Super Weird Boot Behavior on new Z690 Board

[Lunar Evolution]

So I just bought a i5-12600K and an MSI Pro Z690 and I am having some strange issues. After Installing everything, I was unable to get the my GPU (GTX 1080) or motherboard to display anything through either HDMI or DisplayPort, and the motherboard was showing a boot problem on it LED debugger. So, I reset the CMOS and removed the graphics card and M.2 boot drive and rebooted. I was able to get into the BIOS, where upon I reinstalled my boot drive and was still able to enter the BIOS. So progress.

Unfortunately, this is where progress stopped. I couldn't get past the BIOS and actually reach the Windows login screen. I read a lot of people suggesting I change the boot mode from UEFI to CSM, which seemed like a popular solution although I don't recall ever using CSM before. Nonetheless, I tried to no avail. I booted back into the BIOS where I was greeted with a message about CSM being unsupported and was automatically switched back to UEFI.

I then read elsewhere that I needed to change to CSM, power down, install my graphics card, and reboot for it to work. Having tried that, I was back where I started with no display whatsoever with the card installed in the board. 

And this is where the trail went cold. I'm not quite experience enough to know what the next step here is. I can't see why the whole system just displays nothing with the graphics card in but at least gets to the BIOS with it out. The boot LED problem light is still on, despite my boot drive being detected. I'm not even sure if the display issues with my GPU are related to the boot issues (perhaps somehow CSM is in fact the answer and is causing both issues) or wether they are separate issues. Any expertise, insight, advice, or speculation is greatly appreciated.

 

Edit: It might be worth noting that a lot of people I've seen having similar problems can't reach the BIOS with their GPU installed, but can skip it and still boot Windows. So perhaps issues are in fact separate. This forum post has people sharing similar problems.

[OhioYJ]

So just for clarification, you are trying to boot your old Windows (10?) install on your new build? 

[Lunar Evolution]

2 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

So just for clarification, you are trying to boot your old Windows (10?) install on your new build? 

Yes this is correct. 

[OhioYJ]

5 minutes ago, Lunar Evolution said:

Yes this is correct. 

What was your old build? Generally this is not recommended. New build = New install. This is the best way to avoid problems. 

 

As a quick test if you have access to another PC I would create a bootable Linux flash drive. One that supports UEFI and secure boot such as Mint or Ubuntu. Boot the USB and see if it boots? If it does, that tells your boot drive it's the issue (well your old install).

 

While you could likely get it patched back together and running again, a fresh install really would ensure you don't run into anymore problems going forward. At least this is my initial reaction / guess.

[Lunar Evolution]

4 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

What was your old build? Generally this is not recommended. New build = New install. This is the best way to avoid problems. 

 

As a quick test if you have access to another PC I would create a bootable Linux flash drive. One that supports UEFI and secure boot such as Mint or Ubuntu. Boot the USB and see if it boots? If it does, that tells your boot drive it's the issue (well your old install).

 

While you could likely get it patched back together and running again, a fresh install really would ensure you don't run into anymore problems going forward. At least this is my initial reaction / guess.

It was the 9th gen Intel i5 with an Aorus Ultra motherboard. But before that I was using the same install as I am now on an i7-3770k which started out on Windows 7 before Windows 10 even came around. 

Also, one other thing I've noticed is that while it detects my drive in the BIOS, it doesn't provide it as a boot option when I press F11 during boot up. Not sure if that is useful information or to be expected given the problem though

[OhioYJ]

3 minutes ago, Lunar Evolution said:

It was the 9th gen Intel i5 with an Aorus Ultra motherboard. But before that I was using the same install as I am now on an i7-3770k which started out on Windows 7 before Windows 10 even came around. 

Also, one other thing I've noticed is that while it detects my drive in the BIOS, it doesn't provide it as a boot option when I press F11 during boot up. Not sure if that is useful information or to be expected given the problem though

 

I'm guessing your board was setup in legacy mode originally when installed which at the time was most compatible. I know now on my Z690 board I've just gone ahead and enabled secure boot and all. It's really not that big of a deal even with my Linux install, and in Windows 11 I don't need any work arounds.

 

That is why I am thinking it will see the Linux USB as bootable. Linux would also let you move important files from your Windows drive to another drive so you could wipe it and reinstall. It likely needs formatted / partitioned as well to work correctly. 

[Lunar Evolution]

4 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

 

I'm guessing your board was setup in legacy mode originally when installed which at the time was most compatible. I know now on my Z690 board I've just gone ahead and enabled secure boot and all. It's really not that big of a deal even with my Linux install, and in Windows 11 I don't need any work arounds.

 

That is why I am thinking it will see the Linux USB as bootable. Linux would also let you move important files from your Windows drive to another drive so you could wipe it and reinstall. It likely needs formatted / partitioned as well to work correctly. 

Unfortunately I have really no familiarity with Linux. I'm sure I could figure it out given enough time but I'm not sure that will be the easiest way for me to go about solving the problem. Would it work to use the Windows Media Creation tool on a flash drive and boot to that to then make a fresh install on my boot drive?

[OhioYJ]

6 minutes ago, Lunar Evolution said:

Unfortunately I have really no familiarity with Linux. I'm sure I could figure it out given enough time but I'm not sure that will be the easiest way for me to go about solving the problem. Would it work to use the Windows Media Creation tool on a flash drive and boot to that to then make a fresh install on my boot drive?

I mainly suggested Linux to test and to get any important data off of your existing drive. The media creation tool won't work in Linux as that is a Windows program. However you can download the Windows ISO then use unetbootin which does have a Linux version. Etcher is another one people use for ISOs but Ive had issues with it and Windows images. If you have access to another PC to create a Linux USB, you might just create a Windows flash drive on that same PC too while you're at it. So you don't complicate things. (That way you can stick to what you are comfortable with)

[Lunar Evolution]

7 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

I mainly suggested Linux to test and to get any important data off of your existing drive. The media creation tool won't work in Linux as that is a Windows program. However you can download the Windows ISO then use unetbootin which does have a Linux version. Etcher is another one people use for ISOs but Ive had issues with it and Windows images. If you have access to another PC to create a Linux USB, you might just create a Windows flash drive on that same PC too while you're at it. So you don't complicate things. (That way you can stick to what you are comfortable with)

Yeah currently I don't have access to another Windows machine but I might be able to get my friend to help me out with that. To be honest the computer is really only used for gaming and pretty much everything relevant is in the Steam cloud, plus I just upgraded hard drives recently and never wiped the old one so it has most of the data on there still. All that to say, I'd gladly just wipe the whole thing and reinstall Windows 10 if that would be the easiest fix.