Question PC won’t post after enabling secure boot

Jul 19, 2021
7
0
10
apologies for bad formatting on mobile

Problem:
After enabling secure boot in the bios the pc won’t post, I remember some sort of error about cms come up, my led codes show a red light on everything each moving onto the next but when it reaches the boot led it quickly moves over to the cpu led flashes very briefly and then cuts out and try’s to reboot.

Trouble shooting steps I have tried:

I have tried removing the cmos battery for varying times from one minute to an hour didn’t fix,
I have also tried clearing the cmos by shorting the two clear cmos pin

I have also tried removing the gpu and booting from mob graphics aswell as unplugging all sata cables from drives.

System specs:

CPU: i7 7700k stock

RAM: x2 8gb sticks of Gskill 2660 memory

MOB: Gigabyte GA-Z270X-UD3

GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 3gb

PSU: Thermaltake litepower 650w


Any help would be greatly appreciated, I have looked into trying to reflash the bios by it looks like I need it to post to do that
 
First, regardless that is probably isn't related to this specific issue, it would be HIGHLY recommended that you replace that litepower PSU with something better. Seriously, that is an extremely poor quality power supply and if you haven't already caused some form of incremental damage to the connected hardware, you likely either will OR it's lack of and inferior protections will probably at some point be the death of the entire system. It is honestly one of the very worst "known name brand" power supplies that has ever been sold. Pretty bad. Do yourself a favor and begin looking at better options now. The sooner, the better. You can find recommendations at the link in my sig block.

As far as the problem is concerned, I'd try doing a hard reset first, which is somewhat different than just removing the battery or shorting the CMOS pins. If that doesn't work, you will likely need to look at more drastic resolutions including the possibility of a borked boot partition from the change (Which seems less than likely, but perhaps possible) or a clean install of Windows.

Honestly, resetting the CMOS to it's factory settings should have undone any issues from enabling secure boot, but it's hard to say. It's important to do the hard reset EXACTLY as I've outlined it, without any deviations from the outlined process. If it doesn't help, we can move forward from there.

BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

Trying a different monitor as well, if possible, is also a good idea if there is a lack of display. It happens.
 
Jul 19, 2021
7
0
10
First, regardless that is probably isn't related to this specific issue, it would be HIGHLY recommended that you replace that litepower PSU with something better. Seriously, that is an extremely poor quality power supply and if you haven't already caused some form of incremental damage to the connected hardware, you likely either will OR it's lack of and inferior protections will probably at some point be the death of the entire system. It is honestly one of the very worst "known name brand" power supplies that has ever been sold. Pretty bad. Do yourself a favor and begin looking at better options now. The sooner, the better. You can find recommendations at the link in my sig block.

As far as the problem is concerned, I'd try doing a hard reset first, which is somewhat different than just removing the battery or shorting the CMOS pins. If that doesn't work, you will likely need to look at more drastic resolutions including the possibility of a borked boot partition from the change (Which seems less than likely, but perhaps possible) or a clean install of Windows.

Honestly, resetting the CMOS to it's factory settings should have undone any issues from enabling secure boot, but it's hard to say. It's important to do the hard reset EXACTLY as I've outlined it, without any deviations from the outlined process. If it doesn't help, we can move forward from there.

BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

Trying a different monitor as well, if possible, is also a good idea if there is a lack of display. It happens.
Hey thanks so much for the reply will get on that now, I’m not advertised to reinstalling windows so if this doesn’t work might give that a go. As for the power supply, when I brought it that was in the back of my mind, looking on doing a bit of an upgrade if I do that will definitely go with it. Thanks again for the help will reply with any success
 
Jul 19, 2021
7
0
10
First, regardless that is probably isn't related to this specific issue, it would be HIGHLY recommended that you replace that litepower PSU with something better. Seriously, that is an extremely poor quality power supply and if you haven't already caused some form of incremental damage to the connected hardware, you likely either will OR it's lack of and inferior protections will probably at some point be the death of the entire system. It is honestly one of the very worst "known name brand" power supplies that has ever been sold. Pretty bad. Do yourself a favor and begin looking at better options now. The sooner, the better. You can find recommendations at the link in my sig block.

As far as the problem is concerned, I'd try doing a hard reset first, which is somewhat different than just removing the battery or shorting the CMOS pins. If that doesn't work, you will likely need to look at more drastic resolutions including the possibility of a borked boot partition from the change (Which seems less than likely, but perhaps possible) or a clean install of Windows.

Honestly, resetting the CMOS to it's factory settings should have undone any issues from enabling secure boot, but it's hard to say. It's important to do the hard reset EXACTLY as I've outlined it, without any deviations from the outlined process. If it doesn't help, we can move forward from there.

BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

Trying a different monitor as well, if possible, is also a good idea if there is a lack of display. It happens.
No luck after hard resetting the bios any other ideas?
 
Ok, so I don't mean to be dense, or seem as though I haven't thoroughly read your OP, but I'm still not entirely clear in one regard.

By "can't POST" do you mean you cannot get into the BIOS, AT ALL, or, that you can't boot into Windows? Because they are definitely different things.

And if you can't "POST" you generally cannot even get into the BIOS, at all.
 
Jul 19, 2021
7
0
10
Ok, so I don't mean to be dense, or seem as though I haven't thoroughly read your OP, but I'm still not entirely clear in one regard.

By "can't POST" do you mean you cannot get into the BIOS, AT ALL, or, that you can't boot into Windows? Because they are definitely different things.

And if you can't "POST" you generally cannot even get into the BIOS, at all.
Sorry if I was unclear I can’t get into my bios and am getting no display output at all, my pc will get to a certain point as if I’m about to see something and then seemingly crash and retry and so on
 
Have you tried COMPLETELY removing the graphics card, and using the integrated graphics from the CPU through the motherboard, just to see if you can get an onscreen display that way? It doesn't have to BE the graphics card that has a problem in order for the graphics card to not work. Problems with the PCIe slot or some other region of the PCIe bus could be to blame, on the motherboard. And that can be true, seen it dozens and dozens of times, and the iGPU still work fine.
 
Jul 19, 2021
7
0
10
Have you tried COMPLETELY removing the graphics card, and using the integrated graphics from the CPU through the motherboard, just to see if you can get an onscreen display that way? It doesn't have to BE the graphics card that has a problem in order for the graphics card to not work. Problems with the PCIe slot or some other region of the PCIe bus could be to blame, on the motherboard. And that can be true, seen it dozens and dozens of times, and the iGPU still work fine.
Nope I have tried that and all I get is a faint grey line flickering across the screen but still no post it reboots again that’s with the gpu fully removed
 
Yet another Gigabyte board bricked by Safe Boot ... interesting. Not much hope for you if reseting CMOS doesn't work, but your board has Dual BIOS so you can try following as last resort:
Unplug everything save CPU and RAM, connect monitor to mobo, start it and let it do the boot cycling - after few failed attempts board should switch to second BIOS which hopefully post.
And next time when you come up with an idea to mess up with BIOS settings please come here before to ask if its safe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: imad7x
Considering the age of the system, unless you can find a good board that's compatible for a steal, I think I'd be inclined to put the money towards a whole new platform. New CPU and motherboard anyhow, of a newer generation. But, that's also more expensive. Seems kind of like a waste to spend good money on a platform that's already four years old and counting.

I'd try as DRagor suggested though to see if perhaps it would switch to it's other BIOS but I'm not particularly hopeful that is going to work out but certainly it is possible so worth the try.
 

imad7x

Prominent
Jan 5, 2020
2
0
510
Yet another Gigabyte board bricked by Safe Boot ... interesting. Not much hope for you if reseting CMOS doesn't work, but your board has Dual BIOS so you can try following as last resort:
Unplug everything save CPU and RAM, connect monitor to mobo, start it and let it do the boot cycling - after few failed attempts board should switch to second BIOS which hopefully post.
And next time when you come up with an idea to mess up with BIOS settings please come here before to ask if its safe.

I had the same problem and performing the steps above solved it for me. My windows got corrupted but I had a dual boot for linux which is still booting when I try via vga cable to the motherboard.

However when I connect my 3070FE the computer keeps restarting in seconds. Can you please help me out here? Thanks!
 
I had the same problem and performing the steps above solved it for me. My windows got corrupted but I had a dual boot for linux which is still booting when I try via vga cable to the motherboard.

However when I connect my 3070FE the computer keeps restarting in seconds. Can you please help me out here? Thanks!
Check if Secure Boot is disabled for sure, it still might be enabled (and seemingly for some reason some GPUs won't work well with it). Other then that, might be your GPU randomly decided to die so if you can check it out in another PC.
 

imad7x

Prominent
Jan 5, 2020
2
0
510
Check if Secure Boot is disabled for sure, it still might be enabled (and seemingly for some reason some GPUs won't work well with it). Other then that, might be your GPU randomly decided to die so if you can check it out in another PC.
Thanks for replying. The issue got fixed when I tried to boot with the cmos removed. It took a few auto restarts and finally got to the bios where it showed some error, setting it to default fixed it.
I put the cmos back again and it's all working great now. Thanks again!
 
You mean the CMOS battery, not the CMOS. CMOS is generally not removeable. The battery is.

And this IS the exact process I recommended in the very first post I made to the OP of this thread. Since you are not the OP it would probably be a good idea to stick to posts that relate to the OP, rather than hijacking another persons thread for our own purposes, whether intentional or not.