 11 years old, you have a UEFI bios now

In 2006 or so Intel decided the bios as it was at time was too limited and needed to be replaced so that it supported newer technologies as they were invented
By about 2009 a consortium of hardware makers had combined to create UEFI standard

Old bios were limited, they didn't know what a mouse was for, so everything was keyboard driven
they weren't expandable, everything had to fit in a small amount of memory
they only supported Master Boot Record (MBR) which can only have 4 partitions per drive (there are tricks to get around this) and max drive size is 2.2 tb

UEFI bios overcame all the limitations of legacy bios (as it came to be called)
it supports mouse, it has a GUI so it looks better than previous bios could
Its expandable, it can be added to to grow as new hardware is created.
UEFI supports MBR & GPT Drives

GPT = GUID Partition Table

GUID = Global Unique ID = Every GPT drive on earth has a unique ID
GPT drives can have a max of 255 partitions on them
Max size of a GPT drive/partition is 18.8 million TB

do you mean in bios? it means all the other drives are either not boot drives or formatted as MBR
but the installer should see the drives once you go to install on them.

Only have the drive you want windows on in PC when you install.

have you tried using a different USB drive to run installer? 16gb drive might help. Are you using media creation tool to make it?

if you want, install 10 and then update, you know that works. It would help if you let windows install as GPT and not MBR as it will make the next step easier. Win 10 will likely insist if it sees board can run GPT.

@COLGeek what are the consequences of

since you wrote the guide... sort of.

Yes In the Bios I switch CSM to disabled after I convert the NVMe to GPT through mbr2gpt, that step (conversion) works or so it says, so then I went and followed the directions to a T on how to enable safe boot, and it shows its enabled in Bios fTMP enabled as well ( through windows I can see Ftmp enabled as well) but the second it attempts to load it goes to a light blue screen, I have tried two different USB, both work fine installing windows 10 in legacy mode, (but do the same blue screen for UEIF) I am at a loss really, I read that some MOBO cannot boot NVMe in UEFI mode ( not sure if this is my issue but can't see it) I am almost starting to think this is some hardware issue, because no matter what I try its always same results, booting from USB with CSM off and secure boot always gives me that light blue screen, The only thing I have not tried to do is format a SSD, convert then see if I can install on that rather than the NVMe.. which I may do at some point but at this time I am lost with what could be happening, I have never had such an issue installing a OS in my life, and last time it installed fine through the windows 10 update, after updating the Bios to F62 , I even reverted back to that Bios thinking perhaps something that it was meant to do was corrupted and might work, but Windows still shows my system is incompatible yet Ftmp is active , I will try to get a new USB (smaller sized one) and see if that does not fix the issue, I really can't see it though as they work fine installing windows 10,

 

[Rendarius]

sorry I did not check in and reply yesterday. Been short of sleep this week, and yesterday got busy with things all day and night... Got home just after 6am.. rested eyes for an hour.. and now about to deal with my cpu.

I apologize too, - because I should have insisted you delete the other boots as well... simply because of their linking to your drive regardless of formatting and cleaning... and regardless of removal of UEFI stored boots... Because of the legacy "locking" issue that seems to be occurring... if that makes sense.. I dont think its hardware either because we both have same issues occurring and even on different chipsets.
I wish I had the other tools and hardware I been planning to order, - but I held off for a bit as I had no problems at the time and even didnt find it neccesary for the work I was doing on other people's systems at the time, - although knew Id need it soon to have everything at my disposal...
Funny I can fix everyone else's probs but not my own.. lol

Thx for your insight as well Colif.

One thing I am suspectful of as well is infection that occurred at some point.. Even came to think it was as bad as UEFI root-bootkit... based on my specific personal problems, - unrelated to this issue though, - at least originally for the most part... I have somehow had some Windows 7 backup loaded into some Microsoft service or cloud from many years back it appears, - that has somehow at some point been linked and established to my cpu, - which had also gone unoticed for a time, - and led to ever deeper problems it eems... Even was directly targeted through a website and possibly game to look for, - and poke holes, in certain vulnerable areas, - luckily I reset IP and was pretty quick to catch on, - even though I really shouldnt have noticed what was actually going on, - and most would have had no clue at all... smh... So had been thinking and focusing on UEFI being affected as well from all of this... I have seen logs and have NO CLUE though if microsoft had been doing certain activity AFTER I had sent in some FEEDBACK. Its hard to tell. I was SURE it was them trying to correct things nd resetting, and giving fresh clean system files to the drive... and also noticed some chipset activity had been done... But Im totally feeling like a complete MORON and newb and Im far from it.. yet Im by no means an expert... I do lack the knowledge when it comes to servers and some of this new... BS and also think someone in range, - or something has been established on someones, - or some peoples devices near me... Yet I know thats not even needed, - I cant find the root of the cause.. or causees triggering re-establishing of this BS... like getting 32-bit processes taking over he 64-bit... ugh.. and much more ... Think Intel ME messed too to the point of needing reflashing.. I will see if this bios flash did something... again...

