Gigabyte X299-UD4 Pro cannot access BIOS after activating Secure Boot to upgrade to Win 11
Hi – thanks for being here.
I have spent all yesterday and all today trying to upgrade my Win 10 PC to Win 11. I took a clone of my Win 11 PC (Gigabyte X299-UD4 Pro i9 7900X 64 GB RAM – both PC’s are exactly the same.) I am not sure what version of Win 11, but I did all the updates this morning (again – 2025/04/26- 24H2).
I cloned the SSD (250GB) from the working PC and booted up the working PC using this HDD. I then tried to boot the new PC with the cloned HDD. I totally forgot about the bios and then went to the BIOS and enabled Secure Boot.
WAM it would not boot. I took everything off and still would not boot.
Not good with PC’s. Can a nice person help??
Thank you.
Dan from a mining town in the remote Outback. I am telling you because I more PC knowledge than most in the town and there are NO PC shops.
Hi, turn off and unplug your PC, pull out the battery on the motherboard for a few minutes.
Replace the battery, plug PC back in, boot and try entering the BIOS.
This should clear the CMOS and hopefully reset your BIOS to defaults.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
Memory
32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
Sound Card
Onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
5 x LG 25MS500-B - 1 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
Screen Resolution
All over the place
Hard Drives
Too many to list.
OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
PSU
Silverstone 1500
Case
NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
If Dan is unsure about this stuff, ask Dan if he knows what the exact Motherboard is, if not, take a photo of the battery so we can link him to a video to remove it? Maybe.
I am asking because there may be a “Reset CMOS” button on the board which might be easier.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
Memory
32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
Sound Card
Onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
5 x LG 25MS500-B - 1 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
Screen Resolution
All over the place
Hard Drives
Too many to list.
OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
PSU
Silverstone 1500
Case
NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
Memory
32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
Sound Card
Onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
5 x LG 25MS500-B - 1 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
Screen Resolution
All over the place
Hard Drives
Too many to list.
OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
PSU
Silverstone 1500
Case
NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
To reset the CMOS on a Gigabyte X299-UD4 motherboard, you'll typically need to use a screwdriver to connect the two pins. Or use a Phillips head screwdriver like the guy does in the video.
The screwdriver (flathead) needs to touch both pins at the same time for about 15 seconds.
Or remove and reinsert the CMOS battery, for at least a minute.
Remember to unplug the PC first.
After doing so, hold down the Power Button on the CASE for about 30 seconds to drain any residual power.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
Memory
32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
Sound Card
Onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
5 x LG 25MS500-B - 1 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
Screen Resolution
All over the place
Hard Drives
Too many to list.
OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
PSU
Silverstone 1500
Case
NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
Memory
32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
Sound Card
Onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
5 x LG 25MS500-B - 1 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
Screen Resolution
All over the place
Hard Drives
Too many to list.
OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
PSU
Silverstone 1500
Case
NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
After resetting the BIOS (Clearing the CMOS) there should be no more steps less logging into Windows.
The PC might ask you to enter the BIOS but should only happen on first boot.
Unless you had made changes originally in the BIOS (Less secure boot) you can go back in and make the changes again, bit don’t activate the secure boot.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
Memory
32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
Sound Card
Onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
5 x LG 25MS500-B - 1 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
Screen Resolution
All over the place
Hard Drives
Too many to list.
OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
PSU
Silverstone 1500
Case
NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
Memory
32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
Graphics Card(s)
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
Sound Card
Onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
5 x LG 25MS500-B - 1 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
Screen Resolution
All over the place
Hard Drives
Too many to list.
OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
PSU
Silverstone 1500
Case
NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
Simply disconnecting the drive(s) should enable you to access the BIOS.
Alternatively, if you boot from a Windows 10/11 USB you can access the Windows Recovery Environment and go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings.
I took the battery out and put it back this morning. I put the power cord back in and held the power button down for a long time. I unplugged the HDD’s.
Are you discounting that maybe something in the hardware is actually broken? If you've cleared the BIOS by the methods already described and still can't get into the BIOS, I'd start thinking real hardware issues or the BIOS FLASH somehow got corrupted.
If all else fails, consider trying the Q-Flash utility to try to load a new copy of the BIOS.
