THUNDERBOLT - BIG PROBLEM - HELP pls!

[MacAttack_666]

I think the problem started when one of my eGPUs got disconnected by mistake...
Cruising with a GTX 1080Ti 11/12GB or Radeon VII 16GB in a Razor Core X.

I started awesome and I was running 4-screens and 150" och screen real estate! Loved it! 

I managed to get it back by updating and reinstalling the BIOS...
But then it shut down again and I cant get it to work again...

as soon as i plug in a Thunderbolt disk, OWC Raid / Rugged etc..  or my Apple Cinemadisplay DP etc...

I get BLUESCREEN, Restart and Lock... And i have to HardBoot it with 15sek on the Power button...
The Bluescreen REEDS:

Stop Code: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
WHAT FAILD: TbtBus.Drv.sys

Been working days with AI to try to figure it out...
And we have a very feasible idea... BUT ASUS Support don´t want give us access to this NVM-firmware tool if I understood it right... Anyone that has it? I Heard they put it out but withdraw it..

ANY OTHER IDEAS, ANYONE WITH SAME/SIMILAR ISSUE!?

I WANNA TRY THIS:

1. Request a Thunderbolt NVM reflash/rollback from ASUS support.

   • For the ROG Zephyrus S17 GX703HS, this is often the only way to fully reset the controller and restore proper Thunderbolt handshake functionality.

   • Please note: describing these exact symptoms will help ASUS support understand that you need a NVM firmware reflash, not just the standard driver or BIOS update.

moore background:

What does this mean for my Thunderbolt issue?

• The Thunderbolt port provides power and initiates a handshake, so external hard drives spin up – meaning the port’s hardware and Power Delivery are working as intended.

• But as soon as Windows tries to mount or initialize the device via the Thunderbolt protocol, a firmware or driver bug is triggered, causing the system to immediately crash or freeze.

• The adjacent USB-C-only port delivers power but does not attempt a Thunderbolt handshake, so it remains stable and does not trigger any system crash (but of course, it does not provide full Thunderbolt functionality).

• This confirms the Thunderbolt controller is not physically dead – it communicates with devices up to the point of protocol initialization.

• The firmware and/or the Windows Thunderbolt stack appear to be corrupted or stuck in a “Security/brick state”.

• This is a classic symptom of a “soft bricked” Thunderbolt port after a hot-unplug of an eGPU (external GPU enclosure).

• This is also why a BIOS flash temporarily restores functionality, but the problem returns after a reboot or device reconnection.

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What does this mean for solutions?

1. Perform a fresh BIOS flash (if you haven’t already flashed the latest version).

2. Do a clean reinstall of the Thunderbolt driver from ASUS support (not from Intel or Windows Update).

3. Request a Thunderbolt NVM reflash/rollback from ASUS support.

   • For the ROG Zephyrus S17 GX703HS, this is often the only way to fully reset the controller and restore proper Thunderbolt handshake functionality.

   • Please note: describing these exact symptoms will help ASUS support understand that you need a NVM firmware reflash, not just the standard driver or BIOS update.

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Extra for ASUS support:

"The Thunderbolt port supplies power and devices spin up, but as soon as Windows attempts to initialize the device through Thunderbolt protocol, the system instantly crashes or locks up. A BIOS flash will temporarily restore function, but issue returns after reboot. The USB-C-only port is stable, but Thunderbolt port cannot be used with any TB device without immediate crash."

MY SYSTEM:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Version 10.0.26100 Build 26100
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name TINNMAN-XRDEV
System Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
System Model ROG Zephyrus S17 GX703HS
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11900H @ 2.50GHz, 2496 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends International, LLC. GX703HS.311, 2021-09-28
SMBIOS Version 3.3
Embedded Controller Version 3.05
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product GX703HS
BaseBoard Version 1.0
Platform Role Mobile
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.26100.1"
User Name TINNMAN-XRDEV\marcu
Time Zone W. Europe Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32,0 GB
Total Physical Memory 31,7 GB
Available Physical Memory 24,7 GB
Total Virtual Memory 47,2 GB
Available Virtual Memory 40,2 GB
Page File Space 15,5 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection On
Virtualization-based security Not enabled
App Control for Business policy Enforced
App Control for Business user mode policy Off
Automatic Device Encryption Support Elevation Required to View
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes