Enabling Virtualization bricks the PC

[Heretiiik]

Hi,
I've been experiencing some weird behaviour of my system whenever I enable virtualization support (SVM Mode as it's called in BIOS of ASUS TUF X570-PLUS). It's really simple to reproduce, turn off the computer, enter the bios settings, set SVM to Enabled, save & exit. After that it POSTs without any problem (sometimes double POSTs, idk if it's related, happens sometimes even with SVM disabled) and then completely freezes before the OS boot sequence, I'm not even able to get back into the BIOS to disable it again because it freezes right away, after showing motherboard logo with that "Press <DEL> to enter setup" thing at the bottom. After resetting the BIOS configuration it works fine, but without the virtualization support I really need.

I did some troubleshooting myself:

• changing boot drive
• replacing system memory
• replacing PSU (this was not part of the troubleshooting, but more of consequence of other changes in the system)
• replacing GPU (it has little little to nothing to do with this, i know)
• updating BIOS several times (current installed version is 3405, released about a week ago)
• reinstalling the OS several times when the HW configuration changed
• searching if someone had similar issue (all I found was that someone claimed that "Virtualization support on those motherboards is just broken", cannot find source right now, might add later)

The configuration right now is:
Motherboard: ASUS TUF X570-PLUS (BIOS Version 3405)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
RAM: 4x8GB G.Skill TridentZ RGB 3200MHz CL16
PSU: Corsair RM 750W
Bootdrive: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S5 256GB with some recent build of Windows 10 64bit

IMHO it boils down to two possible causes (three if you combine them)

• Motherboard is faulty
• CPU is faulty
• Combination of both above

So the question is WHY does it behave like this and what might be the solution? All parts are still in warranty.

Thanks a lot.

[metaleggman]

Do you have a usb stick you could install an ubuntu image to, and see if it boots successfully to that with SVM enabled?  If not, or if Ubuntu also won't boot, apparently some users with this issue appear to have success by disabling IOMMU or disabling secureboot.  It's a slim shot, but try disabling any CPU or memory overclocks in BIOS as well.  Have you unplugged any unnecessary peripherals and attempted to swap mice and/or keyboard?

I have a regular 3600 with the same motherboard (assuming we're both using the WIFI-less model), similar ram (2 x16 TridentZ RGB 3600 CL16) and a Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500gb (so also nvme ssd boot drive), and SVM works just fine.  I'm using BIOS version 2812 according to CPU-Z, and I'm running Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview version 10.021301 (build 21301), so it's possible rolling back to this BIOS version might help.  Some BIOS updates can't be rolled back, but it looks like the last one for the Tuf Gaming X570-Plus that doesn't allow rolling back is version 1404, so it appears to be possible*.  I'm in the middle of a 5TB directory comparison, so I can't check my BIOS settings at the moment, but when I'm done, I'll gladly share my settings with the hopes it might help.

As to why this happens?  It could be faulty hardware, as you mentioned, but it could also be a hardware incompatibility based on the BIOS revision or with Windows 10 (assuming Ubuntu boots).  Hell, it could even be an errant ram stick or your boot drive.  Those are unlikely, but I've seen strange behaviors in the past, both on my own and on other's systems.

*If you're using any Hardware RAID features, make sure the data is backed up, since I noticed some of the BIOS updates have updated hardware RAID features.  It's possible rolling back and/or updating the BIOS could bork it.  And technically, rolling back or updating any BIOS has the chance to brick, which I'm sure you know, but just putting it out there, in case someone reads this in the future.

[Heretiiik]

On 2/13/2021 at 4:24 PM, metaleggman said:

Do you have a usb stick you could install an ubuntu image to, and see if it boots successfully to that with SVM enabled?  If not, or if Ubuntu also won't boot, apparently some users with this issue appear to have success by disabling IOMMU or disabling secureboot.  It's a slim shot, but try disabling any CPU or memory overclocks in BIOS as well.  Have you unplugged any unnecessary peripherals and attempted to swap mice and/or keyboard?

I have a regular 3600 with the same motherboard (assuming we're both using the WIFI-less model), similar ram (2 x16 TridentZ RGB 3600 CL16) and a Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500gb (so also nvme ssd boot drive), and SVM works just fine.  I'm using BIOS version 2812 according to CPU-Z, and I'm running Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview version 10.021301 (build 21301), so it's possible rolling back to this BIOS version might help.  Some BIOS updates can't be rolled back, but it looks like the last one for the Tuf Gaming X570-Plus that doesn't allow rolling back is version 1404, so it appears to be possible*.  I'm in the middle of a 5TB directory comparison, so I can't check my BIOS settings at the moment, but when I'm done, I'll gladly share my settings with the hopes it might help.

As to why this happens?  It could be faulty hardware, as you mentioned, but it could also be a hardware incompatibility based on the BIOS revision or with Windows 10 (assuming Ubuntu boots).  Hell, it could even be an errant ram stick or your boot drive.  Those are unlikely, but I've seen strange behaviors in the past, both on my own and on other's systems.

*If you're using any Hardware RAID features, make sure the data is backed up, since I noticed some of the BIOS updates have updated hardware RAID features.  It's possible rolling back and/or updating the BIOS could bork it.  And technically, rolling back or updating any BIOS has the chance to brick, which I'm sure you know, but just putting it out there, in case someone reads this in the future.

I tried booting from an USB, but to no avail. The system locked right after POSTing, so I couldn't choose boot device, removing windows boot drive and changing boot order to boot from external device first yield the same result.

HOWEVER, that tip with disabling IOMMU seems to work. After disabling that and enabling SVM, it managed to finally boot correctly and virtualization worked. And then I got BSOD after an hour while setting up virtual guests, but it only happen once, and I blame a dying HDD. 

I'm confident now, that it will work properly now.
Thank you, metaleggman

[metaleggman]

1 minute ago, Heretiiik said:

I tried booting from an USB, but to no avail. The system locked right after POSTing, so I couldn't choose boot device, removing windows boot drive and changing boot order to boot from external device first yield the same result.

HOWEVER, that tip with disabling IOMMU seems to work. After disabling that and enabling SVM, it managed to finally boot correctly and virtualization worked. And then I got BSOD after an hour while setting up virtual guests, but it only happen once, and I blame a dying HDD. 

I'm confident now, that it will work properly now.
Thank you, metaleggman

I hope it keeps working for you!  Good luck