Enabling UEFI boot on Sandy Bridge HM65_Asus N73SV

Wenko · June 27, 2024, 8:44pm

Hello to everyone!
I’ve been searching all over the net but couldn’t find a resolution to my problem… After enabling UEFI boot in BIOS of my old reliable Asus N/3SV laptop, UEFI USB device is detected, but booting from it is impossible. Laptop stucks with Windows logo and one or two frozen rotating dots on the screen. Therefore I’m able to install Windows only in legacy mode on mbr disk. I know that some HM65 boards enable installing Windows in full UEFI mode by enabling UEFI boot in bios, like in this case: HELP ! - N73SV - bios MBR ou UEFI GPT ? | Le forum des portables Asus
It was example with model N53JF which has identical options in boot section of BIOS menu as N73SV, with addition of “CSM 16 Module Version” option.
What I would like to know has anyone managed to resolve this problem and what would be the correct path: modding BIOS, updating certain modules or drivers, or just enabling certain options in it (mine has only enable/disable UEFI option). If I disable legacy USB support (enable/disable/auto) in advanced tab, no USB devices are detected for booting.

Thank you

lfb6 · June 28, 2024, 5:28am

I converted my existing installation manually with mbr2gpt and created the EFI partition manually, too. (But never tried to install directly)

Can you find out, when this happens (bootlog?) Is this just related to the installation process or would this happen with an readily installed Windows installation, too?

Wenko · June 28, 2024, 1:29pm

Converting an existing installation was my initial intention.
At first I tried methods without data loss with mbr2gpt and DiskGenius, but result after rebooting was always the same: blinking cursor on a black screen. Converting disk back to mbr during that process didn’t work so I had to clean install Windows in legacy mode again. After that I tried with Diskpart and manual creation of necessary partitions after cleaning and converting disk to gpt, but without success. Attempts to install Windows on such prepared disk failed because I couldn’t boot from installation USB in UEFI mode in the first place and got message that Windows could not be installed on gpt disk. Same results with Rufus and MCT.
Somewhere was mentioned that the attempt to transfer gpt formated HDD with Windows already installed in UEFI mode from another working computer didn’t work either.
I think I’ve tried all the methods which don’t include BIOS modding, except using AMIBCP 4.53 to change options from defaut to USER in Advanced and Boot sections of BIOS.
When I try to “Boot EFI shell from filesystem device” from BIOS, result is also Windows logo with two frozen rotating dots. How can I attach a log file?

lfb6 · June 28, 2024, 5:12pm

MIght have been an incorrect boot configuration as well.

Did you ever try to install from DVD or tried another system (for example Linux Mint live DVD)?

Wenko · June 28, 2024, 11:59pm

I did manage to install Windows from DVD recently and it was in legacy mode. I remember that during my numerous attempts an UEFI DVD was added as a boot option, but outcome was similar as with UEFI USB, everything stuck with windows logo and frozen rotating dots. Nevertheless, UEFI DVD option is not available for quite a long time. A blue ray DVD in my Asus is old and often detects DVD 's which has been burned by himself as empty. With such an unreliable drive it’s hard to make any conclusions.
I must also say that I don’t have any experience with Linux.

lfb6 · June 29, 2024, 7:24am

How did you create your bootable USB device?

Do I understand you right that the boot process stops before any input is possible?

Wenko · June 29, 2024, 8:13am

I used MCT. I also tried with Rufus in attempt to somehow “force” UEFI booting, but it didn’t work.

After enabling UEFI booting in BIOS, additional UEFI devices are visible in boot menu but when I try to boot from them, system halts with Windows logo and frozen spinning dots. All what can I do then is turn laptop off or restart it using power button.
Windows Boot Manager never appeared as a boot option.
Boot process in legacy mode works normally.

Blinking cursor on dark screen appeared only when i tried to boot from HDD/SSD converted to gpt after Windows has been installed in legacy mode.

lfb6 · June 29, 2024, 8:29am

So you never get to this screen?

Wenko · June 29, 2024, 8:36am

Never with UEFI media selected. Only when booting in legacy mode.

lfb6 · June 29, 2024, 8:58am

OK, please try the following:
open your USB device,
go to \efi\boot
rename bootx64.efi to bootx64.efi.org (this is not a link, it’s the stupid forum system that interprets the filename this way)
copy from the attached zip bootx64 - shell.efi to this directory
rename bootx64 - shell.efi to bootx64.efi (this is an older grub efi- shell)
start the PC

You should get a text console which should be responsive and take inputs, for example
lspci
lsefivar
lsmmap
lsefimmap
halt (should shutdown system)

That’s just to check if another simple EFI- system would work

bootx64 - shell.zip (750.4 KB)

Wenko · June 29, 2024, 9:12am

I will try this but must apologize for delayed response because from now on I won’t be near my computer today.

Ok, I’ve done that and got a text console responsive to aforementioned inputs, halt did shut down the system.

lfb6 · June 30, 2024, 9:06am

Thanks, this confirms that a basic EFI boot in text mode does work.

Are you on the latest bios version 306? If not I’d recommend to update.

