Question Windows 11 PIN issue after BIOS update ?

[mach2joe]

Hi everyone, let me start off by saying that the issue I am about to mention has been resolved by a clean re-install of Win11. However, I would like to know the cause so as to avoid it happening again in the future. 😉

After not having built a PC for about 15 years, I decided to build one recently and it all went flawlessly. However I only noticed that my mobo had a newer BIOS available for download AFTER I have completed my build and Windows11 installation. Back in the days a BIOS update would not affect Windows much.. but I guess that is no longer the case..

After the BIOS updated successfully, I got a Windows 11 message telling me my Windows PIN has expired because of some security level change; and when I clicked on resetting my PIN, nothing happened. I repeatedly try to get the PIN reset but still nothing happened. That is when i decided to reinstall Win11 from scratch, since my installation was relatively new and I have not installed a lot of other applications.

So I am still not sure what happened. Am I not supposed to update the BIOS unless I am having issues? What if I need to update the BIOS again in the future? How could I prepare for it so I would not have the same problem again? Would disabling the PIN prior to the update helps?

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

I would make sure you have the most current windows updates by checking and installing all updates before bios update.

 

[dwd999]

Hi everyone, let me start off by saying that the issue I am about to mention has been resolved by a clean re-install of Win11. However, I would like to know the cause so as to avoid it happening again in the future. 😉

After not having built a PC for about 15 years, I decided to build one recently and it all went flawlessly. However I only noticed that my mobo had a newer BIOS available for download AFTER I have completed my build and Windows11 installation. Back in the days a BIOS update would not affect Windows much.. but I guess that is no longer the case..

After the BIOS updated successfully, I got a Windows 11 message telling me my Windows PIN has expired because of some security level change; and when I clicked on resetting my PIN, nothing happened. I repeatedly try to get the PIN reset but still nothing happened. That is when i decided to reinstall Win11 from scratch, since my installation was relatively new and I have not installed a lot of other applications.

So I am still not sure what happened. Am I not supposed to update the BIOS unless I am having issues? What if I need to update the BIOS again in the future? How could I prepare for it so I would not have the same problem again? Would disabling the PIN prior to the update helps?

Thanks for your help in advance!

You could check the webpage for the bios files to see if there's an explanation for the newer file. When MS decided that they wanted people to use TPM security for W11 a lot of bios files were updated to change the Default TPM setting from Disabled to Enabled. Other security related bios settings may have also had their Default changed to support TPM and W11. This will most likely not be happening again in the future.