Can't install Windows - get a black screen when PC restarts. Suspect = Failed Bitlocker Encryption

[vortex1]

Spec:

Asus Z790-A II motherboard; Core i7-14700K CPU; MSI RTX4070 Super GPU; 64GB Kingston RGB RAM (2x32GB); Deepcool Mystique AIO; Windows 11 Pro; Asus VG259QM Monitor; Asus XG259QNS Monitor; AVerMedia GC575 Capture Card (HDMI); NZXT H7 Flow RGB case..

Problem:

My PC has been having black screen - 'No Display' issue when I try to boot or restart. I use a DisplayPort cable to a fairly new monitor. If I try to install Windows via a Windows boot USB, the PC black screens when the install procedure tries to restart - so the process is unsuccessful. I have to hard shutdown with the power button.

The only way I can get out of this is to turn the PC off completely, then press the Clear CMOS button on the motherboard, then turn back on and start with a Windows boot USB plugged in, then choose the USB as the boot device in the BIOS. From that I can only really get cmd and the WRe. The PC boot SSD is wiped btw.

Startup repair states that it can't fix the issue.

Also, the iGPU (multi-monitor) setting when turned on in the BIOS does not work either for HDMI or DisplayPort connections, and stopped appearing in Device Manager (when I used to be able to get into the last Windows installation).

I tried this re-installation of Windows because I thought it might fix this boot/restart issue - but it's not made things any better.

Need assistance with this!!

If I remember right - this boot issue started happening after I tried to use Bitlocker on the boot drive and it failed.

EDIT:

What I have tried:

- Tried various versions of motherboard BIOS.

- Turning off UEFI boot and having CSM (legacy) boot and vice versa.

- Clear CMOS button on the motherboard.

- Removing the CMOS battery.

- Reseating the GPU after first cleaning the contacts.

- Removing the 12VHPWR GPU extension cable and plugging the GPU in directly with the PSU 12VHPWR cable.

- Changing Motherboards.

- Changing CPU.

- Changing PSU to a more powerful one.

- Removing the additional SSD's and just having the boot SSD plugged in.

- (When Windows was accessible) Changing monitor resolution & refresh rate.

- Tried a different monitor (HDMI cable).

- Tried a TV via HDMI cable to the PC.

- Tried the DP cable to a different monitor.

- Unplugging additional USB peripherals and leaving just the keyboard & mouse plugged in.

- Cleaning the contacts & Reseating the boot SSD.

- Applying a new thermal pad to the boot SSD.

- Re-applying fresh thermal paste to the CPU & AIO pump head.

- Reseating the RAM sticks.

- Checking temperatures (all OK) & No motherboard warning LED lights staying on (all OK).

- Tried fresh Windows boot USB software.

- Ensuring the DP or HDMI cable is always plugged in properly.

- (When Windows was accessible) Re-installed the Chipset Driver.

What I can't find a way to do with my PC in this state:

- Installing different GPU drivers.

[vortex1]

Contacted Microsoft Support:

The issue does appear to be a Bitlocker crash I had previously. What they said may have happened is the TPM of my new motherboard has become corrupted because the previous TPM of the old motherboard was linked to the same old boot SSD I connnected to the new board - which in turn corrupted the TPM of the new board. It's like some sort of virus. What I have done is replace the boot SSD.  I have also binned the 'new' board and have just bought another one which will have a fresh TPM. I have totally formatted the old SSD in cmd and disk management, and will just use that as an additional data drive once I've got my new Windows up and running.

This I hope will mean I can actually re-install Windows. Just waiting for the new board to turn up. This has cost me greatly - Never attempting to install Bitlocker again!

[JohnAb]

I assume that you're using Bitlocker on your OS drive. I have never tried that, too worried about recovery if something goes wrong.

What I do is keep the OS and installed programs on one drive (not encrypted) and then have my personal files on other drives, each of which is encrypted with a password. Has worked well for me to date, never had an issue, so that might be a better way for you as a suggestion. You can plug the encrypted drives into another PC if needed, enter the password and it will unlock, no problems. It even works with Linux. 

[vortex1]

Thank you for the advice - I didn't think of that method, and it sounds like it works well. However, I think what with the possibility of it crashing again and the effects of that -  I have become a bit cautious about using Bitlocker now. Maybe it would only crash if applied to the boot drive..

I always think of my C: boot drive as also having all the default Windows folders on it - ie. Downloads, Documents, Music, etc - so if I was to put personal files like this on another drive - I would have to have a complete re-think about how I organize my PC I guess, which would be very alien to me. 🤔

[kcohen202]

I just installed windows using rufus as the way to make the windows media and there is an option to disable bitlocker encryption give that a try see if that helps you. It worked for me. You can find it on window store. Rufus allows you to make USB bootable drives.