Im wondering if any potential similar things.. could be occuring to Gfost... Hopefully not likely.. but figured I should mention it.. My hardware is ALL brand new... smh LMAO.. things went screwy after an update... and then months later another update also had some screwyness to it, - that seem to have been the initial triggering of things for me though.. But after that I have no frickin idea... but it led me to ordering a new NVME, - and eventually going to store for a Win11 USB.. $250 damn bucks... Scoundrals !!

I need a Windows expert to answer a couple questions I have... Any chance either of you are experts.. I see you might be Colif.... btw... I had NOT used a microsoft account EVER... even until the last few months in my attempts to see if I had any better results with my work... I see likely corrupt Google account during last install that is a new things happening in just the last few months too... Have suspected my hotmail.. shrugs Azure or another thing I signed up for years ago I want o sever... but hoped microsoft would and could have done so for me.. Now realize hey prob cant access that stuff from heir end in their depeartment... - The IT Admins "possibly" working on things from feedback dept...

Yet Local account.. no difference... I turn off wifi ALWAYS for years... Turn off Bluetooth... But know these days these cpus communicate when off even.. so wtf.. This is bs.. Why a FRESH installcant be a FRESh install is starting to go beyond pissing me off... Yet question if its from deeply rooted <Mod Edit> in he mobo that has nt been able o get cleared, - cleaned, and reset for some reason and needs to be physically flashed with a flasher.... Will try a (new) old gpu later for that prob, - but that ill def need legacy so the Win11 thing will have to not be part of that work effort... Have had a crappy 710 or something I never got to use in closet.. junk...
This last install also noticed a whole bunch of files related to someone I have NO CLUE who.... I thought I mighta been mixed up and tied into my mothers work-cloud servers etc... which may have happened...she was a teacher, and...when I used work containers and installed business installation last year thought maybe there was some type of merge from AI.. from lack of use of microsoft accounts etc...
Im starting to lose my mind.. and forgetting much of what Ive gone through, done and shiit man this is nonsense...

And to have this Win 11 thing... Seems every so often microsoft does things and fricks things up or me in certain ways that end up making it much harder to understand and figure out wtf actually has gone on... and what to look deeper into or to avoid wasting time on... anyways.. just sort of ranting and documenting my issues a bit more clear for possible later use if need be.. I think, - and hope Im on a MUCH better track though finally.. but ime will tell.. once I get on things again..

Did notice my HOSTS file had a good old China address on it though now.. smh...Been a hell of a half year or so off good learning though... to an extent... I have a seond bios but been avoiding it as not sure that would do what I WANT from it in terms of clearing EVERYTHING... or if physical flash is required...

nyways... If I get a response about an EXPERT Windows user, - Ill ask a feq Questions if someone could be ever so helpful... to maybe keep me focused in the right direction and not getting myself of course with some things..

Have STRONG suspects of BAD KEYS.. and CERTIFICATES.. but stemming from BAD, corrput files being re-delivered from somewhere.. or multiple places.. Every install ends up corrupt real quick.. but I know sfc/ basically helps set things down bad cource quicker it seems.. DISM...well... shrug I stopped almost ALL task scheduler entrieds from going off last time except 2.. and know thats not best thing either depending on certain things.. ppl Ive said too much but not all I could have. Apologies. thanks to those who read and waste their time doing so.

Think I need some sleep... big time... been a rough week

 

[Gfost73]

