PC starts looping indefinitely upon powering on with Secure Boot enabled
PC starts looping indefinitely upon powering on with Secure Boot enabled
Hello, I'm dealing with a quite challenging situation. Recently, I purchased a new CPU, RAM, and motherboard, but I'm still using my existing case, power supply unit, and graphics card. The system runs Windows 11 64-bit, and I'm attempting to play Valorant. The game demands Secure Boot activation on Windows 11, which is causing problems.
When I first powered on the PC with the GTX 760 GPU, it would shut down and restart a couple of times, displaying an error: "The VGA card is not supported by UEFI driver." It also mentioned that CSM settings had been altered. After some research, I found instructions to enable Secure Boot in BIOS, but this led to a boot loop where the PC would repeatedly power on and off without any visual feedback or sound.
I attempted to reset the BIOS using the CLRTC pin, but it didn't resolve the issue. Eventually, I removed the graphics card and restarted the system. It worked—Windows booted normally with Secure Boot enabled. However, after checking the CSM settings in BIOS, they were reported as disabled.
The problem seems to stem from my outdated GPU being supported by the motherboard's CSM feature. Additionally, it appears that enabling both CSM and Secure Boot simultaneously isn't possible. The motherboard tends to force CSM to be off when a GPU is connected, which causes the loop. When I removed the GPU, the integrated graphics automatically disabled CSM, allowing the PC to start.
For now, I've found a workaround by connecting both the GPU and integrated graphics through an LED, so Windows can detect the GPU during boot. This isn't an ideal solution, but it gets me past the immediate issue. If anyone has advice or alternative methods, I'd greatly appreciate it.
PC details:
- OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
- CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i3-12100
- RAM: ADATA AD4U32008G22-SGN (8GB DDR4 3200MHZ)
- Motherboard: ASUSTeK PRIME H610M-K D4 (LGA1700)
- BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1013 (28/01/2022)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
- Storage: 180GB SSD, 1TB HDD
- Case: Thunder Signature