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UEFI/BIOS Virus?

I have recently bought a new PC. Initially the W10 version was 1909 but very soon after purchase it was upgraded to 2004.

One of the first things I did was to create a recovery USB memory stick. This was prior to me knowing how to access the PC's BIOS/UEFI although I had read in the supplied user manual that one should be careful to avoid leaving DVDs in the DVD drive prior to shutting down. Immediately after creating the USB stick I carried out a restart expecting the PC to boot from the stick. It didn't although the stick's LED flickered. I also created a Macrium Reflect recovery DVD which also fails to boot despite the DVD LED flickering on a restart with the DVD in situ.

I took my USB recovery stick and a Macrium Reflect recovery stick to a friend where he was able to boot from both with his W10 PC, which is not the same model as mine. He also loaned me a bootable DVD which boots on his, but doesn't boot on mine.

My new PC is a Medion AKOYA E42019. I should be interested to know if anyone else out there has one of these, and if so are they able to boot from USB stick and DVD? Might my UEFI/BIOS have picked up a virus?

While creating this I had a warning about Potentialy Unwanted Apps being found. In the appropriate section of 'Settings' it was suggested I start the recommended actions, which I have done, only for them to reappear. It seems the threat is 'Low'.

I also notice in 'Settings' that 'Secure Boot' is ON, I would have thought a freshly created USB recovery stick would be secure, might my assumption be incorrect?

HI Jack

I am Dave, an Independent Advisor, I will help you with this . . .

Insert the USB

When you boot your laptop, repeatedly press the Esc key to boot into BIOS

In BIOS, find Secure/Safe Boot and turn that off

Set the USB drive as the primary Boot Device

Save those settings and restart, your laptop should then boot form that USB . . .
___________________________________________________________________

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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Hi Dave, I should point out perhaps that this is a Desktop. I use f2 to get into BIOS, which I think is now called UEFI.

I don't think I can use screenshots but I'll try to add images.

I noticed this one which was initially 'Legacy Enabled'. I've tried with it disabled but it makes no difference, with USB stick inserted the PC starts up from C disk which is an SSD on a PCIe interface.

Also I have this which shows the Boot order starting with SD card, then USB stick followed by DVD before the C disk

Unfortunately there are many terms in UEFI which are meaningless to me, e.g 'Newtwork Stack Driver' and 'Quiet Boot'.

I'm not sure whether I can change the 'Fixed Boot Order Priorities' but I shouldn't imagine it's necessary. As I've previously mentioned both USB and DVD LEDs flicker during start up, but they don't boot.

Incidentally I am able to access DVDs and USBs and read the content.

Hope this is useful.

I've noticed that in Windows 10 'Settings' that 'Secure Boot' is turned on. I should imagine this is as it should be.

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Hi Jack

1
Is there a Security Tab in your BIOS, if so, please provide a screenshot of that tab

2
If you choose that Legacy USB Support' option, what are the available options, it that just Enabled and Disabled?

3
If you change the Boot order so UEFI USB Key or UEFI USB Hard Disk is the default boot device, can you then boot form that USB drive?
___________________________________________________________________

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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At the moment I have a problem providing a screenshot of the EFI as my camera's battery has run flat and is currently charging. I'll wait until it's ready before I look into the EFI again.

The Legacy Support option is only Enabled or Disabled.

As for 'Boot Order' I'm not even sure if I will be able to change it. It says 'Fixed Boot Order' and it looks at three other locations prior to C disk. I don't have any SD card apart from what's in my camera and I'm not sure I could install a bootstrap on it anyway but it certainly seems to access USB stick followed by DVD.

I recall back in the days of BIOS one could swap the boot order about in order to boot from various bootable devices. On my previous PC, which stopped working totally and is the reason I bought this one, I could get into 'Boot Order' with a different f key than the one I used for BIOS. things seem to change.

Once my camera is up and running I'll take shots of ALL that's available in EFI and of course look for something relating to 'Security'.

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Hi Jack

Yes, please do take a photo of all the tabs in your BIOS when you can so I can then work out what is wrong, there has to be a way to change the boot order and that Secure Boot option should be available on all UEFI systems . . .
___________________________________________________________________

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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6 photos, the tab identies are not clear but I've taken a shot of each tab selection which shows which tab is selected.

I hope this helps. The Security tab is evident. I've no idea what is correct or incorrect but suffice to say I have not changed any BIOS settings, I didn't even know how to access BIOS/EFI until after I'd created the recovery USB which has never booted on this PC but has on my friends.

I honestly can't see the need to change the boot order. If one NEEDS to boot from anything other than the Hard drive 'C' then one simply needs to plug it into the appropriate socket in the case of SD or USB stick or DVD in DVD Drive. Start up, or restart will check to see if anything bootable is in any of these three locations before moving on to the C disk. Unfortunately my machine looks at USB stick or DVD but can't find the bootstrap.

The user manual supplied, which seems to have been written for Windows 8 PCs has a section dealing with Startup.

My recovery USB drive and/or recovery DVD are ignored.

Good Luck

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Hi Jack

Thank you for the screenshots . . .

Insert the USB flash drive

The first thing to do is on the Exit Tab, restore defaults, so we know we are starting at a correct point

Then on the Security Tab, turn off Secure Boot, what options are available if you click 'Secure Boot Mode'?

On the Boot Tab, can you use the up and down arrows to select UEFI USB Key or UEFI USB Hard Disk and then use the + and - keys to move that to top of the Boot Order?
___________________________________________________________________

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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I've been ordered to stop for lunch. I'll get onto this later this afternoon.

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Okay Jack!
___________________________________________________________________

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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We are getting somewhere. I was unable to make progress with changing the Boot Order and cannot help but think the word 'Fixed' is relevant. I noticed that 'Fast Boot' is selected. I have no idea what Fast Boot means but I thought it would not hurt to disable it. Having done so I am now able to boot from my Macrium Reflect recovery media, both DVD, which I created on this PC, and USB stick which I created a long time ago. Unfortunately it fails to boot from USB Windows 10 recovery sticks but now I will be able to sleep easier knowing that should the need arise I might be able to recover using a Macrium image. I'm very reluctant to change any of the Security settings.

Last week I recorded my problem on the Medion Webpage and today I have received a reaction. I will now let the chap know that I'm not out of the woods completely but at least I'm not lost.

I'll let you mark the topic as Closed should you think fit. Unfortunately the only options to 'Did this solve your problem?' are only Yes/No when the answer would be 'Partially'.

Many thanks for your help.

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Last updated November 12, 2023 Views 2,096 Applies to: