Understanding and Troubleshooting PC Lock-Ups After Enabling Secure Boot: A Comprehensive Guide
Introduction
Many PC users have encountered stability issues after enabling Secure Boot, a security feature designed to prevent unauthorized operating systems and bootloaders from starting. While Secure Boot enhances security, it can inadvertently introduce system lock-ups, driver conflicts, or compatibility problems. This article aims to assist users experiencing such problems by exploring potential causes and offering practical troubleshooting steps.
Hardware and Configuration Overview
The system in question is built around the following specifications:
– Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair X570
– Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
– Memory: 32GB DDR4-3600MHz (clocks to 3533MHz)
– Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
– Boot Drive: Samsung 990 Pro 1TB NVMe SSD (approximately 180GB free space)
– Additional Storage: 2TB Crucial P3, Samsung 500GB SSD
The operating system installed is Windows 11, with additional drives for gaming and data storage.
Context and Symptoms Post-Secure Boot Activation
The initial trigger for enabling Secure Boot was related to configuring features for a game, notably Battlefield 6 (BF6), which prompted the user to turn on Secure Boot. Prior to this, the system had only enabled fTPM (firmware TPM), which was sufficient for virtual machine provisioning but not Secure Boot.
Following activation:
– The system experienced frequent complete lock-ups, necessitating hard shutdowns via the front panel power button.
– Post-activation, BF6 ran smoothly initially, with no boot issues.
– However, attempts to run other demanding applications like Tarkov resulted in system hangs, unresponsive application windows, and inability to close or restart applications without force shutdowns.
– Graphical overlays and UI elements, including NVIDIA ShadowPlay, became unresponsive and laggy.
– Windows Explorer and other system utilities frequently froze or displayed white placeholder boxes.
– The user reported difficulty in rebooting or shutting down Windows properly, with the system hanging on restart attempts.
Investigation and Troubleshooting Steps
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Research and Community Feedback
Engagement with community forums revealed common issues linked to Secure Boot and fTPM configurations, including potential stutters and stability problems. Although the user did not experience stuttering, similar known issues pointed toward BIOS updates and hardware compatibility. -
BIOS Update
The user updated the motherboard BIOS
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