can't enter bios menu after system image restore

shmu26 · 07 Mar 2016

I have an Asus UEFI mobo on my custom-built desktop, a few months old.
B150M-K D3
It has American Megatrends firmware

Today I restored my system from a macrium reflect system image. I went back only 2-3 hours in time.
After rebooting, windows started up fine.
But the bios reverted to its default settings, although I had previously tweaked it a bit.
What's more, I can't get to the bios menu at all. I mash the delete key at startup, and I just see a blank screen. Even an hour later, just a blank screen.

This happened to me not so long ago, but that time, the bios screen did eventually appear, and with a little patience I was able to tweak the bios again. But this time it is more stubborn.

I also feel that the boot process is slow. I see the asus advert, and it coughs a couple times and drags on until I get to the windows boot menu where I choose if I want windows 10 or macrium reflect recovery environment.

I very often restore from a system image, and every time, it makes a new bios boot entry. I have dozens of boot entries by now in the bios boot menu. Maybe that's causing a problem?

edit: the fan is unusually loud, although cpu usage is low, just 0-2 %

NavyLCDR · 07 Mar 2016

Try holding down shift key when clicking Restart from the power icon. Go through the advance troubleshooting menu until you get the option to change UEFI bios settins (or something like that). Click that and it is supposed to restart into bios without you pressing any keys.

shmu26 · 07 Mar 2016

NavyLCDR said:

Try holding down shift key when clicking Restart from the power icon. Go through the advance troubleshooting menu until you get the option to change UEFI bios settins (or something like that). Click that and it is supposed to restart into bios without you pressing any keys.

right. I tried that, but I still get the same blank screen staring at me.

NavyLCDR · 07 Mar 2016

You can also try holding down shift key when you click Shutdown from the power icon. That will override Windows 10 fast startup procedure. After the computer shuts down either remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard or short the pins for CMOS reset on the motherboard. Then restart and try to get into bios.

shmu26 · 07 Mar 2016

NavyLCDR said:

You can also try holding down shift key when you click Shutdown from the power icon. That will override Windows 10 fast startup procedure. After the computer shuts down either remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard or short the pins for CMOS reset on the motherboard. Then restart and try to get into bios.

last time this happened, I tried the battery trick, but it didn't improve the situation. It still took forever to get to the bios screen.

NavyLCDR · 07 Mar 2016

Sounds like you have a motherboard/bios hardware problem not related to Windows 10. If/when you can get into bios, I would reflash it.

There should be a way to make a bios flash USB drive. I would do that. Then disconnect all the hard drives/SSDs from the motherboard and boot it with the bios flash USB drive inserted. ASUS should have instructions for that on their website.

shmu26 · 07 Mar 2016

NavyLCDR said:

Sounds like you have a motherboard/bios hardware problem not related to Windows 10. If/when you can get into bios, I would reflash it.

There should be a way to make a bios flash USB drive. I would do that. Then disconnect all the hard drives/SSDs from the motherboard and boot it with the bios flash USB drive inserted. ASUS should have instructions for that on their website.

sounds like a plan. Instructions say: Download the latest BIOS file and BIOS Updater from ASUS website and save them on the USB flash drive.
Okay, I got the bios file, but I can't find the bios updater. I see a utility called ASUS Boot Setting V1.00.22 for Windows win8.1 64bit&win10 64bit.
Do you think that's it?

NavyLCDR · 07 Mar 2016

This might provide more detailed instructions:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/..._Update_en.pdf

This file says it contains the EZ Update Utility:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mis..._D3_V10125.zip

ASUS AI Suite 3 V1.01.25 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit& Win10 64bit.
EZ Update V2.01.28 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit& Win10 64bit.
Performance and Power Saving Utilities V1.02.69 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit& Win10 64bit.
System Information V1.00.22 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit& Win10 64bit.
USB 3 Boost V1.10.0 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit& Win10 64bit.
Push Notice V1.01.06 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit& Win10 64bit.
Mobo Connect 1.00.17 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit & Win10 64bit.
LED_Control V1.00.03 for Windows Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit & Win8.1 64bit & Win10 64bit.

shmu26 · 07 Mar 2016

NavyLCDR said:

This might provide more detailed instructions:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/..._Update_en.pdf

This file says it contains the EZ Update Utility:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mis..._D3_V10125.zip

the ALSuite you linked to does indeed have such a utility, but it works from desktop, not from flash drive. I looks to me like they don't have a bootable flash drive utility for my mobo.

NavyLCDR · 07 Mar 2016

shmu26 said:

the ALSuite you linked to does indeed have such a utility, but it works from desktop, not from flash drive. I looks to me like they don't have a bootable flash drive utility for my mobo.

Then I guess the best you can hope for is to reflash the BIOS from Windows.