I recently updated the BIOS for my Asus ROG STRIX Z790-F GAMING WIFI to the latest 3202 version after realising I never updated it previously for years (link to Bios downloads). It went fine updating but afterwards, I’m given a Secure Boot Violation message when starting up, and I’ve identified it specifically when I’ve got a 4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD installed to a PCIE slot. Thankfully don’t have Windows booting from any attached SATA drives, but it all points to outdated certificates.
The message simply says “The system has found unauthorized changes on the firmware of device. Slot: PCIEx16(G4)_1.” and suggests to update the FW of the device, but according to your own product page, there simply isn’t any firmware to update.
It’s doesn’t stop me from continuing but it’s highly annoying. I need to keep Secure Boot enabled for gaming, and trying to reset the keys in the BIOS settings to default haven’t helped.
Thank you for posting your question here on the StarTech.com Community.
I did take a few moments to go over the support materials for the 4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD and some of the documentation from Asus. You are right, there currently are no firmware updates for this SATA controller and I have not seen this kind of issue come up for this card before. I did not see anything notable in my quick review of the Asus documentation for this motherboard either.
Since there are no firmware updates available right now, perhaps we can try to narrow down what is happening.
When you said that you see the issue specifically when a 4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD is installed in a PCIe slot. Does this mean that when the SATA controller is not installed the Secure Boot Violation message does not occur? Has it been possible to try this controller in other slots? If you have other PCIe adapters, can you try those in these PCIe slots too? These kinds of test could help us see if the issue is isolated to a particular device or see if there is something else going on at the motherboard level.
When you continue loading does the 4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD continue to work correctly without other issues?
Let us know how things go with those suggestions, if you have not already tried them, and we can look into this further if the issues continue to follow the 4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD controller.
Yep. Pretty much how I confirmed it was the card was by reseating the card between PCIEx16(G4)_1 and PCIEx16(G4)_2 and seeing the violation screen reflect that. This was also tested with and without any SATA connections. I have another PCIE adapter that gives additional USB-C ports at the back of the desktop; no issues there. This was all tested and confirmed by taking both items out and seeing when the boot violation screen would trigger.
The 4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD continues to work perfectly fine once I’ve booted in, as far as I can tell. Harddrives are still accessible etc.Research and troubleshooting so far seems to suggest that this has some relation to the device’s UEFI Option ROM which may not be compatible with the current Secure Boot trust/signing requirements. At least that is one of the few things I can think after all this digging into the message.
Thank you for confirming your troubleshooting steps. This certainly does seem to narrow things down.
Based on my reviews, it looks like there could be a few different things happening. However we can do our best to look into the 4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD further.
The best step here may be to reach out to our support team directly. I’ve created case: CAS-263428 for you to reference if you wish to reach out to us directly by chat or phone. If you prefer, I can also email you directly.
Let me know if you would like that email your if you have any other questions you would like to share here.
Feel free to email me. I can provide a photo of my card and the screen. I’ve re-tested it again to see if it had anything to do with Sata connections, and regardless, whichever slot it’s plug into even by itself, throws the secure boot message.