Question No display after enabling Secure Boot (Gigabyte Motherboard GA-H110M-S2 Rev 1.0) ?

[shaikyahiya]

Hi guys,

After Microsoft released the requirements for Windows 11, I tried enabling Intel PTT and Secure Boot in my Motherboard BIOS and since then I am unable to see any display. The CPU fan runs for a few seconds and stops then starts again. This happens in a cycle. I don't see any display whatsoever.

I had received a warning asking me to disable CSM, which I sadly ignored. Here is a screenshot of it:

https://imgur.com/byPRxfr

I have already tried the following:

1. Removing and putting back the Motherboard battery (to clear CMOS and reset BIOS) -> DIDN'T WORK.
2. Removing the Graphics Card and connecting a VGA cable to the motherboard's display port -> DIDN'T WORK.

Many people on other forums have also faced this issue, specifically on Gigabyte motherboards. I am hoping there's a fix out there. Can you guys please help us out?


PC Specifications:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2 Rev1.0 LGA1151
• Processor: Intel i3-6098p 3.6Ghz 6th Generation Processor
• Graphics Card: Zotac Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5
• RAM: 24 GB DDR4 (8 +16)
• Cabinet: Cooler Master Elite 310
• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ma.Rio]

I think we're in the middle of it. My personal opinion is that it should be over in 2 years max. It is a long time, but covid started almost 2 years ago and to me it feels like it was yesterday.
If you have the money just plop it out now, who cares, but judging by the budget specs I don't think it's the case.

We're getting off topic though.

 

[shaikyahiya]

I took the MoBo to a more reputed service and repair center in my city. They asked me for two days' time so it's going to be a long weekend for me.
If they can't figure it out, I'm doomed for sure... but I'm hopeful.

 

[DRagor]

Ok, @shaikyahiya and @Ma.Rio a little update from another thread (https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ot-along-with-enrolling-platform-key.3710732/). Basically the OP run into same problem as you (yeah another Gigabyte board), and he managed to solve it by re-programming BIOS chip (essentially re-flashed BIOS with special device). So seems like there is hope for your boards too.

 

[Geeksavant]

I had this exact same issue but my mobo is MSI. I fixed it after painstaking troubleshooting. Here’s what I did…

1. turned it all off and disconnected all peripherals with the exception of keyboard, mouse and monitor (have 5 displays and two video cards and HDMI/DP connectors, so it took a bit of time to figure out which the BIOS wanted to us as primary in the end.
2. Disconnected from AC power leaving only the onboard battery for the CMOS
3. Connected the two CMOS jumpers, per my MSI manual, to reset the BIOS/UEFI to factory presets… HARD WIPE NUCLEAR MODE
4. Pulled the battery for 30 mins afterwards as 10 mins wasn’t enough for the onboard capacitors to discharge
5. Battery back in and one more jumper reset for good measures
6. AC power plugged back in and powered up
7. As previously said, after messing around to figure out which of my video cards/ports it wanted to use as primary I was pleasantly presented with the “enter BIOS or continue options”. Early indicators that this worked were that extra lights on my gaming keyboard and mouse were coming to life right away.
8. Went into BIOS and made sure none of the secure boot stuff was in there by default, which it wasn’t, rebooted and I’m back in the game
9. Win11 requirements can go to hell and die like Win8! Don’t need this crap for a Mac interface GUI ripoff!

 

[Karadjgne]

Secure boot is uefi only. It's paired with WindowsOS. CSM is only needed for legacy products or stuff that's non-uefi based and is paired with OtherOS.

Factory defaults run CSM/OtherOS, but once you add in nvme boot drives, that gets changed as there's no native nvme drivers, you have to piggyback from windows nvme drivers, and that requires WindowsOS/secure boot enabled. That doesn't apply to Sata SSDs or hdds, which have driver support at boot, or nvme storage drives which get driver support from windows after boot, only nvme boot drives. Without WindowsOS, the nvme literally does not get recognised.

Basically, Win11 is doing nothing more than saying goodbye to legacy products which are a major source of boot issues and bsod and require extra support resources. Not much different than seeing Program Files and Program Files (x86) in Win10, Win 11 is dumping the x86 part.

 

[Geeksavant]

Secure boot is uefi only. It's paired with WindowsOS. CSM is only needed for legacy products or stuff that's non-uefi based and is paired with OtherOS.

