Bios update 2801, system freezes

[Oiram]

Hi everyone,

I did the update the day before yesterday and spent all time since then to find out what happened: my PC freezes randomly after the upgrade.
Intel i7 13700K, Asus Proart z790 Creator WiFi, Kingston Fury DDR5 5600 64 Gb,Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070 Ti.
I came from Bios 2505, so Intel ME was updated too. Rolling back to 2505 doesn't fix it.
Run memory check from Bios and it's all good.
Reverted to bios default, cleared CMOS...nothign works so far.
It never froze while inside bios.
The only thing I can't do is roll back Intel ME.

Any clue?
Thanks!!!

[inge70]

@ChefYaNan,

Your problem has nothing to do with a degenerate CPU, but rather with Windows and various drivers.
I have read reports where Windows 11 24H2 uses modified standby defaults and is now causing problems for various users.
This could also be the problem for you in connection with the corresponding drivers, preferably the graphics card driver.
But you should also be able to find something in the event log and reliability history of Windows.

Regarding the exception filemanager.sys, this file probably belongs to a separate program that you are using and that is probably having problems with Windows 11 24H2.
A little more information (reliability history and event log) would be helpful.
I couldn't find this file on my Windows 11 24H2 (current version).

@David86796,
I still think it is not due to the current UEFI update 2801, because then there would be a lot more reports about it here in the forum.
Unfortunately, the statement that the current UEFI 2801 is part of Intel ME firmware update 16.1.32.2473 is wrong.
It is exactly the other way around.
Intel ME firmware update 16.1.32.2473 is part of the UEFI update for motherboards and was rolled out by Asus in October with UEFI 2703 (on my motherboard) and is part of the UEFI update and not the other way around.

In addition, the Intel ME firmware is independent of the UEFI, because you can update the Intel ME firmware without a UEFI update.
I have been using the current Intel ME firmware update for a while and the UEFI 2801 was not available then.

I think these problems with the random sleep mode of the monitor are due to the current Windows 11 24H2 in conjunction with the corresponding graphics card drivers, since with 24H2 changed defaults for standby were rolled out, as one could read in various reports.

Hence my statement that it is not the UEFI update 2801 that is causing the problem, but Windows 11 24H2 and its energy modes.

In addition, I cannot find any other articles here in the forum or on Google about this problem, that this UEFI update causes such problems.

I therefore do not assume that a new UEFI update will solve this problem, since it is not the UEFI that controls sleep mode, but Windows itself.

In the end, however, all we can do is wait and see how the problem is solved.

I suspect a Windows 11 update or driver update.

Until then, I would recommend deactivating sleep mode and standby in Windows 11 until the cause has been found and resolved.

I don't use sleep mode or standby and have deactivated both in the power management of Windows 11 (powercfg /hibernate off) and probably don't have these problems because of that.
When I leave the PC, I just turn off the monitor and that's it. The CPU's energy saving options (downclocking the cores, etc.) etc. are still actively implemented, but the PC doesn't go to sleep or standby according to a set time, but simply stays in IDLE.

[drduf]

Strongly suspect the UEFI version 2801 to be the culprit, not OS. Here's why:

Started from a brand new system, so did not have a stable Windows install to compare with, but with 2801 installed I was not able to successfully install Windows 11 24H2. With network turned on, it would reliably halt mid updates, every time at the same % of applying them. With network turned off, I could kind of install although the EFI partition would *not* install on the NVMe, and instead on the install USB drive, requiring the drive to boot. Once inside Windows, any kind of workload requiring adressing physical hardware (installing Armoury Crate , installing Nvidia drivers, audio drivers, heck even inserting a blank USB drive) would make the system halt, and randomly some one or both of the NVMe drives might or might not show up in the bios until I completely powered down the system.

Reproduced the same behavior swapping the CPU for a 12th gen and, here's the kicker, had similar hardware-related halting with Linux. Couldn't boot into a Live USB session without passing the nomodeset argument (with CPU software rendering of graphics instead of GPU), whether I used onboard GPU or PCIe GPU. Once installed, I could try and boot, but I'd get to the initial splash screen and then system would halt soon as the kernel would take ownership of ACPI. Passing the acpi=noirq argument would allow a full boot, albeit with limited functionality.

Can't 100% confirm that OP's computer behavior is the same bug, but mine was definitely not OS related. Tried rolling back microcode in UEFI allowed for a full unrestricted boot, identifying UEFI or microcode (or the interaction between the two) as the culprit. Rolled back UEFI to version 2703 *but* keeping microcode 0x012B, I now have fully stable dual-boot Ubuntu 24.04.1 / Windows 24H2.

Dunno, maybe the update corrupted the microcode and rolling it back to 0x0104 then back to 0x012B forced it to be re-written properly (although I also swapped the motherboard as I was still in the return window from amazon), but unless I try re-updating to 2801 I won't be able to prove it is the UEFI - and I'm definitely not putting 2801 back for now as I need this system to be stable for work.

[inge70]

Then I'm probably an exception (see signature for hardware) because I have NO problems with the current UEFI 2801.
Especially UEFI 2801 only brought the following adjustment:
"1.Enhanced system performance, stability and allowed the C1E power state to be disabled.

So I'm very surprised that the problems didn't already occur with UEFI 2703, because that's where microcode 0x12B was introduced and C1E was blocked so that it is always active.

My last clean install of Windows 11 24H2 was in November 2024 and everything went super smoothly and the computer is still running error-free to this day.

I'm excited and keep my fingers crossed that a possible new UEFI update will remedy the situation.