Otherwise there are two possibilities

Try (again) to convert a legacy installation (VGA driver). Last time you didn’t get a proper boot configuration (blinking cursor). Risk is that one still ends up with an installation that even with a proper boot configuration hangs when loading windows.
Find the cause for the hang. Probably this is related to graphics, but without knowing the concrete reason for the hanging there’s just fiddling. So one would have to make setup writing a log file to the USB stick (if possible).
Another way would be to just try changing some graphics related settings either in a config- file or by command switch and hope for a different behaviour during the process.

Windows setup has command line options and does accept configuration files:

Wenko · June 30, 2024, 10:22am

Yes, I’m on the latest bios version 306.

Regarding other two possibilities, I’ll start with the first one because the second exceeds my current knowledge level. Using AMIBCP to change the access level of some options in the bios is the pinnacle of my expertise
I assume that only integrated graphics (Intel HD 3000) is involved during booting and Nvidia GT 540M kicks in later… or I am wrong? Preparing myself for reading and learning…

Wenko · June 30, 2024, 4:16pm

Converting legacy installation with mbr2gpr didn’t work again. Windows Boot Manager didn’t appear as an boot option in bios, and result was blinking cursor on a dark screen…

lfb6 · July 1, 2024, 4:55am

The blinking cursor most often means that there’s no bootable disk found / the efi configuration isn’t correct.

The steps for checking / reconfiguring the boot configurration should possibly be done before you reboot since the normal step now would be to boot a windows installation usb stick and to choose the repair option but this doesn’t work in your machine.

EDIT
Do you have the possiblity to create a recovery drive from an updated UEFI windows installation?

This might maybe use some updated bootloader and a different user- interface and it should give access to the recovery tools in a text console.

(Tried this and it started without any circling dots, just the logo, but after one or two minutes the screen for choosing keyboard layout appeared)

Wenko · July 4, 2024, 7:02pm

I’ve created recovery USB drive from a desktop UEFI Windows installation, but booting from it is possible only in legacy mode,
After selecting repair option in installation window:

When booting from USB as UEFI, laptop is stuck with windows logo and same two frozen dots as before.

Wenko · July 4, 2024, 8:15pm

Now I did power on with USB stick just plugged in, without forcing booting from it. Laptop itself entered in repair mode from USB and I selected option to recover from drive. I assume that USB is triggered in legacy mode and wonder if recovering UEFI Windows installation on gpt formatted SSD would be possible.

After some percentage has been done, recovery failed.

lfb6 · July 5, 2024, 6:52am

Automatic repair did never work for me. It normally fails with finding the EFI partition and restoreing the files.

Boot again to “Advanced options”
Open a command prompt and mount the EFI volume or if this doesn’t work, run diskpart to find the partititons / volumes on your harddisk. Give the EFI partitition a letter to make it searchable, check for its contents.

What you find may differ, MS changed the bootloaders for secure boot several times and had some tricky (funny?) ideas about compensating for secure boot flaws.

Post the output / what you find!

mountvol - might not work since you booted legacy

mountvol.exe s: /S will mount the EFI volume on S:

mountvol.exe s: /D will remove the mountpoint

diskpart commands for giving the drive letter

BE CAREFUL - THESE ARE THE DISKS IN MY SYSTEM; YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE THE CORRECT DISK AND VOLUME FOR YOUR SYSTEM

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.3636

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: HOME-DESK

DISKPART> lis dis

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

Disk 0 Online 3576 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 931 GB 5120 KB *

DISKPART> sel dis 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset

Partition 1 Reserved 128 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 101 MB 134 MB
Partition 3 Primary 318 GB 236 MB
Partition 4 Recovery 1011 MB 318 GB
Partition 5 Primary 612 GB 319 GB

DISKPART> lis vol

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info

Volume 0 F DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 D Data NTFS Partition 3576 GB Healthy
Volume 2 C System NTFS Partition 318 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 E VSD NTFS Partition 612 GB Healthy
Volume 4 EFI FAT32 Partition 101 MB Healthy System
Volume 5 REcovery NTFS Partition 1011 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> sel vol 4

Volume 4 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> assign letter = S

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> exit

list EFI partition

C:\Windows\system32>s:

S:>dir
Volume in drive S is EFI
Volume Serial Number is 0E2F-0A82

Directory of S:\

20.12.2021 16:10 EFI
0 File(s) 0 bytes
1 Dir(s) 70.801.408 bytes free

S:>dir EFI
Volume in drive S is EFI
Volume Serial Number is 0E2F-0A82

Directory of S:\EFI

20.12.2021 16:10 .
20.12.2021 16:10 …
20.12.2021 16:10 Boot
20.12.2021 16:10 Microsoft
0 File(s) 0 bytes
4 Dir(s) 70.801.408 bytes free

S:>dir EFI\Boot
Volume in drive S is EFI
Volume Serial Number is 0E2F-0A82

Directory of S:\EFI\Boot

20.12.2021 16:10 .
20.12.2021 16:10 …
09.04.2024 20:28 2.756.232 Bootx64.efi
1 File(s) 2.756.232 bytes
2 Dir(s) 70.801.408 bytes free

