Entering BIOS Corrupts BCD

[Windsurf48]

This problem started with my previous build using an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, Intel Core i7-13700, Corsair DDR5-6600, and a Crucial T700 1TB M.2 drive, which had a clean install of Windows 11 Pro 23H2 a year ago.  Everything worked perfectly until the Windows 11 24H2 upgrade.  After that, any time I used F2 to go into BIOS, with or without making changes, the system got "The Boot Configuration Date file doesn't contain valid information for an operating system." Booting into a Hard Disk Manager 17 repair drive and repairing the Windows 11 BCD would fix the problem until the next time I went into BIOS.

I thought that this might be a problem with the ASOS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero or CPU.  However, after upgrading to an ASUS Maximus Z890 Apex and the CPU, memory, and hard drive listed at the end of this message, the problem has persisted with BIOSes 1002 and 1101. I'm not sure whether it's a BIOS problem, hardware problem, or Windows 11 24H2.  The latter seems possible since the problem was present using two different motherboards, CPU, memory, and hard drives.

Most of the BIOS settings are at defaults, with no overclocking.  Internal graphics are disabled, along with WiFi and Bluetooth, XMP I is selected for the memory, which passed two hours of MEMTEST86 at that setting.  Secure Boot is set to Windows UEFI Mode.  The problem is worse with the Custom setting below Secure Boot than with the Standard setting, which sometimes stopped at Q-code A2 but then rebooting successfully with no changes. I tried clearing the Secure Boot Keys and reloading the defaults, but it hasn't made any difference.

Temperatures look good in AIDA64 for all components. There have been no issues whatsoever on either the Z790 Hero or Z890 Apex once the system boots into Windows 11 or the Hard Disk Manager 17 repair drive, just problems with the BCD becoming corrupted.

I plan on copying and deleting the current Windows 11 Pro C drive today so I can try a clean install of Windows 11 Pro 24H2 to see if the problem persists with a clean copy of Windows.

Has anyone else seen anything similar, especially with Windows 11 Pro 24H2?

ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Apex
Intel  Ultra 7 265
Noctua DH-15 CPU Cooler
V-color Manta DDR5-8800 24GB x 2 TMXFCL2488842KSK
ASUS ProArt RTX 4080 OC
LG 27GP850-B Ultragear Gaming Monitor (DisplayPort)
Crucial T705 1TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD on M.2-3
Fantom Venom5 Thunderbolt 3 1TB
HyperX wired mouse
Logitech K800 wireless keyboard

[Windsurf48 · Accepted solution]

Swapping a Crucial T700 1TB drive into M.2-3 and installing Windows 11 24H2 in a new partition did not show any problems after entering BIOS with or without changing settings.  It's possible that the Windows 11 24H2 did something to the T705 version of Windows 11 when it updated it from 23H2, and whatever happened doesn't occur on a clean install. It definitely looks like whatever happened on the Z790 system was carried over to the Z890 system

I've swapped the T705 back in until I have time to reinstall Windows 11, update settings, and reinstall all the apps, That will probably be next weekend.  Installing Windows 11 and all the drivers takes 30 minutes.  Updating settings takes a couple of hours, followed by another 3-4 hours reinstalling apps.

[Saltgrass]

OK, first, what is this?

Hard Disk Manager 17 repair drive

Next, if you want to check the BCD store to see how it looks, open a terminal window and type the command below.

bcdedit

Copy and paste the results.

I just finished updating the Bios on my Hero board and it booted back normally.  My system is a clean install of 24H2.  I do run my primary PCIe 5 drive (T705) on the M.2_1 slot with the Hero board.

[Windsurf48]

Paragon Software Hard Disk Manager 17 handles disk management and includes a standalone Windows PE maintenance.  I use it mainly to do a full copy of my 1TB hard drive to SSDs in a hot swap bay.  It also includes functions to repair EFI boot issues in the BCD.

Unfortunately, I would only be able to display the BCD when the system boots into Windows successfully, not when BIOS says that it's corrupted. 

[Saltgrass]

I will also tell you this.  I tried bringing a drive from a Z590 board up to this install but that drive would not boot.  Possibly 24H2 has deemed a limit on the Windows 11 prior licenses.  I did end up getting a new license.

[Windsurf48]

I purchased a new license and replaced the old one when I installed the new motherboard, and the new license activated successfully.  Also, the problem began on the previous motherboard after Windows 11 updated from 23H2 to 24H2. Since the problem wasn't present on a trial reinstall, it seems to be something related to the update process for 24H2.