GA-Z87X-D3H: Reboot into UEFI Firmware from Windows 8.1 doesn't work?

[Maarten88]

After going though significant problems and several retries I was finally able to install Windows 8.1 with full UEFI and get Secure Boot working without warnings on my new GA-Z87X-D3H based pc. Nice!

In that mode, it is normal that you cant access the BIOS by pressing DEL during startup. You have to do Change PC Settings, Update and Recovery, Recovery, Advanced Startup, Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, UEFI Firmware Settings, Reset.
Then it should boot into the firmware settings automatically.

My problem is that this does not work for me. It just reboots and comes up with a normal Windows 8.1 login prompt. I just can't get into the UEFI settings and modify the settings anymore.

Am I doing it wrong? Or something in the bios not working correctly?

[dmdilks]

Clear the cmos and pull the battery. Yes you will have to reset everything after you do that too.

Plus it is up to the person using a OS. But why are you running that piece of junk OS.

I'm a Microsoft partner and I hate running it. Yes I have it install on one of my computers but I only run it when I have too.

One other thing is why do you want secure boot running. Again I don't want Microsoft controlling what I want to do with my computer.

You have to do Change PC Settings, Update and Recovery, Recovery, Advanced Start up, Troubleshoot, Advanced Options

I had to do this on a computer to get it to run in safe mode. What a joke that you have to do all this to get to do anything in dos.

It isn't really anything that you are doing it is again the junk OS you are dealing with. They are coming out with another update to fix more problems.

It will be 8.1.1 I'm reading maybe early April. That it said will fix some hard problems. I can't tell you if it will fix your problems.

[Maarten88]

Thanks for your reply, but it's not very helpful. I simply want to implement a new security feature supported by the OS and Gigabyte motherboard to guard against low level rootkits and malware. I also want my PC to boot very fast. I don't want to hear my OS is junk and I do not need secure boot, I can decide that for myself.

What I need to know is if anyone also got secure boot configured on this motherboard (or a similar board), and how to get into the UEFI settings screen after enabling it. (I know I can always clear the MOS and set up everything from scratch, but that's not how this is supposed to work).

Questions I have:
- Does anyone have this working completely? Or is this possibly broken in the Gigabyte UEFI bios?
- Do I need to press a key at boot? According to instructions I found, this should not be needed, but on MSFT Surface, you need to press vol. up.
- Do I need to install some driver?
- Did I do something wrong during the Windows install? That's possible: at first I installed it with normal BIOS. Then I found it did not use UEFI, changed the partitioning scheme of the disk to GPT and reinstalled Windows from USB stick with UEFI boot. But I left the system partitions on the harddisk that were created earlier intact.

[Maarten88]

I found out what my problem is: the UEFI Bios settings screen does appear, but it appears on the Intel integrated graphics port, instead of the external graphics adapter (AMD Radeon 290, supports UEFI) that my monitor is connected to.

I did try to get it on the external graphics adapter, but couldn't make it work. If I disable integrated graphics in BIOS with secure boot enabled, Windows doesn't boot anymore with the screen staying blank. Selecting a PCIe setting as the primary adapter did not work.

So for now, if I need to change UEFI setting, I first need to connect the monitor to the integrated graphics. Then shift-restart, Troubleshoot, UEFI Settings, and then I get into the settings screen correctly.

[dmdilks]

Put you windows 8 64bit disk in the DVD drive reboot the computer and go into the bios and boot from the UEFI DVD drive. you don't need a USB drive.

It will show DVD drive and a UEFI DVD drive in boot options 1. Plus here is a link about secure boot. If you have latest bios it have the secure boot fix in the bios.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn441535.aspx