Help with Secure Boot Violation

[computerhead2]

I need help with understanding what I can do to cure what I believe is (or was) a virus, or malware attack.

I noticed that using Mozilla that the Adobe flash was working strangely, then Microsoft Security Essentials turned itself off and then the computer

After attempting shutdown and rebooting I was greated with a red dialog box (very ACSII ish) stating that I had a secure boot violation.

I was able to boot from a Bit defender boot disc and run it as a virus cleaner, it found 4 items, 3 of which I recognized, the 4 I did not. I

had bitdefender delete all four (4).

Now I cannot get to the boot manager, or past the secure boot violation feature.

What else can I do?.... I really don't want to reformat and reinstall Windows 7 again, then build all my applications (primarily flight sim).

Because it is a laborius process and I had just finished getting the new build setup.

Any feedback on how, or what I should try would be appreciated.

[Nate152]

Hello computerhead2

Welcome to the ROG forum.

If you installed windows from a dvd you could try booting from it and run the repair option.

[computerhead2]

Thanks, I have already tried this and received a dialog box stating that it was not able to repair my version.

Because this was a new build within the last month I do not have a windows repair disc, that was generated from my installation.

[Nate152]

I'm not sure how you'd go about fixing it then without doing a complete windows reinstall. I suppose you could do a reinstall and install kaspersky antivirus or internet security from the motherboard dvd, Asus gives you a year free.

[Code_Frenzy]

If deciding to reinstall I recommend that you use a second hard drive or SSD to store your documents, movies, music and games on. You can point the quick links for 'My Documents' etc to this drive and it will appear no different than having everything installed on the same Windows partition. If for some reason you don't want to fit a second drive then I recommend creating a separate partition on the Windows drive.
Doing this will make re-installs a simple and less painful process. Of course you will still need to install all of your applications but at least your personal files and downloads will still be there.

I even go one step further and have a third disk which I use as my recovery drive. I set the backup utility to regularly save backups to it and before making any changes that may affect the system I force a system image to be taken.

[Chino]

Is CSM enabled? And have you tried disabling Secure Boot?

[computerhead2]

Hello, I did disable the secure boot feature via CSM, but it did not lend itself to being able to boot to the OS, as I recall it just restarted and flipped back to the bios

Thinking that the issue was with my Windows 7 OS being compromised, and based on some of the thread advise, I wiped the SSD containing the OS via deleting all the partitions and reformatting via the Windows install disk.

However I can not get the install to complete, I have tried muptiple time using different SSD's and reburned Windows 7 ISO.

Thinking that it was my video card, since either the install did not like having the card in the motherboard, or that the virus may have comprimised it some how?

Is it possible that the virus, that caused the secure boot violation, programmed back to the firmware on the board to prevent a new copy of Windows being installed?

My next thought was to use the Motherboard DVD to install the BIOS again, but the utility does not start up as stated in the Maximus VIII manual, and I end up at the freee dos prompt.

Any idea, or thought on the best way to proceed?..... I have already come to the understanding that I have to now rebuild the entire system via installing and setting up days of software installs and customization, but the fact that I can't load the OS has me baffled

[Nate152]

Normally when you do a windows reinstall it wipes the viruses too, what happens if you just use the windows install disk instead of making an iso file?

[computerhead2]

The version of Windows 7 purchase was the ISO, with then I used a utility to create a bootable DVD with Windows 7 on it.

The installation goes find, it installs, expands, runs, then reboots..... It is at this point that the installation freezes, approx 75% gauging by complete status bar.

As I said, I have tried this multiple time, with different SSD's (the last one was new out of the box).

Same result (above) each time.

I would like to know more exactly what trips the secure boot violation, my limited understanding is that something was attempting to write to the boot sector, but also read that it could be writing back to the drivers.

As you noted - re-installing should have been the ultimate solution, but now I have been unable to re-install the OS??

Thanks, all - I am stumped and frustrated!

[Nate152]

I'm not sure why you're getting the secure boot violation, I don't recall fooling with secure boot when I installed windows. I never got that message and I'm stumped too, installing windows isn't a difficult procedure right?

Maybe try updating/reflashing the bios.

Here's a guide you can follow using the bios flashback method. Format a usb flashdrive to FAT32 and rename the bios file to M8H.CAP

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?1142-How-to-use-ASUS-ROG-USB-BIOS-Flashback