S:>dir EFI\Microsoft
Volume in drive S is EFI
Volume Serial Number is 0E2F-0A82

Directory of S:\EFI\Microsoft

20.12.2021 16:10 .
20.12.2021 16:10 …
20.12.2021 16:10 Boot
12.01.2022 20:27 Recovery
0 File(s) 0 bytes
4 Dir(s) 70.801.408 bytes free

S:>dir EFI\Microsoft\Boot
Volume in drive S is EFI
Volume Serial Number is 0E2F-0A82

Directory of S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot

20.12.2021 16:10 .
20.12.2021 16:10 …
20.12.2021 16:10 bg-BG
14.11.2023 22:14 28.648 kdstub.dll
09.04.2024 20:28 1.356.784 memtest.efi
09.04.2024 20:28 11.030 boot.stl
20.12.2021 16:10 cs-CZ
20.12.2021 16:10 da-DK
20.12.2021 16:10 de-DE
20.12.2021 16:10 el-GR
20.12.2021 16:10 en-GB
20.12.2021 16:10 en-US
20.12.2021 16:10 es-ES
20.12.2021 16:10 es-MX
20.12.2021 16:10 et-EE
20.12.2021 16:10 fi-FI
20.12.2021 16:10 fr-CA
20.12.2021 16:10 fr-FR
20.12.2021 16:10 hr-HR
20.12.2021 16:10 hu-HU
20.12.2021 16:10 it-IT
20.12.2021 16:10 ja-JP
14.11.2023 22:15 32.744 kd_02_10df.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 380.376 kd_02_10ec.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 27.624 kd_02_1137.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 241.112 kd_02_14e4.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 45.552 kd_02_15b3.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 45.544 kd_02_1969.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 32.728 kd_02_19a2.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 21.480 kd_02_1af4.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 299.496 kd_02_8086.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 19.936 kd_07_1415.dll
14.11.2023 22:15 50.144 kd_0C_8086.dll
07.12.2019 11:08 9.796 winsipolicy.p7b
09.04.2024 20:28 2.756.232 bootmgfw.efi
20.12.2021 16:10 ko-KR
20.12.2021 16:10 lt-LT
20.12.2021 16:10 lv-LV
09.04.2024 20:28 2.744.752 bootmgr.efi
20.12.2021 16:10 nb-NO
20.12.2021 16:10 nl-NL
20.12.2021 16:10 pl-PL
20.12.2021 16:10 pt-BR
20.12.2021 16:10 pt-PT
20.12.2021 16:10 qps-ploc
20.12.2021 16:10 ro-RO
20.12.2021 16:10 ru-RU
20.12.2021 16:10 sk-SK
20.12.2021 16:10 sl-SI
20.12.2021 16:10 sr-Latn-RS
20.12.2021 16:10 sv-SE
20.12.2021 16:10 tr-TR
20.12.2021 16:10 uk-UA
14.11.2023 22:15 18.920 kdnet_uart16550.dll
20.12.2021 16:10 zh-CN
20.12.2021 16:10 zh-TW
05.07.2024 00:47 262.144 BCD
19.10.2022 09:15 95.488 SiPolicy.p7b
10.05.2023 12:07 162.107 SkuSiPolicy.p7b
09.04.2024 20:28 160.560 SecureBootRecovery.efi
30.04.2024 13:43 Fonts
30.04.2024 13:43 Resources
22 File(s) 8.803.197 bytes
40 Dir(s) 70.801.408 bytes free

S:>

diskpart commands for removing the drive letter

BE CAREFUL - THESE ARE THE DISKS IN MY SYSTEM; YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE THE CORRECT DISK AND VOLUME FOR YOUR SYSTEM

S:\EFI\Boot>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.3636

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: HOME-DESK

DISKPART> lis disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

Disk 0 Online 3576 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 931 GB 5120 KB *

DISKPART> lis vol

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info

Volume 0 F DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 D Data NTFS Partition 3576 GB Healthy
Volume 2 C System NTFS Partition 318 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 E VSD NTFS Partition 612 GB Healthy
Volume 4 S EFI FAT32 Partition 101 MB Healthy System
Volume 5 REcovery NTFS Partition 1011 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> sel vol 4

Volume 4 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> remove letter = S

DiskPart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> exit

Wenko · July 5, 2024, 7:37pm

Mountvol.exe doesn’t work, the parameter is incorrect.
I’ve assigned letter S to EFI partition, but it is empty now. Bcdboot could copy necessary directories from my current legacy installation, but I assume it cannot be done from UEFI recovery drive. Can I just copy EFI folder from recovery drive to S: drive?

lfb6 · July 5, 2024, 8:02pm

I thought of \windows\boot\EFI from the harddisk (that’s where bcdboot and the recovery stick get their files from), but this might be even better since there should be a least a BCD file.

Important for avoiding the blinking cursor are

1.) \EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi (“bootloader”)

2.) \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgr.efi (“bootmanager”)

You will of course possibly get another error message since the BCD might not be OK, but maybe this is enough to boot into the EFI recovery console.

How did booting from the recovery stick work in EFI mode / why didn’t it work?