Factory defaults run CSM/OtherOS, but once you add in nvme boot drives, that gets changed as there's no native nvme drivers, you have to piggyback from windows nvme drivers, and that requires WindowsOS/secure boot enabled. That doesn't apply to Sata SSDs or hdds, which have driver support at boot, or nvme storage drives which get driver support from windows after boot, only nvme boot drives. Without WindowsOS, the nvme literally does not get recognised.

Basically, Win11 is doing nothing more than saying goodbye to legacy products which are a major source of boot issues and bsod and require extra support resources. Not much different than seeing Program Files and Program Files (x86) in Win10, Win 11 is dumping the x86 part.

I agree with your comments (generally) whole heartedly, but no one here is posting issues with switching to UEFI.

I had solidified that switch to UEFI without issue prior to attempting enabling secure boot and tested (and I am guessing many others did too). After successfully hard switching to UEFI, testing, multiple reboots, then (attempting) enabling secure boot, my system was cratered the same as the rest in this thread and I’m running an MSI mobo and they’re running a GB name brand I otherwise trust too from 24 years of IT Professional experience. It’s not the UEFI, it’s the smart boot that’s the problem right now and MS needs to resolve this, for reasons you’ve already named, before rollout. I carry more IT certifications than I care to name and taught my 13yr old, geek who wants to be like dad, how to fix it today from my previous listed instructions. UEFI most certainly CAN be a problem, but is very easily tested out before the secure boot switch if you have to make it.

I even double tested the break/fix with my 13yo kids and success both times. Yay, repeatable!

My most two recent systems are newer and pass out of the box. However, my 4yr old i7 4GHz, 8 core 32GB RAM, dual video card Radeon R9 Fury X, 3TB SSD total didn’t pass the “sniff test” as I need to put in a TPM chip (which I can) but the secure boot is what made everything awful and crater in the end and tells me to “just say no” to Win11 at this point until I NEED to upgrade my professional use box. But, 2025 is still some time away.

 

[Karadjgne]

All I was explaining is that every nvme drive being used as a Boot drive is being used with secure boot enabled. Secure boot itself isn't the issue, nor a problem by itself, I ran secure boot enabled on my old msi z77 with a i7-3770k and is currently enabled on my x570 with nvme boot after CSM failed to recognise the drive.

Which means everyone whom has installed or switched over from hdd or ssd to a nvme boot drive has had to enable secure boot, WindowsOS and reset the default boot keys.

I'm betting it's the lack of changing OtherOS to WindowsOS and not resetting the boot keys which is the issue when secure boot was enabled. Basically locked the car door with the keys in the ignition. Pulling the battery for an hour might work, but failing that, you'd need to force a bios reset by reprogramming the bios chip.

 

[Ma.Rio]

Ok, @shaikyahiya and @Ma.Rio a little update from another thread (https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ot-along-with-enrolling-platform-key.3710732/). Basically the OP run into same problem as you (yeah another Gigabyte board), and he managed to solve it by re-programming BIOS chip (essentially re-flashed BIOS with special device). So seems like there is hope for your boards too.

This is beyond what I'm capable of doing. I don't either have the tools or the knowledge. I'm way more of a software guy, with some intermediate hardware understanding. I've already bought an Asus board so I'm not dealing with that anyways, that Gigabyte one can burn in hell; but - the repair guy who I took it to said he couldn't manage to do what you said (this happened like 2 days ago). He said the chip is soldered on and he can't reprogram it. I noticed my board also has dual bios but I personally had no luck forcing it to kick in.

I had this exact same issue but my mobo is MSI. I fixed it after painstaking troubleshooting. Here’s what I did…

1. turned it all off and disconnected all peripherals with the exception of keyboard, mouse and monitor (have 5 displays and two video cards and HDMI/DP connectors, so it took a bit of time to figure out which the BIOS wanted to us as primary in the end.
2. Disconnected from AC power leaving only the onboard battery for the CMOS
3. Connected the two CMOS jumpers, per my MSI manual, to reset the BIOS/UEFI to factory presets… HARD WIPE NUCLEAR MODE
4. Pulled the battery for 30 mins afterwards as 10 mins wasn’t enough for the onboard capacitors to discharge
5. Battery back in and one more jumper reset for good measures
6. AC power plugged back in and powered up
7. As previously said, after messing around to figure out which of my video cards/ports it wanted to use as primary I was pleasantly presented with the “enter BIOS or continue options”. Early indicators that this worked were that extra lights on my gaming keyboard and mouse were coming to life right away.
8. Went into BIOS and made sure none of the secure boot stuff was in there by default, which it wasn’t, rebooted and I’m back in the game
9. Win11 requirements can go to hell and die like Win8! Don’t need this crap for a Mac interface GUI ripoff!

