ajpadovani Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) I am really at my wits end here. I am hoping someone on here with more experience with UEFI and boot loaders might be able to provide insight into an otherwise inexplicable problem I am having with a brand-new system built around the ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PLUS. My gut tells me the problem is somehow related to UEFI settings, Secure boot, or some combination, but I really have no idea if that is the case. The problem is two-fold. First, my system will only boot to a device (e.g., USB stick) under two conditions: 1) no SATA drive is plugged in or 2) when a specific SSD is plugged in (I'll refer to this as SSD1). I have three other hard drives that otherwise work (I have tested them in another system). None of them have Windows installed, though some do have existing data partitions. One of the three is a brand-new, never-been-used 1TB SSD. If I plug in any of these three other hard drives, the system will reboot immediately after POST. However, if SSD1 is plugged in it will boot to a USB stick - UEFI or Legacy, doesn't matter. Secondly, if I attempt to create a partition, run a surface test, or install an OS to SSD1, the system immediately reboots. I can format SSD1, change volume sizes, run a surface scan, but only in a live linux environment - if I plug SSD1 into another machine as a secondary data drive (i.e., I boot to my primary boot volume), the other machine will blue screen when loading into Windows. If it is attached to this new machine, it will boot to a USB stick just fine. I have also enabled Hot Plug, which allows me to access SATA drives that I plug in after boot. If I hot plug the brand-new 1TB SSD during a live linux distro, the drive shows up and I can see its properties. However, if I try to do something like create a partition or run a surface test, the machine will also immediately reboot. Does anyone have any idea as to what might cause this? The only thing that I can think of that explains both problems is some kind of secure boot-like security feature, but I haven't been able to figure out how to confirm whether that is the case. In 20 years of building computers I have never even heard of anything like this. I am new to EFI systems, however, so I'm quite out of my element - this is the first EFI-based system I've set up. Edited June 29, 2020 by ajpadovani clarity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthpjm Posted July 25, 2020 Share Posted July 25, 2020 (edited) I have the same motherboard and it’s running MacOS Catalina and Windows 10 just fine. I will try to help if I can... Let us start with the basics... 1. You need to describe your complete system more accurately. CPU, RAM, graphics card, and any other peripherals you have attached. 2. Describe the low-level environment a bit better. E. G. What version of Asus’ firmware do you have, and have you altered any of the settings? Typically, when diagnosing these apparently random events, it comes down to something simple and obvious. I would advise that you power off, remove all unnecessary components. Start with just your CPU, RAM, and Graphics Card. Only fit one of your drives. Try that config to see if it is consistent and stable. From your brief description and relying on my years of experience, I would focus on your RAM. The symptoms you describe are often a result of misconfigured or mis-matched RAM. Do you have 1, 2, or 4 RAM sticks? What capacity, clock frequency, maker and model are they? If you have more than one stick, are they all the same? RAM should be fitted in pairs if you have more than 1 stick, and the sockets you use should be the same colour (my board has 2 black and 2 grey sockets). Have you fitted them properly? The next most likely issue is a badly fitted CPU and maybe badly fitted cooling. I don’t know your background, I don’t mean to offend please take my comments in a helpful light. You might be very experienced building PCs and know exactly what you’re doing, or you could be at the other end of the spectrum with this being your first build. I’m going to reign-back to stop this post becoming a “text wall”. If you can shed some light on my questions above then I think I can make some suggestions to move forward... Edited July 25, 2020 by rthpjm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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