**Official Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Discussion Thread**

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Updated to Windows 8.1. Noticed I needed SecureBoot enabled, I went ahead and enabled it and installed default secure keys. After that all I get now is a boot loop. Had to pull the battery to reset. Turns out with my AMD HD 7950's installed the system won't boot with these secure keys. Any resolution to this?
 
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Updated to Windows 8.1. Noticed I needed SecureBoot enabled, I went ahead and enabled it and installed default secure keys. After that all I get now is a boot loop. Had to pull the battery to reset. Turns out with my AMD HD 7950's installed the system won't boot with these secure keys. Any resolution to this?

I had an absolute nightmare with this. I installed a fresh 8.1 from an ISO and had the Secureboot isnt configured correctly watermark. I went to BIOS and changed Secureboot to custom and then clicked default keys. After doing this it completely borked my motherboard, I mean to the extent where removing the CMOS battery and shorting the CMOS reset pins did not fix the problem. I could not boot into the main BIOS or the backup BIOS. In the end I had to remove my graphics cards which btw are watercooled so this was major ball ache. I then had to somehow get into the BIOS, this I managed by repeatedly pressing Alt F10 and Ctrl F10 and fortunately got back into Windows.
I have reset my BIOS'es back to default settings and will not be turning Windows 8 on as the OS in the BIOS if I can help it. I will just hope that MS release some sort of fix to get rid of this Watermark.

I was all set to go back to Windows 7 after all this effort and I find it absolutely unacceptable what MS are doing.

I don't quite understand all this UEFI stuff if I am being honest so don't really know what is going on in the BIOS regarding it.
 
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I had an absolute nightmare with this. I installed a fresh 8.1 from an ISO and had the Secureboot isnt configured correctly watermark. I went to BIOS and changed Secureboot to custom and then clicked default keys. After doing this it completely borked my motherboard, I mean to the extent where removing the CMOS battery and shorting the CMOS reset pins did not fix the problem. I could not boot into the main BIOS or the backup BIOS. In the end I had to remove my graphics cards which btw are watercooled so this was major ball ache. I then had to somehow get into the BIOS, this I managed by repeatedly pressing Alt F10 and Ctrl F10 and fortunately got back into Windows.
I have reset my BIOS'es back to default settings and will not be turning Windows 8 on as the OS in the BIOS if I can help it. I will just hope that MS release some sort of fix to get rid of this Watermark.

I was all set to go back to Windows 7 after all this effort and I find it absolutely unacceptable what MS are doing.

I don't quite understand all this UEFI stuff if I am being honest so don't really know what is going on in the BIOS regarding it.

At least I'm not alone here.
It's something to do with the GPU BIOS I reckon, because they weren't "officially" installed in the PC, well Microsoft doesn't like that?
The Windows 8 mode in the BIOS just allows "Fast Boot" which actually does nothing at all. To avoid the boot loops just don't enable Secure Boot and install the keys.
Thanks for your reply.
 
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At least I'm not alone here.
It's something to do with the GPU BIOS I reckon, because they weren't "officially" installed in the PC, well Microsoft doesn't like that?
The Windows 8 mode in the BIOS just allows "Fast Boot" which actually does nothing at all. To avoid the boot loops just don't enable Secure Boot and install the keys.
Thanks for your reply.

I don't even use the Windows 8 option in the BIOS, I just set it to other OS.
 
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Anyone have this board and using Windows 8.1 and an Asus PCE-N53 wifi card?

I've had the machine running fine for days but after installing a few drivers for Win 8.1 from the gigabyte site the wifi card stopped working - something about Windows unable to load the driver. I had this when I first tried the card during the Windows 8.1 beta. So today I used windows restore and avoided installing either the chipset inf or intel me as I suspected one of those caused it but instead installed the Realtek drivers and had the same problem after a reboot!
 
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I've got mine running perfectly with Win 8.1 fast boot/secure boot. However it did take a bit of messing around to do so.

Firstly, the latest BIOS on the board helps, which is F16.

Secondly, Windows 8 must be installed in UEFI mode, with your boot drive in GPT format instead of MBR. If your boot drive is still in MBR format, you won't get it to work properly no matter how hard you try, it's a requirement.

Thirdly, in the BIOS, OS type needs to be set to Windows 8 WHQL, fast boot to enabled, and secure boot to custom. Then go in and install the default keys.

And lastly, the option for 'CSM' in the BIOS is quite important. To get the full benefit from fast boot, CSM must be disabled, but disabling it means your GPU also has to have a 'GOP' BIOS which a lot of them don't have by default (if any). I had to go to MSI's forum where one was posted, then I flashed the updated BIOS to my card with nvflash.

Boot loops would indicate to me that one of these things hasn't been done.

All in all, it's tricky enough to set up and the benefit isn't ground breaking. That being said, secure boot is a good thing, and fast boot is noticeable if it's set up correctly. With fast boot and secure boot enabled, from the POST screen to the windows desktop fully loaded takes just 4 seconds on my machine. Not that I care that much since I don't restart that often, but still it's nice that it's so fast when I do.
 
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I've got mine running perfectly with Win 8.1 fast boot/secure boot. However it did take a bit of messing around to do so.

Firstly, the latest BIOS on the board helps, which is F16.

Secondly, Windows 8 must be installed in UEFI mode, with your boot drive in GPT format instead of MBR. If your boot drive is still in MBR format, you won't get it to work properly no matter how hard you try, it's a requirement.

Thirdly, in the BIOS, OS type needs to be set to Windows 8 WHQL, fast boot to enabled, and secure boot to custom. Then go in and install the default keys.

And lastly, the option for 'CSM' in the BIOS is quite important. To get the full benefit from fast boot, CSM must be disabled, but disabling it means your GPU also has to have a 'GOP' BIOS which a lot of them don't have by default (if any). I had to go to MSI's forum where one was posted, then I flashed the updated BIOS to my card with nvflash.

Boot loops would indicate to me that one of these things hasn't been done.

All in all, it's tricky enough to set up and the benefit isn't ground breaking. That being said, secure boot is a good thing, and fast boot is noticeable if it's set up correctly. With fast boot and secure boot enabled, from the POST screen to the windows desktop fully loaded takes just 4 seconds on my machine. Not that I care that much since I don't restart that often, but still it's nice that it's so fast when I do.

How is secure boot a good thing? Please explain. I think it's terrible to be forced on us.
 
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Apologies, maybe I didn't word that the best. I didn't mean it was a good thing that it was forced on people. I meant secure boot itself as a feature is a good thing, if you can get it working.

The watermark sucks though, I don't know why it's even needed. Good old MS!
 
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Apologies, maybe I didn't word that the best. I didn't mean it was a good thing that it was forced on people. I meant secure boot itself as a feature is a good thing, if you can get it working.

The watermark sucks though, I don't know why it's even needed. Good old MS!

It tries to prevent dual booting Linux, so that alone makes it a terrible feature.
 
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Soldato
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Mine too is running great and see very little benefit in changing to the Z97 chipset.
I have just updated the backup BIOS to F16f, after running it for so long as the main BIOS.
If anything the equivalent Z97 version of this board seems to have less features than this Z77 one does, at least in respects to USB 3 headers.

Just noted that there is a F16g BIOS out now over at Tweaktown.
 
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Who are tweaktown ? Is it safe to download from them, where does the bios come from that's on their site, is it an official gigabyte one ?

What bios is everyone running and is the most stable, getting rid of that annoying "Power Surge On Hub Port" message would be great.
 
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