Secure boot

Tom&Jerry

Tom&Jerry

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Alright so I just got a new PC and its great, but it sometimes just shuts off when playing some games.
After checking the event viewer i get this error: "The Secure Boot update failed to update a Secure Boot variable with error Secure Boot is not enabled on this machine.. For more information, please see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2169931"
Now I went to BIOS and there is no option for secure boot.
Specs:
Motherboard: H87-G43
Intel I7 4770
16 GB RAM
GTX 1050 TI
Any help?
Thanks in advance
 
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I'm having the exact same issue. I'm searching everywhere for an answer and it's frustrating because I can't find a fix for it. Windows 10 wants to use TPM WMI and it crashes with error 1796 and the board I have, which is an MS 7A54 doesn't have secure boot. How do I get the motherboard and Windows to play nicely?
 
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This might be a tough one. First of all, Secure Boot is an UEFI function. Most boards as old as that probably won't have the BIOS default to UEFI mode yet, because Windows 7 was still depending on the "old-school" CSM/Legacy mode for the BIOS. Only with Win8, that changed. But if the board's BIOS is not in UEFI mode, you can't enable Secure Boot.

Now, setting the board to UEFI mode has a bunch of consequences. But first of all, i would highly advise to update the BIOS to the latest version. In this transition period in the 2010s, between the old-school BIOS and the modern UEFI mode, there have been lots of lessons learned, so the latest BIOS has the best chance of a smooth experience.

Before doing the update, for the 1050 Ti, check if it needs this firmware update applied in Windows: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/nv-uefi-update-x64/

Then, BIOS update how-to:
1) Get the latest BIOS. It's the topmost one on the MSI support page for your board. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H87-G43/support
2) Extract the file and you will get a text file and the BIOS file. Put the BIOS file into the root folder of a USB stick/drive.
3) Enter the BIOS by pressing DEL during boot, go to "M-FLASH" in the BIOS.
4) Once M-Flash (the updater) is loaded, it will show a list of your drives. Select the USB stick and select the previously extracted BIOS file on there.
5) It will ask for confirmation and then update the BIOS. It's fully automatic from there, takes about two minutes.

dominicfrederic15d902f1 said:
and the board I have, which is an MS 7A54
Click to expand...

For this board, seems to be the X99A TOMAHAWK, the support site would be https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X99A-TOMAHAWK/support


After the update, you need to set all the right settings (which would be something like such). And for Secure Boot, it should be under Settings\Security in advanced view in the BIOS (F7), or just under Security. If Windows doesn't want to boot anymore, you may have to do a quick MBR to GPT conversion for the boot drive as explained here.
 
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citay said:
This might be a tough one. First of all, Secure Boot is an UEFI function. Most boards as old as that probably won't have the BIOS default to UEFI mode yet, because Windows 7 was still depending on the "old-school" CSM/Legacy mode for the BIOS. Only with Win8, that changed. But if the board's BIOS is not in UEFI mode, you can't enable Secure Boot.

Now, setting the board to UEFI mode has a bunch of consequences. But first of all, i would highly advise to update the BIOS to the latest version. In this transition period in the 2010s, between the old-school BIOS and the modern UEFI mode, there have been lots of lessons learned, so the latest BIOS has the best chance of a smooth experience.

Before doing the update, for the 1050 Ti, check if it needs this firmware update applied in Windows: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/nv-uefi-update-x64/

Then, BIOS update how-to:
1) Get the latest BIOS. It's the topmost one on the MSI support page for your board. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/H87-G43/support
2) Extract the file and you will get a text file and the BIOS file. Put the BIOS file into the root folder of a USB stick/drive.
3) Enter the BIOS by pressing DEL during boot, go to "M-FLASH" in the BIOS.
4) Once M-Flash (the updater) is loaded, it will show a list of your drives. Select the USB stick and select the previously extracted BIOS file on there.
5) It will ask for confirmation and then update the BIOS. It's fully automatic from there, takes about two minutes.



