I have an X399 based Zenith Extreme Alpha and...

[FalloutBoy]

they recently put out BIOS version 2501 to make this machine compatible with Windows 11 so off I go and install it because I want to run Windows 11 eventually.

This is where my problems began....

I use Macrium reflect to do Image backups of my system which has been working perfectly fine up until this point ; however I was cleaning the entire machine off because of the amount of crap that had accumulated and was going back to my previous clean setup - in doing so I struck the first problem, it did not matter if I tried booting onto USB through BIOS or if I held down shift and rebooted Windows and did a restart that way, the system would boot go so far through the windows PE process and then when it came to initialize the display - everything died. I tried the Macrium reflect restore USB from my other PC - same result, I tried a Windows 10 Install USB - same result, I could boot back into Windows but not onto USB.

I have a gaming KVM and I thought it might be the problem so I ripped everything out of that and connected it direct to the PC and tried again with all three USBs - no go.

I booted off of all three disks on my Alternate PC and they worked no problems.

While going through all these processes I noticed some visual oddities with BIOS and thus I turned off the BIOS animations and on the next boot I got a message while BIOS was initializing saying *EVALUATION VERSION* I was WTF!!! and on this boot and but no subsequent boots I saw and photographed a message that came up at the end of the BIOS initialization BlInitializeLibrary failed 0xc0000017, this was at the very end of post before USB boot began.

I then finally figured that it was the updated BIOS at fault and tried to use the BIOS switch on the back of the PC, the only problem was that the BIOS switch lights for A and B are obscured by my Noctua Heatsink and my graphics card so I had to download the previous BIOS onto a USB memory stick, go into BIOS and update it that way.

Well guess what kiddies on the next boot after having tried at least 50 times with the BIOS 2501 it works so BIOS 2501 is an evaluation BIOS and is EXTREMELY BROKEN and I had to go back to 2401.

BLOODY ASUS.....

So far for just this machine ( and people wonder why people hate ASUS 😞

Faulty ASUS Fan Software killed a 2950X - and I know its faulty because if I replace it with a certain piece of 3rd party software - the problems go away.

Faulty ASUS update software Stuffed up being able to update BIOS from the Desktop.

Faulty ASUS software would if you tried to control fans through the desktop cause the computer to crash.

Faulty ASUS software would read the motherboard temperature at a stupidly huge negative temperature and turn off the CPU fan ( thus my original Threadripper dying )

Faulty ASUS software that was supposed to let  you control memory timings would crash the PC just by running it. 

ASUS release an "EVALUATION BIOS" causing no end of pain, misery and wasted time.

BTW I have video and photos of the messages for BIOS.

The last time I struck an "EVALUATION BIOS"  was with a Toshiba Quosmio and they very quickly went "no, no, no you can't have an evaluation BIOS" and updated it very quickly because as far AFAIAA releasing evaluation BIOS's is illegal.

I would like a response please from the ASUS people who frequent here.

Needless to say I am less than happy.

[Silent_Scone]

Hello,

2501 does not appear to be "experimental", any beta BIOS that are uploaded to the support pages are flagged as such.

Given the trail of seemingly unrelated errors, did you apply DOCP post-flash? Can you post up this video you mention but haven't added to your post?

[FalloutBoy]

I have video evidence recorded as the system boots saying directly in the BIOS screen - EVALUATION VERSION and a separate photo showing the broken library name.

I am preparing to upload it here but I don't know if there is a maximum file size.

BTW You can only see it say EVALUATION VERSION of you turn OFF the ROG Logo while booting.

EDIT: Right now you can clearly see while BIOS is initializing it says "EVALUATION COPY"

[FalloutBoy]

The video is two large - 100mb,  I will do something to shorten it down, in the meantime the picture is attached of the one error i managed to photograph.

[Silent_Scone]

Can you confirm my question regarding DOCP? Memory kit PN?

[FalloutBoy]

The memory was not running in DOCP, the system had been reset to defaults barring the fact that the ROG Boot Animation had been disabled, it is only at this point that you see the message EVALUATION COPY, if you look at the video you will see the memory speed is 2133 Mhz, if it was running it's overclocked profile it would say 3000Mhz.

[Silent_Scone]

Was more in relation to the other numerous issues you've had that seemingly started from when you attempted to reinstall Windows, and not the watermark. I don't think it's in any way related, but you're right to flag it regardless.

There's a lot to digest, for instance, what are these visual oddities that caused you to disable the splash screen in the first instance?

[FalloutBoy]

When watching the cursor first appear at the end of post it was like it was trying to print things on the screen, the cursor would go down a line, delay, go down another line, then across to the right, delay then jump back to the top of the screen and then jump to the right by about four characters. I called it the cursor dance. I turned off the animations to try and identify what was causing this to happen. I never did figure that part out as I became transfixed on the two major issues the first being that the BIOS was showing EVALUATION COPY, the 2nd being that boot over ride was not behaving as it should.

Normally to do a boot overide you go into BIOS with the device already attached and then simply scroll down to the device you want to boot from and press enter and this will immediately begin to try and boot off the device you selected if the device is valid.

With this BIOS however you would go down and select the device to boot from and as soon as you did the system would save something to CMOS, then do a full reboot and boot off the device. This is not normal behaviour

You say that you don't think the watermark was related... then why when after attempting all else and not being able to boot past display initialization on USB does reverting the BIOS to a previous version fix the problem?.

The USB drives had been tested on my 2nd PC and all function normally, both PCs share those devices via a 16 Port USB hub attached to my KVM so the hardware between the two PC's is identical from that perspective - unless you can suggest something else which I have not considered the only thing left is whatever was causing the watermark... The BIOS.

[Silent_Scone]

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@FalloutBoy wrote:

You say that you don't think the watermark was related... then why when after attempting all else and not being able to boot past display initialization on USB does reverting the BIOS to a previous version fix the problem?.

The USB drives had been tested on my 2nd PC and all function normally, both PCs share those devices via a 16 Port USB hub attached to my KVM so the hardware between the two PC's is identical from that perspective - unless you can suggest something else which I have not considered the only thing left is whatever was causing the watermark... The BIOS.

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The AMI message is likely coincidental, the issues you're experiencing couldbe a multitude of things including AGESA changes, simply not enough cases to go on. Give me as much sys info as you can in order to try and replicate it.

Could you list your full system specs, please? Including the memory kit PN which I've requested above.

Thank you

[FalloutBoy]

Phanteks Enthoo 719 Chassis, Silverstone DA1659 PSU, Zenith Extreme Alpha motherbaord with AMD 2950X CPU, Corsair XMP based RAM 4 x 16G @ 18-18-18-36, Gigabyte 4080 GPU, 3 x Samsung 980 PRO 2TB NvME's two on the DIMM module one on the board, 1 x 4Tb Samsung EVO SATA SSD, 1 x 1TB Seagate Exos HD. 1 ACASIS 16 Port USB 3.1 Hub With Augmented 12v x 20Amp PSU Supplying 3A per 5v USB Port. 2 x Viewsonic XG2703GS Gsync Monitors at 2560x1440x144Hz , 1 x Alienware QD OLED AW3423DW Gsync at 2440x1440x175Hz running through A level 1 techs two system in 3 Monitor out KVM, Kingston HyperX Alloy Elite RGB Mechanical Keyboard, Razer DeatherAdder V2 Mouse.