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OpenCore locks out BIOS

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Jul 31, 2012
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94
Motherboard
GA-Z97X-UD5H rev1.1
CPU
i5 4690K
Graphics
intel HD 4600
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
  2. iOS
I've been using a hackintosh with clover for a long time now and decided to try opencore. The installation went smoothly and everything is working well except for my bios. Now with opencore, when I try to access my bios, I'll get a blackscreen with an underscore "_" flashing on the top left. I've read that people had this issue but trying things like a CMOS reset didn't fix it.

The only way I fixed it was removing all my drives, and flashing the latest bios version with Q-Flash and it worked again. Booting into windows and back into my bios worked perfectly, except when I connected my opencore drive and booted into macOS. Booting back into my bios results in the same problem. Any luck on this? I'm using opencore 0.6.1

Motherboard: GA-Z97X-UD5H rev 1.1

Processor: i5 4690k

GPU: iGPU
 
I struggled with this problem for more than a week you need to short the cmos to getting everything working again I did exactly what you did had it working then as soon as it power cycled back to the blinking cursor
You short pins 1 and 6 with both ends of a paperclip and hold it while powering on it took about three tries to get it
On gigabyte motherboards there is a dot on the primary bios chip that denotes pin 1 then you just count to 6 which is the 2nd pin on the other side
This is why I went back to clover this happens to so many people and it is not in the troubleshooting I was ready to buy another motherboard and swap everything out till I luckily figured this out
 
I've been using a hackintosh with clover for a long time now and decided to try opencore. The installation went smoothly and everything is working well except for my bios. Now with opencore, when I try to access my bios, I'll get a blackscreen with an underscore "_" flashing on the top left. I've read that people had this issue but trying things like a CMOS reset didn't fix it.

The only way I fixed it was removing all my drives, and flashing the latest bios version with Q-Flash and it worked again. Booting into windows and back into my bios worked perfectly, except when I connected my opencore drive and booted into macOS. Booting back into my bios results in the same problem. Any luck on this? I'm using opencore 0.6.1

Motherboard: GA-Z97X-UD5H rev 1.1

Processor: i5 4690k

GPU: iGPU

No idea how to help. But I have read several similar stories using OpenCore with a Gigabyte Z97 motherboard on another site (search on Google "OpenCore cannot access BIOS"). It seems that OpenCore does have issues with some Gigabyte Z97 motherboards and in some cases the BIOS was corrupted beyond repair.

I would suggest you abandon OpenCore and go back to Clover on your system. You may be able to use OpenCore again if you upgrade to a newer motherboard in the future.
 
Disable Bootstrap in opencore --> Misc --> BootProtect None and your problems should be history.
Bootstrap is meant to protect your bios from being modified by operating systems directly, without you ever knowing, unfortunately it also causes one to be locked out from accessing ones own bios settings and manifests itself particularly severely when used in conjunction with a Z97 based mobo.
Greetings Henties
 

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Disable Bootstrap in opencore --> Misc --> BootProtect None and your problems should be history.

Bootstrap is meant to protect your bios from being modified by operating systems directly, without you ever knowing, unfortunately it also causes one to be locked out from accessing ones own bios settings and manifests itself particularly severely when used in conjunction with a Z97 based mobo.

Greetings Henties

Wow really? Thanks for your information.

This "feature" of OpenCore should be accompanied by a big warning and should be disabled by default in my opinion. How can a bootloader block access to (and may even corrupt) the motherboard BIOS?
 
@Jamesbond007 , Bootprotect with Bootstrap activated has its merits and works quite well with my Skylake build, but on my particular Haswell incarnation, being based on a GA-Z97X-UD3H mobo and bios release F10b, it turns day into night and blocks me from entering my bios altogether. It may be board and bios specific, I would therefore hesitate to knock the feature outright out of existence.

Greetings Henties.
 
Disable Bootstrap in opencore --> Misc --> BootProtect None and your problems should be history.
Bootstrap is meant to protect your bios from being modified by operating systems directly, without you ever knowing, unfortunately it also causes one to be locked out from accessing ones own bios settings and manifests itself particularly severely when used in conjunction with a Z97 based mobo.
Greetings Henties

This fixed the issue for me on my Z97MX-Gaming-5. I can now access my BIOS. Thank you @Henties !

For anyone else with a similar issue - note that you must change the setting in OpenCore, reboot and reset your NVRAM before the new setting takes effect as per the OpenCore documentation note under "BootProtection".
 
Disable Bootstrap in opencore --> Misc --> BootProtect None and your problems should be history.
Bootstrap is meant to protect your bios from being modified by operating systems directly, without you ever knowing, unfortunately it also causes one to be locked out from accessing ones own bios settings and manifests itself particularly severely when used in conjunction with a Z97 based mobo.
Greetings Henties

Just done my first OpenCore build on an old haswell machine for someone. You're a lifesaver, thank you!
Still getting proper strange behaviour though, if I use the arrow keys on my keyboard to select anything on OpenCore, it locks up and continuously scrolls like the down key is frozen. Also resetting NVRAM makes the computer restart and then hit a frozen OpenCore menu. Very strange. Honestly, not a fan. Now that I can get to the BIOS again, the keyboard freezes once I'm in there and I can only use the mouse. Ah well. Thanks again!
 
Probably best to file a bug report with OC devs I guess, with a complete log file. Just checked the bug tracker, and no one has reported this issue...
I think it's slightly unfair to say its a bad feature if no one has told the devs that it's broken, especially if only on some "older" motherboards (not that Z97 is that old) which the devs themselves probably don't use anymore.
 
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