Gigabyte B660M bypasses BIOS setup and fails to establish boot priority.
Gigabyte B660M bypasses BIOS setup and fails to establish boot priority.
I've been working mostly today fixing the Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX motherboard. It boots fine, but no splash screens show up and pressing the BIOS/Boot Order keys doesn't work. Normally I'd assume it hasn't passed POST, so I re-seated parts and checked cables—still nothing. Curious, I tried an Ubuntu install USB; it booted perfectly except it skipped the BIOS, so I couldn't adjust boot priority. All three boards behave the same. The Ubuntu version is helpful, but these need Windows-only software at my workplace, which none of the four Windows USB drives show. What are the chances I ended up with three bad boards? My setup includes an Intel i5 12400F CPU, Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX (three units), Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK16GX4M2A2400C16 16GB RAM, Sapphire AMD R5 230 GPU, Corsair CX650M 650W M.2, and a Kingston NV1 1TB PSU. I don’t know the BIOS version because I can’t access it. I’ve tried holding and pressing F2, Delete, F12, End during boot; used every USB port; cleared CMOS multiple times with jumpers, removed battery, reset power; booted without drives; used blank M.2 SSD; installed Ubuntu via installer; rebooted with Windows USB; changed BIOS settings in Ubuntu; looked up fixes online—most focused on fast-boot issues only. Gigabyte’s tool for disabling fast-boot is Windows-only. I have plans to keep troubleshooting, but I figured this thread might help others facing the same problem since none of my previous threads solved it. I’m considering disabling fast boot in Ubuntu, adjusting EFI settings, trying a different Linux distro, using an Intel CPU with integrated graphics, or porting a Windows drive to another machine.
It might be worth checking how flashing to the latest BIOS affects things, especially with Qflash and CPU-free flashback. Are you certain the Windows USBs support UEFI boot? I’d try installing Windows on another machine, move the SSD there, boot into Windows on the B660, then go through the BIOS from there (press Shift to restart, select Troubleshooting → Boot to UEFI). Then disable fast boot. Quite unusual, though—I’ve faced this before on older boards.
It seems the Windows USBs should work with UEFI. I have a few from Microsoft with license keys and one I built myself. The self-made one functioned on another machine at work. Most of the office computers are branded proprietary, which could complicate booting from an SSD elsewhere, but I’ll keep updating my notes!
Hey there, today's update on this - good news is I've managed to get one of the three systems working, and haven't had a chance to build the others. Flashing to the latest updated F6b BIOS did not resolve the issue, nor did changing EFI BIOS settings from Linux. Everything would spit me straight past the BIOS. Unfortunately, I do have to report that it was changing the CPU to an i5 12400 (as in, integrated graphics, no dedicated GPU), worked immediately . Hopefully this is simply a compatibility issue with the generation of AMD GPUs that I have (all 2015 or older), so most people won't run in to the issue at all. Unfortunately - if you are running in to the problem and don't have the option to use integrated graphics, this may not be the thread you're looking for. I'm lucky that integrated graphics was the intended setup for these machines, and simply a communication problem had put the wrong CPU on my order. I didn't get the time to try another Linux distro, since that was more for my own curiosity than actual troubleshooting. I was also unable to figure out how to disable fast boot from within Ubuntu. I didn't try installing Windows via a different machine, since logistically I could only do that after trying the iGPU. If I can, I might try still these on one of the remaining two machines I've yet to finish building. I'll keep this thread as unresolved until I've got all three machines working, since on paper the GPUs I tried should be compatible? Maybe I'm missing something in the documentation though.
Hello, thank you for sharing your experience. I'm encountering a similar problem with the same card—no video output and no access to BIOS—using an I5-13600 KF processor. I haven't tried the Linux USB bootable yet. Could you confirm if you should listen for a beep when the system was actually booting? I don’t get any beeps except during full RAM removal. After that, I see five long beeps, which seems to indicate a RAM issue, though the machine still works somewhat. If there was a beep, it suggests my PST sequence isn't functioning properly, and I’m hoping this isn’t related to the CPU.