Enlighten me about UEFI, GPT, and CSM=disabled?

It's been MANY years now and I still can not use GPT and UEFI without all sorts of nasty problems, broken things, and annoyances. I would like to though, because I can not use Resize BAR, etc. without disabling CSM. If I do though, here are just a few of the glaring problems it causes:

edit removed fixed stuff:
3. When installing Windows, it is stuck in 800x600 resolution (from BIOS to desktop) until the graphics drivers are installed. That is too small to even use half of the dialogs, "OK", "Next", etc. are off screen. I like to get a good ways into install and make a "clean/minimal" backup image before I install drivers.

May I make a suggestion? As you feel UEFI/GPT doesn't work on your PC, which appears to presently have more than one disk, why not try this?

Find a spare disk. Disconnect all existing disks. Clean install Win 10 on your spare disk by way of a demonstration/experiment.

Then see which of the above problems you have.

If you succeed in creating a UEFI/GPT installation, and have no issues, you know your BIOS/UEFI is correctly configured.
You then know all your issues relate to your current installation- whatever its history may be (not given, no screenshots of partitions on your disks...). And despite the forum prompt for build number you received, all I can see is it seems to be a dual boot of LTSC (build?) and Linux.

You won't be happy with this response as I'm not going to endeavour to directly address your apparently multiple problems.

Good luck.

Thanks.

When you clean install Win 10 you install it to unallocated space. It creates its own partitions.

You do not need to create partitions for it.

Please review this carefully:
Clean Install Windows 10

- blue text is typically a clickable link...

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I don't think I've seen a case where it's not been possible to disable hibernation, fast startup.

I want nothing to do with a "fake" boot speed increase.

I think you're confusing fast startup (a Windows feature) with a BIOS/UEFI feature.

Fast Startup is designed primarily for HDD's to make a cold boot a lot faster. It uses hiberfil.sys.
I tried it with my SSD - it reduced the time to lock screen from around 8-9s to about 5s.
There's nothing 'fake' about it - however on some systems it can cause probems.

I like to get a good ways into install and make a "clean/minimal" backup image before I install drivers.

Normally it's possible to clean install Windows even if you don't have access to the internet (i.e. no updates, no driver downloads).

Quexos said:

Thanks for that, and my forum info is not currently accurate/relevant. I did basically what you just said. What I did, just yesterday was, take my NVME 512 GB (all other drives removed, out of equation) and manually formatted it to GPT (details below), then installed Windows 10 21H2 and had all the issues mentioned above and more I probably forgot or did not discover yet. I mean everything works alright, but hibernation is forced? Is that just normal with UEFI/GPT? I'm pretty sure I have a "fast boot" setting in the UFFI that is disabled. CSM was disabled or else I can not enable Resize Bar, which is what I am trying to test out, see if it is worth the trouble. I am not looking for detailed help with any specific problem, just general info on which things normally change when going CSM=disabled, or if there are ways to work around them that I am unaware of.

This was on:
B450 mainboard, with Ryzen 5 2600, new Radeon RX 6600, 512GB NVME drive, 1920x1080@144Hz monitor via display port.

Code:

clean
convert gpt

-Create the EFI partition
create partition efi size=100
format fs=fat32 quick label="System"

-Create the MSR partition 
create partition msr size=16

-Create the Windows partition
create partition primary size=483782
format fs=ntfs quick label="WIN10"
assign letter="W"

-Create recovery partition
create partition primary size=450
format fs=ntfs quick label="WinRE"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"

Fast Boot (Bios feature which applies to hardware and irrelevant what OS)has nothing to do with Fast Startup (feature of windows).

I have, like @dalchina, never heard of case where hibernation cannot be disabled. Sounds to me like you have a corrupt hibernation file or OS is corrupted.

None of these issues are related to UEFI.

This might be of interest:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...a-8614af8b9c78

Hibernation uses a hidden file- hiberfil.sys

That file does not exist if hibernation is disabled - so you can easily check with file explorer, ensuring you have hidden and operating system files checked as not hidden in Folder Options, View

It seems you're unwilling to let Windows install conventionally even on a test drive to see if some of the problems you experience still remain or not, so I'll simply wish you good luck.

Quexos said:

I figured that about the "fast boot" setting, but was not sure. Thought the BIOS one may disable the Windows one.
The hibernation thing, I could not tell you if hibernation is actually enabled or not, or even how to "hibernate" it if I wanted to. Looking at my system > storage > under System and Reserved though, it shows a 7GB hibernation file that I presume is being used to "speed up boot", and I do NOT trust that. When I shut down, I want it all the way down, and I want my 7 GB back!

In the power options, there are no options for hibernation or fast boot like there usually is. Maybe hibernation is already disabled and the "hibernation file" in storage is some other GPT/UEFI feature/thingy I am unaware of? Either way, I don't like it. Makes my footprint go from the usual 12 GB to 22 GB before I even get my programs and drivers installed....which is also going to make my backup images huge.

Dalchina, thanks, but I already know about how to install/partition/convert mbr/gpt, etc. Also, the reason I manually partition, is because Windows is f'n stupid and will split boot files onto other storage drives and the like. It's more about what happens after all that. Still not sure why running UEFI with no CSM makes my resolution 800x600 though. That happened with both my old GTX 1660 Super, and new Radeon RX 6600. Makes it tough to even install Windows. It's like trying to browse a 1080p res web page on your old postage stamp screen flip phone.

Sometimes if the hibernation file is corrupted, it does not get deleted when not needed.

Boot from a winpe command prompt and see if you can delete it.

@Quexos, you have a very good hardware and Win 10 should be installed as UEFI-GPT and not Legacy-MBR as yours is.

I guess Windows is installed on the NVMe and that the SSD is for data only. Do you have a drive image backup?

If you do have a drive image backup you can make an UEFI-GPT Win 10 install on the NVMe, boot from the rescue drive, delete the Windows partition and then restore the C: partition from the backup image to the NVMe .

To clean install Win 10
Reset BIOS or load defaults.
Set Disk mode to AHCI, not RAID
Select OS mode = UEFI
Disable fast boot and secure boot (you can turn it on after installation)

Windows can be installed in two ways: Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT
To install as Legacy-MBR you must boot the installation drive as Legacy
To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

If you have a UEFI BIOS, you should install as UEFI-GPT
Detach any other drives (SATA or Power cable) from the MB. Very important.

Insert the Win 10 USB installation drive on a USB slot and boot the computer.
During POST, press F12(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name) to install as UEFI-GPT.
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the main drive till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.
If you don't want to use MS account, don't enable updates or connect to the internet during installation.