Rebooted and went into BIOS, pc locked up

[Need help1996]

So I rebooted the pc after making changes and turned it off and turned it on to get into bios. I was prompted with my password but after I went into password prompt, the pc locked up and I have a debug code; A8

I cant do anything, cant turn it off via button or restart button. Its stuck on BIOS logo screen with password prompt.

Here are my specs:

Core I5 6600k@ 4.2 Ghz

MSI z170 Gaming m5. with latest BIOS firmware.

16 Gb of Corsair DDR4 ram at stock speed.

Windows 10 all updated.

I have recently installed windows on this machine cause of windows 10 getting corrupted from windows related crashes.

so its a nearly-new fresh install, And yes I did go into BIOS setting and hit f10, rebooted back into the BIOS and when I was prompted with password, it froze, It didnt do that first time until I made changes to the BIOS settings and booted back into BIOS. And now I cant get into BIOS to make changes again until I type in the password. Idk what happened. Did the password prompt cause it to lock up or was it cause of a BIOS setting I made? but more importantly what do I do? Do I unplug the machine or try to turn it off at the switch one more time? Cause I hit both buttons and even held down the power button for hard reset and nothing happened. What do I do?

 

[DRagor]

The big question would be what changes in BIOS you made. But if the problem is caused by those changes, resetting CMOS will fix it.

 

[Need help1996]

i changed the setting WHQL support i believe to be enabled and also I notice no power is going to my mouse and keyboard.

And I dont remember what else really, just that one and hotplug settings and now I cant power down the pc or use my mouse and keyboard. Do I just unplug it?

 

[DRagor]

Turn it off using switch on PSU, then reset CMOS.

 

[Need help1996]

so it is safe to cut the power off from the machine?

 

[DRagor]

During it's life, your PC will have to face it numerous times. Components are built to withstand it. Besides, there's no other way as you can't reset CMOS on running machine, and you can't power it down normal way.

 

[Need help1996]

So windows boot drive or the BIOS wont get corrupted from me unplugging or shutting down the machine? I just did a fresh install just minutes ago and I dont want to go through the process all over again. I just want to make sure I know now and not later.... Its been kinda difficult trying to get this machine to work correctly.

 

[DRagor]

BIOS can only get corrupt on failed flash or hardware fail. Windows *could* get some problems here, but not because of powering down, and it's rather rare. If you installed Windows using some non-standard BIOS setting, you will need to set them back after resetting CMOS before you can successfully boot to Windows. But the drive itself should not be affected.