For this board, seems to be the X99A TOMAHAWK, the support site would be https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X99A-TOMAHAWK/support


After the update, you need to set all the right settings (which would be something like such). And for Secure Boot, it should be under Settings\Security in advanced view in the BIOS (F7), or just under Security. If Windows doesn't want to boot anymore, you may have to do a quick MBR to GPT conversion for the boot drive as explained here.
Click to expand...
Hi, thank you for the answer.
So, the GPU doesn't need the firmware update.
Buuut, I'm having issues updating the bios
Photo gallery:

Also one thing I would like to say is, I have actaully found the option for secure boot in the bios settings a few days ago.
And the PC suddenly restarting didn't stop but the error message from the event viewer changed to:

Event ID 41: "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first"​

I thought maybe the PSU is faulty, but it doesn't make sense because the first error message was about secure boot,
I turned secure boot ON and still kept crashing. So I really have no idea what it could be.
 
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Normally you'd choose "Select one file to update BIOS and ME". But that's not the problem here. The problem is, your BIOS version (as listed in the BIOS) is E7816IMT.214, meanwhile the retail board's BIOS update name is E7816IMS.290. But everything before the dot, and the first character after, have to match with your installed BIOS. If you rename the file, even if M-FLASH shows it afterwards, it will probably still not flash it as it realizes it's not matching.

So it seems that this board is from some sort of a pre-built system where they used a custom BIOS. That means, you cannot flash the retail board's latest BIOS directly like that, you need to cross-flash it using the forum Flash tool (either that one or the older tool).
 
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Hello, I wanna thank you for the help. But the issue was in the PSU.
It was just too old and couldn't hold up anymore.
Bought a new PSU and I don't crash anymore.
 
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Oh, so the Secure Boot fault in the event logs was a false lead? What was your old PSU, and what's your new one?

Here i am, always telling people to a) list their PSU when they list their system, and b) always link them my Guide: How to find a good PSU when they have a too old/bad PSU model... this time i just assumed it was about some Secure Boot-related bug. 😅
 
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Yeah, the even viewer error message completely threw me off.
The old PSU was some crappy brand that I never heard of, Codegen 450w.
I saw on reddit that someone said that their PSU's are falsely advertised, and that they should just be removed from the PC.
As a fast fix, I found a used Thermaltake Hamburg 530W for 15 Euros :D
Works great, thankfully.
Interesting error message tho , it literally has nothing to do with the BIOS, or even Secure Boot. But oh well...
 
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Tom&Jerry said:
As a fast fix, I found a used Thermaltake Hamburg 530W for 15 Euros :D
Click to expand...

Urgh. A used Thermaltake Germany-city-series. This is a low-end PSU model that came out in 2011, with three years of warranty. The electrolytic capacitors will be shot by now, having lost most of their filtering and buffering properties, and the baseline performance of this PSU wasn't very good to begin with. And they honestly still wanted money for that? You bought another ticking timebomb, i'm afraid.

If you don't want a repeat of these kinds of issues, and if you don't want to stress your hardware to the maximum, i would sell this thing again (if you find another poor guy willing to spend money on this PSU which should have long been given to electronics recycling), or if you are a good guy, take the loss and remove this PSU from circulation yourself. Then get a more recent, decent PSU that's ranked no lower than Tier C on the PSU Tier List, as i describe in my PSU Guide (Tier C inludes cheaper models too, but none that are a danger for your hardware).

But a low-end PSU from 2011 (thus using low-end capacitor models), there is no way this is still good - even if it just sat in the box all this time - due to calendrical aging of the electrolytic capacitors, also see here.

I mean, if this is your main PC and you want to avoid problems, i would do it like that. Because you said you "just got a new PC". Even this PC, i hope you didn't pay much for, because October next year, Win10 support will end (that's its death sentence), and that is definitely too old for Win11 to officially support it. You can still install Win11 with a trick, bypassing the compatibility checks. But it might've been possible to get at least a used 8th gen system (so, with something like an i5-8600K) for not that much more money, and that would've probably been officially Win11-compatible on the latest BIOS version.

This system you have now, i don't want to be such a downer for you, but you've seen it with your PSU (maybe you want to talk to the original seller of the system about that), you are just waiting for problems to appear, due to the bathtub curve of failures.

