Windows 8 Weird Windows 8.1 Pro x64 w/Media Center x64 U.E.F.I. problem

brkkab

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Mar 4, 2013
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North Hills, California U.S.A.
My Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 mobo's U.E.F.I. version 2005 (current version) states Secure Boot is enabled. Msinfo32 state's it isn't in Windows 8.1 Pro w/Media Center x64. All software, driver's and U.E.F.I. are up to date. Any idea's on how to fix this ? This is after a clean install of 8 Pro w/Media Center x64 and upgrade to 8.1 Pro w/Media Center x64, this past Tuesday. All other issue's I had with 8.1 before have disappeared. Nothing crashes anymore now and System Image worked perfectly. System Reserved Partition states it's 100 mbs.
 
If you run the command "Confirm-SecureBootUEFI" on a PowerShell prompt executed as Administrator, what do you get? If it says not supported it is possible that your BIOS may need a fix, there were a few BIOS's out there with issues in 8.1, but some manufacturers were able to fix it. Not sure that's the problem in this case though.

If you see anywhere in your BIOS to generate or re-generate a Platform Key you may give that a shot (at your own risk) as well.
 
Figured out how to use PowerShell. Here's a screenshot of what I got. The U.E.F.I. version is the most current version for my mobo.2005. I never had any Secure Boot issue's in Windows 8 before.
 

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Try running msinfo32.exe and check the Secure Boot State and BIOS Mode to see what they indicate.

Do you have any add in video cards?

Any Bios updates for the board? Since you indicate you have used Secure Boot successfully, then we will have to assume your bios is capable and you know how to set it up.

This is the command in Power Shell when it completes normally.

PS C:\Windows\system32> confirm-SecureBootUEFI
True
 
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If you video card is not capable it will not allow Windows 8 Secure Boot. I have two GTX 680s and I had to get a firmware update for each of them to allow the secure boot.

But msconfig.exe seems to have some specific descriptions it uses and can help identify a problem. If the Bios states it is Legacy, you are not using UEFI so the Secure Boot will show as unsupported. If the Bios shows as UEFI, then you may see the Secure Boot State as Enabled or On or maybe even not supported if the board is UEFI but not Secure Boot capable. Different boards my have different designations, I suppose.
 
If all you did was upgrade to 8.1 and Secure Boot stopped working, it may be a BIOS issue believe it or not. There are multiple motherboards out there that after updating to 8.1 needed a BIOS update to solve the issue. I'm guessing since PowerShell returned platform not supported this just may be the case.
 
I'm guessing since PowerShell returned platform not supported this just may be the case.
Did Power Shell actually say Secure Boot was not supported, or the Power Shell cmdlet was not supported. I do not know why brkkab would be missing a cmdlet since my system has it.

When I try to run the command on a non-SecureBoot system, even though it is UEFI, I get a "variable is currently undefined" response in Powershell. Maybe just different responses to the same basic situation?

@brkkab, to really enable the Windows 8 Secure Boot, you have to disable the CSM. Enabling Secure Boot, may only enable UEFI bootable devices. My ASUS motherboard, which is not Secure Boot capable, did at one time have the option, but it was removed in a later bios update.
 
Read my PowerShell zip that's above. Power Shell cmdlet was not supported. UEFI is most current version for my mobo. Maybe it's my GeForce GTX 760, but I don't understand why. UEFI was updated last month same weeks as 8.1 came out. SecureBoot was working in 8 and 8.1 then. Had to try a fresh install of 8.1, as it was freezing up constantly. Now the only issue I have is the SecureBoot issue.
 
Your video card is newer than mine, so possibly they have started using the UEFI firmware in all the cards. But on my EVGA card, the situation was discussed in the forums, however, I do not see anything on the description of their GTX 760s that mentions Windows 8 or Secure boot.

You motherboard states it is Windows 8 Ready, so it should be able to do Secure Boot in Windows 8. 1. I am currently on a Clean 8.1 install using Secure Boot. Msinfo32 says Bios Mode is UEFI and Secure Boot State is On. I cannot think of a reason your system would have changed the Secure Boot condition because of an update to 8.1 or the fresh install. Perhaps the situation of it freezing up may be related to the situation. My system reboot and reconfigure the bios if something isn't correct for Secure Boot.

If you wanted to see if Secure Boot was enabled, booting to a Windows 7 DVD should result in your being kicked out after the 4 color logo comes together. If it continues past that, it is not Secure boot.
 