As for this, I haven't paid much attention how long the battery was out, but I had it out for a decently long time I think. I even tried turning the PC on without the CMOS battery.

Karadjgne, I have no NVME drives, only a SATA SSD, so while I understand what you're saying, this can't be the problem if it's happening even without NVME.

And as a cherry on top, I've upgraded to Win11 (there's guides now how you can bypass the CPU/TPM/SecureBoot checks), and I don't like it almost at all for now.

 

[yahya+-6]

so hi again, i have just changed my hdd from MBR to GPT and changed bios mode to UEFI
the question now is : do you guys suggest me to enable secure boot?

 

[shaikyahiya]

And as a cherry on top, I've upgraded to Win11 (there's guides now how you can bypass the CPU/TPM/SecureBoot checks), and I don't like it almost at all for now.

Can you please share that guide to bypass SecureBoot check here?

Btw, I got an update from the repair centre. They said, they're able to fix it for around $50, I obliged, they didn't tell me what the problem was though. I'll make sure to discuss this with the Engineer when I visit to collect it tomorrow.

Ok, @shaikyahiya and @Ma.Rio a little update from another thread (https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ot-along-with-enrolling-platform-key.3710732/). Basically the OP run into same problem as you (yeah another Gigabyte board), and he managed to solve it by re-programming BIOS chip (essentially re-flashed BIOS with special device). So seems like there is hope for your boards too.

@DRagor Is re-flashing an easy task? Can we do it by ourselves?

 

[Ma.Rio]

Can you please share that guide to bypass SecureBoot check here?

Here's a video that's a bit advanced, but doesn't require modifying the installation image.
Here's a reddit post that explains how to edit the installation image to skip the checks. This one is easier, and it's the one I'm using.

 

[Ma.Rio]

so hi again, i have just changed my hdd from MBR to GPT and changed bios mode to UEFI
the question now is : do you guys suggest me to enable secure boot?

Definitely not if you have a Gigabyte board. If it's some else then maybe. Honestly I'm not messing with that even on my new Asus one, not risking it anymore lol.
And if you look at my previous post, you don't even need to do it for now if all you need it for is Windows 11.

 

[Geeksavant]

Definitely not if you have a Gigabyte board. If it's some else then maybe. Honestly I'm not messing with that even on my new Asus one, not risking it anymore lol.
And if you look at my previous post, you don't even need to do it for now if all you need it for is Windows 11.

Gigabyte motherboard or not I’d say no too for the exact same reasons mentioned. My MSI mobo got all messed up too from the attempted switch.

 

[DRagor]

Is re-flashing an easy task? Can we do it by ourselves?

Never did it so have no idea, but based on utube videos not so hard. Just needs some patience, proper equipment and some knowledge.

 

[verigoodtomyou]

All I was explaining is that every nvme drive being used as a Boot drive is being used with secure boot enabled. Secure boot itself isn't the issue, nor a problem by itself, I ran secure boot enabled on my old msi z77 with a i7-3770k and is currently enabled on my x570 with nvme boot after CSM failed to recognise the drive.

Which means everyone whom has installed or switched over from hdd or ssd to a nvme boot drive has had to enable secure boot, WindowsOS and reset the default boot keys.

I'm betting it's the lack of changing OtherOS to WindowsOS and not resetting the boot keys which is the issue when secure boot was enabled. Basically locked the car door with the keys in the ignition. Pulling the battery for an hour might work, but failing that, you'd need to force a bios reset by reprogramming the bios chip.

wait how, i have a nvme ssd as my boot drive yet secure boot is not enabled on bios

does that mean that if i enabled it, my new msi mobo will get bricked again? how am I to proceed if i want to enable secure boot in a safe way?

csm is disabled, but secure bot is also disabled.

not like i need it on right now, but at some point, i will be upgrading to w11 so knowledge may come in handy if you can share. because i'm scared of enabling it

 

[Karadjgne]

If CSM is disabled, secure boot should be enabled, it's one or the other. Fastboot is something else entirely.

Back in the day, you didn't really have CSM as such, there wasn't a need for a Compatibility Service Module as everything was current, the same. Only when UEFI was implemented and older products/non-uefi products and bios got relegated to Legacy do you now need the CSM to bridge the gap between the two.