Thank you all for your help, I have fixed the issue I was having, I will explain how the best I can. first I went into my Bios and turned off Fmpt, then restarted system, I let windows load and verified it was off, then shut down the system. I removed all my hard drives, as I normally, restarted my system to make sure windows would load without the other drives, As I did discover on my last install for some god awful reason windows installed the boot manager on the Blank SSD that I left plugged in, so to remedy this I unplugged the SSD and did a fresh install of windows in legacy mode, then verifying all boot commands were on the harddrive1, using the bcdedit /enum firmware command. that checked out, when I hit restart I used Shift, then in advanced mode chose command prompt. command prompt loaded I then proceeded with the mbr2gpt / validate, all passed, then continued with mbr2gpt /convert. was successful. exited the command prompt then shut down the PC. restarted into Bios, then disabled CMS, saved and exited bios. restarted into bios and enabled Secure boot, changed from standard to custom and reset the factory, hit yes to restart without saving, then back into the bios I changed Secure boot back to standard. select yes to restart without saving, and at this point I prayed, I did not have any other disk or USB installed, so figured if this was going to work, I would soon know. and to my joy I am not typing this on windows 10 UEIF with Secure boot enabled, I will go back into bios and enable Ftmp shortly. I really do not know what I did this time that I did not do before other than a couple steps that must of been important, 1 being restarting windows without any other disks to clear them of whatever folder they may be in shrugs and making sure Ftmp was disabled before trying to convert to GPT, as well as not saving when changing the secure boot. (Although I had tried not saving before and it didn't help, but that could of been when the boot manager was on a blank ssd) anyway I am very glad for all your help perhaps anyone reading this will get help they need as well, it was a pain in the A to be sure but now I think for the future it may not be such a pain to do again, I am still unsure what caused the issue, tad hesitant to go back to windows 11 after all this BS, as I stated in first post all was great until the last Win11 update then all this happened, so not sure if it was the update, or just dumb luck, either way I am still very happy the machine is working like I knew it was able to =) thanks again all for your help

 

[Gfost73]

An amendment to the above, turns out perhaps the issue is with the ftmp, I have attempted to enable it, yet when system restarts, I get put into a recovery mode with the error 0xc00000e9 Windows\system32\winload.efi, If I try to fix it it then states boot record does not have any info on regarding the OS. I updated the Bios to newest version thinking maybe it will fix the issue and it did not so perhaps I will need to do a full fresh install of windows to get the FTMP working, however, have not attempted that yet, will see if I can find any fix for that, so perhaps having ftmp enabled was the issue all along. as I stated above, I did have it disabled and windows loads no issues no in secure boot. At least that was successful

 

[Rendarius]

...Interesting... and You're welcome, - although there is little need to thank me, - since I did not fix and solve the problem for you unfortunately. = ( Also Im sry I have not repied back sooner, - I have been swamped with things. And I STILL have yet to make my next install attempt.. Sooner I hope though..

MAYBE you are onto something but I wonder if that issue is due to out removal of the boot-bootloader etc... Although if you did manage to get things worked out, - you should still have what is needed... or at least Id think could and would suffice...
Then again, - if some boot file is calling on an older, - or "paired" boot file for whatever reason that is now gone, - I could see this being wja is ow going on, - and your current issue.

There is also a STRONG possibility it has to do with something n the EFI Shell... or related to it... I was attempting to SEVER any linked scripts or settings from wherever they might be coming from and stored at, - since it seemed to be what I was able to find info on quicker than what I was actually looking for. Too many days and time of dealing with this nonsense made me decide to go about things a bit differently than I had originally planned... Which is also why I was adamant and wanted to be clear, - and ure you were ok with taking such steps... Because it seemed to fix things for me. At least to some degree, - and in relation to the same UEFI and Win11 issue with Keys and Seure Boot etc...

Thing is, - without re-flashing the board and not just the UEFI Bios, as is done when updating/ - or without finding and changinging, or deleting those config/call-to-function, or script etc.. ... Basically instructions or some set function and order or mthod of boot and the files and related data, files, or instructional cvalues.

Did your further work/attempts finally get things sorted and all better for you?

 

[Rendarius]

btw I THINK this should get you fixed up. Search YouTube for "Chris Titus boot record"I forget the actual full name f he video but it should get you enough results youll have what you need to get that problem corrected and have you all better = )

If not, - I may have more nfo to share sometime soon later today orover the week if I need to look into anything with the shell efi

 

[Gfost73]

for any following this, I was able to resolve the issue, after attempting every troubleshooting step suggested and more found on my own, I thought the only thing I did not try was to roll back my Bios from day 1, not just reflash current or even the last few, as I tried that, and it was unsuccessful. figuring I had nothing to lose but a bit of time, I downloaded every Bios available for my motherboard and starting from the first, installed them one by one, and low and behold it worked, I am not sure which Bios fixed the issue, and the reason I even bothered was I thought perhaps there was a file from before the last several updates that was corrupted and perhaps updates only deal with files they are updating leaving others alone, which would then leave the corrupted file within the Bios, I do not know if this is the case or not, but I do know as of now I am once again able to install windows 11 without any issues, my fTmp is functioning properly and showing its vendor info in windows security once again, I guess my persistence and out of the box thinking paid off , thanks all for your help and advice, it was greatly appreciated, I am half tempted to email gigabyte support as they refused to help with the issue, blaming the CPU, when clearly it was a Bios issue all along.