I think the problem boil's down to how I had to do the most recent clean install after 8.1 was on my pc. If I booted from my Windows 8 dvd to do a clean install. 8 wouldn't accept my good product key, which Microsoft's Online Chat technician verified as good. I had to install 7 Pro, then 8 Pro, run Windows Update, until 8.1 appesred in the store. I also, updated the pre-installed store app's and then installed 8.1. My 8 key worked in the 8 Pro upgrade from 7 and I told 8 to keep nothing from 7. as I only had my ssd plugged in, not my 3 tb. h.d. that has my files on it. I then updated 8.1, installed driber's and software and updated it. After each driver, I restarted my pc.After the original 8 to 8.1 upgrade, the Photo's app would crash, Outlook 2010 would crash, etc. Microsoft's Online Chat took control of my pc for 2 1/2 hour's and couldn't solve the crashing or freezeup issue's. That's why I did the clean install. 8 excepted my product key during 7 Pro to 8 Pro upgrade. Kind of sound's like a M.S. bug on why it won't accept your 8 key for a clean 8 install, after the 8.1 upgrade was done.
 
There is really no way I can determine if the process you describe is responsible for the problems. I know Windows 8 likes to put extra partitions on the drive, so upgrading from Windows 7, unless you remove the prior partitions during the install, you will have the Windows 7 partitions. This is really only a problem if you wanted to have the recovery system in another partition in case the OS partition becomes corrupted.

The reason it probably will not accept the Windows 8 key is that most of those keys are upgrade versions. If there is no prior OS on the System, it cannot be seen by the installer and reject the upgrade key. You can boot up to the Partitions dialog and remove the other partitions. Then the drive will be clean and the system will be able to use the Upgrade key. I installed my UEFI version on one system, with the Vista Legacy (MBR) drive present, and no OS was required to be on the install drive.

Some drivers, such as Bluetooth seem to cause problems with the 8.1 upgrade. If you have any devices you can turn off in the bios, it might help.

Did you check the Secure Boot settings with Windows 7? But I suppose you installed Windows 7 in UEFI mode, it would have not booted if you had Secure Boot enabled.

Are you running the 3 TB drive as GPT and are able to use all of it?

You have not put your User Profile files on the other drive, have you?
 
The product key worked with previous clean installs of 8 on this pc. Matter of fact, it worked the Tuesday 9 days before 8.1 became available in Windows Store, as I had to do a clean install, because I switched from a OCZ Vertex 3 120gb. Max IOPs ssd to my current Samsung 840 Pro 256gb. ssd. Then the original Windows 8.1 upgrade screwed my pc up, as mentioned above. Now my 8 product key no longer work's for clean install's. It did work on numerous 8 clean install's before. These are definite issue's of 8.1. When I purchased the 7 to 8 upgrade, I also purchased the 8 Pro dvd. When I got it on November 9, 2012, I clean installed 8. I found out the hard way, in the past, you don't do upgrade install's from o.s. to newer o.s It cause's too many headache's 9problems).
 
My 3 tb. drive works fine as is and was unplugged until after 8.1 was on my pc. Then I pointed my 8.1 usr account to my contacts, documents, downloads, links, music, pictures, saved games, searches and videos folders on the 3tb. hard drive. I also opened up W.M.C. and switched it to put my Recorded TV their, too. This was all done after 8.1 Pro w/M.C. x64 was on my pc.
 
**SOLVED*** I came across a link to download the original Windows 8 or 8.1. I downloaded the 8 Pro and it made a bootable flash drive. This time my 8 Pro key worked, thus SecureBoot work's again and it still work's after the 8.1 Pro w/M.C. upgrade. The only thing in 8.1 that doesn't work right is the System Image. I've heard of other's having issue's with it. That's okay, next month, I'll rejoin Carbonite and let it handle my system images on my usb 3.0 external h.d.
 
The System Image situation is why I did a "clean" 8.1 install. The Winre.wim file is the normal 220 MB and does not need extra space. Otherwise, in many cases, you have to create a new partition for the recovery files, make the current recovery partition larger, or use a third party imaging utility.

Glad you got it working.
 
Yeah, I'm glad the ordeal is over. Now, I just need to get another flash drive. I'm keeping the flash drive w/8 Pro on it for future clean installs. It's nice how some Microsoft idiot made it, that after 8.1 is installed, you can't use your Windows 8 dvd you got from Microsoft to do a clean install. Before anyone chimes in saying they're upgrade disk's. They're not, Microsoft did away with that, when 8 came out. Windows 7 and prior were upgrade disk's.
 
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