[vortex1]

Thanks @kcohen202 that is really helpful. I will use that if I get any problems with the standard method - but the problem I did have is that because my pc wouldn't boot (due to the Bitlocker/TPM corruption), it wouldn't allow the Windows installer to restart/reboot towards the end of the install. But because I'm going to be getting a new motherboard with new TPM, and have a freshly formatted boot ssd - I think this won't be a problem in future.

[JohnAb]

I'll give you a bit more info about my setup for possible ideas:

My OS drive is not encrypted and essentially it is only used for installed programs and a handful of files that get placed on it by Windows - screenshot images, web favourites etc etc

My games are on a fast M.2 SSD, also not encrypted

My Word docs, excel files, photographs and any other files that belong to me or are considered confidential (like my master password database) are stored on a large Bitlocker protected HDD. 

I then have another, identical large HDD, also Bitlocker encrypted which I use as a backup device, It's an exact copy of the main drive, synchronised at least twice a week. I use FreeFileSynch for this and the backup schedules also includes a copy of my main desktop (where nothing confidential is ever stored as that's not encrypted because it's on the OS drive)

I then have another M.2 SSD which I use for OS drive images, taken every 3 days with Macrium Reflect. If anything goes badly wrong with Windows, updates, drivers etc, I can restore the entire OS drive in under 10 minutes. There is yet another SSD that is a copy of these images, a backup of OS backups, lol. Neither of these are encrypted as they are only images of the OS drive. 

Then I have one more small M.2 SSD, just a drive for temporary storage, like working virtual machine images, nothing important

Finally I have an encrypted NAS in another part of the house which is turned on once a week, totally locked down and used for weekly backups of everything. That way, no problem if my main PC is stolen. 

I also have another large external HDD which is also used for additional backups, again encrypted. I don't really need this any more, but I'm just in the habit of backing up to it as well (if the other drives and the NAS all fail, hardly likely). My only true risk is fire. If the entire house burnt down I'd be in trouble = but my drives are in different pasrts of the house and there is nearly always someone at home. 

Very finally, I have another AMD PC, slower but still decent, which also contains all software and files (non encrypted OS, encrypted data drive, just one this time) that is ready to go if my main machine fails. It's kept up to date with drivers and updates and files are synched to it weekly. It has spare cables to quickly connect  other encrypted drives if needed. 

I can take any encrypted drive and put in it another machine , even running Linux and it will unlock just fine because I use strong passwords, not the TPM chip or Windows credentials. I've never tested RAID failure on the NAS, but as it's only a backup device not primary storage, I'm not too worried about that.  

So obviously I'm mad and obsessed, but I enjoy the backups process because I know I'm as safe as I can reasonably be. I've gone over the top of course, but if my setup provides some ideas that that's great. I do my backups every Sunday, takes about an hour if I'm efficient, 2 hours if I take my time and get distracted.  

So there we are, backup system of my own devising. Pretty mad, but I like it. I used to backup my password database to the cloud but have stopped doing that now. I have little trust in other systems and who knows when computing power will allow cloud stored resources to be easily cracked in the future, even if in 20 years. The password I use for that is extremely secure, but you never know. If it's local, I have control of it.   

[vortex1]

That is very good backing up - however it did make me lol the more I read about it. I think I need to take mine more seriously tho in future.

The thing was, when this TPM thing affected me I was in the process of swapping motherboards but I initially kept the same SSD and plugged that in. That was a mistake anyway because the SSD had corrupted and it was a totally different motherboard. I was keeping my system up-to-date with Acronis True Image but noticed that there started becoming a backing up failure.

I've not only had to wipe the boot drive but also the HDD which I was backing up to with Acronis because it was no longer any use.

I do also back up my files & programs to an external HDD so I haven't lost everything - it just means I'll have to re-install all those programs and re-customize my Windows how it was which takes quite a lot of time.

Just waiting for the new board to turn up then I can crack on with it.

[JohnAb]

Nice one, don't copy my system, it's outrageous, but regardless of backups, taking a regular image of your OS drive can be a lifesaver. If I have to reinstall Windows and reinstall all software, sort out drivers, get everything as I like it, set up e-mail, online accounts, restore favourites, the list goes on, it takes a whole day. As I need my PC for work, that's no good in a rush. With an image, it really is 10 minutes and the whole lot is restored. Saved me a couple of times when I've been a total idiot. 

I do like to reinstall Windows every 18 months or so because it does get bloated with rubbish and that time is about due again 🙄

Good luck and enjoy your new board...

[achugh]

Hi @vortex1 does your board not have a TPM Clear option? See below

Clearing the TPM loses all the protected secrets and keys Windows have stored in it so one could lose data. In your case, you were looking clear the TPM so this could have worked without spending money on a new board.