z600 EFUI/BIOS performance and access at boot

[BillF5]

Recent z600 clean install of Win 10, with display of boot sequence enabled in BIOS. After weeks of correct operation system started direct to Win desktop without displaying boot sequence.  After that unable to access startup menu with F10 - system also unresponsive to ESC, F2, F8, DEL rapid key presses at startup. Inserted Win 10 installation DVD is seen at startup but Win boot does not run. Boot from USB was enabled but now HP UEFI Tool , and  HP 3-in-1 maintenance utility, on new USB flash drives, are ignored at startup. Win 10 starts and  runs normally after the alternative startup options fail. The problem seems to narrow down to a corrupted EUEFI or BIOS, but that is itself preventing tools to address the problem  from running. Assistance requested and appreciated.

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

PCs don't normally do what you are saying unless something was changed.  Typically, a BIOS parameter enabled for FAST STARTUP will produce the situation that you are describing.  Your BIOS may alos have a Startup screeb delay function which may or may also come into pplay depending how this function would interact with Fast Startup.

Hold down the shift key and then do a restart which should get you into the Advanced menu, then Troubleshooting and finally UEFI/BIOS settings. When the PC is rebooted you should be into the BIOS.

[SDH]

From HP:

"Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is firmware code from a chip on your motherboard that provides extra functionality, beyond the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS)."

UEFI does not exist for the Z400/Z600/Z800 generation of workstations.  It starts with the Z620 etc. era.

I have been able to get into and work with HP BIOS using PS2 keyboard and mouse when USB keyboard and mouse could not.... try that.  HP ones are easy to find and buy cheaply off eBay, even new.

[Big_Dave]

@SDH

True.

So if what you are claiming is true then why is the OP posting misleading information?

[BillF5]

Thanks to all for responses.  I used your suggestions (including shifting to a PS2 keyboard)  in another round of diagnosis after a clean reinstall of Win 10 Pro using a new download from Microsoft. The pattern is clear now that the computer boots correctly from C:  and runs normally, but will not start from any other source. The problem was first noticed when BIOS POST messages (set to display at startup) failed to appear and startup went straight to login screen. The second failure layer is that F10 (or F2, Esc, Del, etc) will not start BIOS settings. The third layer is failure to start from any bootable CD and USB media - they are all accessed and in each case the system then hangs with dark screen and no activity light.  

The behavior suggests Secure Boot type of action - all sources but C: are blocked. This z600 has the second generation system board - I thought it used UEFI but UEFI firmware settings option is not included in choices surfaced by shift + restart Advanced Options.

Possible?: Windows Defender can do pre-boot scans and I expect can deliver something like Secure Boot, but there is no report of it seeing and responding to a threat. 

[SDH]

Dave..... it can be confusing stuff, and this would not be the first time UEFI was thought to be available on the Z400 600 800 workstations.

To the OP... I'm running W10Pro64 CU fine on my version 2 Z600s.  Feel free to PM me with your email and I'll send you my Replicated Setup BIOS settings so you can flash those in to try them out.  You can save yours first and go back to them easily with Replicated Setup too.

Since your UUID is now registered with the central MS W10 authentication servers it should be easy to reload W10 from scratch, but it is a hassle.  So, first you might want to go back into BIOS and select to load the default BIOS settings and try that set out.  

Mine are optimized for security and speed with SSD or M.2 PCIe card boot, and with documents drive.  For the M.2 approach I have only been able to get the Predator M.2 to boot, and only using the specific HP storage controller driver I've posted about here in the past (9.6.0.1014, via the HP SP65107 in the HP Z600 download site, the older of the two there).

[BillF5]

I can report a solution to my "disappearing BIOS" problem.

Experiments showed that BIOS messages are transmitted from the DVI port to a standard VGA monitor. They are not transmitted from the DP ports to DP monitors.  

The working setup uses all 3 ports on my Quadro 4000 to drive one VGA and 2 DP monitors. On startup the VGA monitor lights up and displays BIOS messages and active option buttons, and begins login then blanks as the DP monitors open on the login screen.

Unexpected extra hardware,  but it works.

[Ro808]

You may want to check your bios for graphics options in the (advanced) bios settings.
Another solution to bypass the need for the vga monitor: look for "auto input/signal settings" on your DP monitors.