Because uefi is universal, there's very little need to update, for instance the nvme driver included in windows is from 2006, so is highly adaptable to anything new that's uefi standard.

Enabling secure boot shouldn't be affected by the motherboard, but can be affected by other settings, such as the base OS choice and the boot keys. If you don't release the keys before switching to secure boot, you've got one set of boot parameters in direct conflict with another. You'd release the keys, switch to WindowsOS, enable secure boot, reboot, then reset default keys. It's like re-keying a lock, you do it with the door open. Just enabling secure boot by itself, you lock the door, close it on reboot, then are stuck because the key no longer matches the lock.

Nvme boot drives require secure boot and WindowsOS, or they will not get recognised in the bios as a Boot drive, only a storage drive once windows starts. There are workarounds, like Clover EFI, but that's just more to deal with.

 

[verigoodtomyou]

If CSM is disabled, secure boot should be enabled, it's one or the other. Fastboot is something else entirely.

Back in the day, you didn't really have CSM as such, there wasn't a need for a Compatibility Service Module as everything was current, the same. Only when UEFI was implemented and older products/non-uefi products and bios got relegated to Legacy do you now need the CSM to bridge the gap between the two.

Because uefi is universal, there's very little need to update, for instance the nvme driver included in windows is from 2006, so is highly adaptable to anything new that's uefi standard.

Enabling secure boot shouldn't be affected by the motherboard, but can be affected by other settings, such as the base OS choice and the boot keys. If you don't release the keys before switching to secure boot, you've got one set of boot parameters in direct conflict with another. You'd release the keys, switch to WindowsOS, enable secure boot, reboot, then reset default keys. It's like re-keying a lock, you do it with the door open. Just enabling secure boot by itself, you lock the door, close it on reboot, then are stuck because the key no longer matches the lock.

Nvme boot drives require secure boot and WindowsOS, or they will not get recognised in the bios as a Boot drive, only a storage drive once windows starts. There are workarounds, like Clover EFI, but that's just more to deal with.

how come I can boot from my nvme drive with windows 10 yet secure boot is disabled?

either you're misinformed or you don't seem to understand my situation here

situation:

• SECURE BOOST is disabled
• CSM is disabled
• I can boot WINDOWS 10 from an NVME Drive

 

[Karadjgne]

On both my pc's, it's one or the other. Both can't be disabled. One is 3rd gen Intel on msi mobo, other is Ryzen 3700x on asus.
This is the procedure for making a nvme boot drive recognised by bios.

NVMe SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module, Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver

Go into the BIOS, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM. Make sure it is disabled.

Click on the secure boot option below and make sure it is set to another OS, not windows UEFI.

Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

Insert a USB memory stick with a bootable UEFI USB drive with Windows 10 Setup* on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works too. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

Click on secure boot again but now set it to Windows UEFI mode.

Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

Press F10 to save and exit, Windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

Secure boot is enabled when you disable CSM/legacy. If you enable CSM, secure boot is disabled. Disable CSM, enable secure boot and not clear the secure boot keys is most likely the issue, you are saying the pc should boot without legacy, but the stored keys are different to what it's settings are. So it won't boot correctly.

When you installed windows, you completed most of the procedure, but not all. So instead of an automatic recognised boot, bios is linked to the windows EFI and has to search and read all that, applying it to the boot procedure, before it can finish the boot process. That can very easily lead to issues, such as disappearing drives, failure to boot, asking you to install a viable boot drive etc.

Its not a plug and play procedure, much as Microsoft may have you believe it is, same goes for secure boot, there's multiple steps a user must go through, not just 'enable'.

 

[kerberos_20]

how come I can boot from my nvme drive with windows 10 yet secure boot is disabled?

either you're misinformed or you don't seem to understand my situation here

situation:

• SECURE BOOST is disabled
• CSM is disabled
• I can boot WINDOWS 10 from an NVME Drive

same here, can boot from nvme without secureboot just fine
board asrock fatal1ty x370 gamig x, nvme samsung 970

 

[strontkever]

I found this thread because i wanted to enable secure boot. but then stuff like security boot keys etc came up and got me scared from changing anything before googling about it first...(gigabyte mobo z370) the thing is: win11 was already installing from windows update and i had to restart. It now turns out windows 11 is working fine even with secure boot disabled. i dont know why but it might not be neccesary anymore? if you read this u might try without enabling secure boot.