Sorry again, but i had to point these things out, so at least you won't be surprised if we talk here again in a couple months... 😅
 
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Oh well, I payed 250 EUR for the PC, and as a student upgrading the PC right after buying it definitely isn't a possibility.
But I do hope to swap out the PSU, for a new one in the near future. I saw some new Bequiet PSU's for around 50-60 EUR.
I noticed that my fps kinda dropped, I'm not sure if its related to the PSU but I get around 40-50 fps less in CS2 now 😭
If I want to upgrade to windows 11 I need to upgrade everything then basically.
 
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250 EUR for that hardware which people know is not Win11-compatible is a bit much. Similar to the 15 EUR PSU which the seller should know is not worth anything after this amount of time. In both cases it would've been better to save up more, with an additional 50-100 EUR you could've built a low-end system with new parts:

AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT for ~110 EUR (has an iGPU which is sufficient for CS2 and games like that)
Cheap-ish AM4 board at ~80 EUR
Cheap 2x 8 GB DDR4-3200~3600 kit at ~30 EUR
be quiet! Pure Power 11 400W at 50-60 EUR
Some cheap/used ATX case with one or two system fans in it, maybe for free from a friend, or up to 40 EUR

What's that in the end, a bit over 300 EUR? That stuff would then probably last up to ten years instead of up to ten months...

Sorry man, again, i don't want to make you feel bad at all, i just want to show you and others what is possible. There is no reason to buy too old hardware if it has to be cheap. It's always better to get lower-end, but new hardware, this will run rings around any old hardware for sure! And of course, don't cheap out too much on the PSU unless you want a timebomb in your system.
 
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With about 250€ what would you upgrade if you were in my position.
I might be able to find a part time job, for a month or two.
 
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PSU of course, this is a must. Then board and CPU (because they always go together).

You can re-use your RAM and GPU then.
Sorry, i made a mistake, add 25-30 EUR for a decent 2x 8 GB DDR4 kit. Your older hardware still used DDR3.
But you can re-use the GPU. Check in Windows before if it needs this firmware update.

Intel upgrade:
be quiet! Pure Power 11 400W: 50-60 EUR
MSI PRO B760-P DDR4 II or B760-P WIFI DDR4: 120-130 EUR
Intel Core i3-12100F boxed: 70-80 EUR

AMD upgrade:
be quiet! Pure Power 11 400W: 50-60 EUR
MSI B550-A Pro: ~100 EUR
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 boxed: ~100 EUR

Or even better, get the tray CPU instead of the boxed CPU (either one) and install this cooler, https://www.arctic.de/en/detail/0557617394e141efb8cdef0bb06d0c92

These are budget components that would still be a huge upgrade over what you have now. Prices are the current ones here in Germany, they might vary.
 
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Of course, you're welcome.

Arctic stuff, directly from Arctic. Their new cooler i linked there is an absolute steal at this intitial price, i bought four of them for different PCs i built or i am yet to build for people. 20 EUR with free shipping, for a dual-fan tower cooler that can comfortably deal with a modern mid-range CPU without making much noise, what's not to like.

The other stuff, Mindfactory tends to have good prices, and if you order between midnight and 6 AM ("Midnight Shopping"), you get free shipping over 150 EUR.

Intel:
Screenshot 2024-09-28 at 19-31-29 Warenkorb Mindfactory.de.png


AMD:
Screenshot 2024-09-28 at 19-34-23 Warenkorb Mindfactory.de.png



Honestly i would prefer the AMD AM4 version here. The CPU is just better. As for why i chose the 600W version of the PSU: They didn't have the 400W one, and the 600W one only costs a couple bucks more there, so why not get that one. Once you have a nice(r) job, you can upgrade to a nicer graphics card and don't have to potentially upgrade the PSU immediately again.
 
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Would you be able to send me the link to that "AMD" version shopping cart, so I can have it saved for later.
And once again I appreciate you very much!!
 
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I also encountered Event ID 1796 in the Windows Event Viewer ("The Secure Boot update failed to update a Secure Boot variable with error Secure Boot is not enabled on this machine. For more information, please see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2169931").

Motherboard: MSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 s-1700 Z690
Installed OS: Fresh Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (OS Build 26100.2454)
All drivers and updates are installed. Secure Boot is enabled in the BIOS.

What could be the cause of this error?
 
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