 

[verigoodtomyou]

I found this thread because i wanted to enable secure boot. but then stuff like security boot keys etc came up and got me scared from changing anything before googling about it first...(gigabyte mobo z370) the thing is: win11 was already installing from windows update and i had to restart. It now turns out windows 11 is working fine even with secure boot disabled. i dont know why but it might not be neccesary anymore? if you read this u might try without enabling secure boot.

yes, i will refrain from enabling secure boot. i never had to enable secure boot to install windows 10 or anything

probably same will be the case with w11

bcoz ther are so many variables, this guy is adamant on claiming its impossible to boot without secure boot with nvme on w10 yet we do. maybe there s some loophole this person is not knowledgeable about, and maybe hes right, maybe we aren't supposed to use w10 with nvme without secure boot, but for some reason we do. i for one, never tweaked anything while installing w10. mind you, i used microsoft's own creation tool to create an install usb

i will just wait for similar creation tool and full release of w11

 

[dorsai]

If your GPU doesn't support UEFI then you wont have a display when trying to boot. This means users of 600 series or older nVidia cards and AMD cards prior to the 400 series are out of luck unless you can come up with a gpu BIOS to flash that supports UEFI. There is also other hardware to consider like older LAN cards and video capture cards as well as older sound cards...all have to support UEFI booting or secure boot will not allow the PC to start.

Additionally those trying to flash a motherboards BIOS to resolve this issue need to understand that "secure boot" requirements mandate that flashing a BIOS be blocked without local access so a hacker/intruder can not simply flash a BIOS to access a system...so you're out of luck.

The only way to get a system working with secure boot enabled is to meet all of the requirements.

Remove all old hardware including GPUs that do not support secure boot. Install a CPU, ram, and video card that support UEFI and nothing else and then try rebooting into the BIOS. If that doesn't work then you might try to also install a boot drive with a GPT partition...even if Windows is not on it you should then get dumped into the BIOS at start up.

You may also be able to get into the BIOS by disconnecting all of your HHD/SSD drives and booting a recent copy of Linux on removable media since they support secure boot...though any hardware in the PC will still need to support UEFI.


Here's some links on the subject of secure boot:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/device-experiences/oem-secure-boot

Disabling Secure Boot

Disabling Secure Boot

docs.microsoft.com

https://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/secureboot.html#shim

 

[bhattvishal]

I know how frustrating it is, here's a workaround that worked for me.


Here is how you boot back into the backup BIOS:
Method 1

1. Shut off your computer
2. Hold the power button until your computer starts and shuts down again
3. Press the power button again, your backup BIOS should kick in now and should re-flash the backup BIOS if there's anything wrong with the new one.

Method 2

1. Shut off your computer
2. Hold the power AND the reset button for about 10 sec, than release.
3. It should boot into the backup BIOS now.

Method 3
Only use this if nothing else works.

1. Short out pins 1 and 6 on the main BIOS chip by attaching a jumper to both the pins (pin #1 should be marked with a red dot or whatever)
2. Tell a friend to press the power on button while you do this because right now you are holding the jumper on the pins
3. Remove the jumper you're holding between pins 1 and 6 as soon as you hear a beep.
4. Backup BIOS should boot now.

 

[stressato]

To anyone that got this problem and your motherboard seems bricked, your gpu is probably getting blocked by secure boot.

1. Remove the GPU
2. Connect the video output to the motherboard HDMI/DP - NOT the GPU!
3. IF you don't have integrated graphics on the CPU, get a friend's cpu, or buy one compatible with your mobo(yeah, you need to)
4. You should get into your bios now

 

[COLGeek]

I enabled Secure Boot on my Win 11 (B550) and two Win 10 rigs (both with X570) today. Nothing unusual at all afterward.

Steps to enable (all AMD-based Gigabyte mobos) Secure Boot. Make sure fTPM is enabled. Make sure CSM is disabled. In Secure Boot, select custom under Secure Boot Mode, Select Restore Factory Keys, Say YES to reset without saving.

When BIOS restarts, access BIOS and change Secure Boot Mode back to Standard and then Yes to restart without save.

Let Windows boot fully.

Use msinfo to verify that Secure Boot State is on.

For those who installed Valorant, I can confirm that Valorant "killed" my primary display. Fortunately, I have two displays attached to my Win 11 beta rig.

Removing the game seems to resolve the matter.