Right-o; I've moved the contents of my PC (Asus P8Z77-V LX, Core i7 2600K) to a new case as the old one is rotting away.
I also took the opportunity to perform a clean Windows 7 install and update the MOBO BIOS to the latest version. (I may have forgotten the first rule of motherboard flashing:
don't, unless you have a damn good reason.) I used the EZ-Flash utility in the UEFI BIOS and the tool take care of the rest without apparent issue. All other chipset drivers were likewise downloaded and updated
Until it rebooted to complete the update: the PC went on a power cycle loop for 2-3 minutes. It eventually booted into Windows, but it was a little frightening at the time. This pattern would repeat when I entered and exited the UEFI BIOS menu (even when I when didn't make any changes or I reset to the default settings).
However, were I to power the system on after this (and not enter the UEFI BIOS menu) it would boot Windows without issue.
Now, I suspect the issue here is that I am using Windows 7, which does not seem to support UEFI (though you can perform a UEFI installation with a little work, I did not this in instance). However, since I have disabled
Secure Boot/ Windows UEFI Boot in the UEFI BIOS, these issues have seemed to disappear. I should maybe make mention at this point that I have a legitimate, validated copy of Windows 7 installed, just in case someone thought the error was due to a pirated copy of Windows.
So, is that all there is to it? Can I still take advantage of the UEFI BIOS (say, for the purposes of overclocking) if I am not running a UEFI-compatible Windows install, i.e. can I still change my settings via the UEFI BIOS menu and have these changes register?
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(However, I have been ignoring occasional prompts to update my BIOS for roughly that entire time, because I suspected the first rule mentioned above was the wiser course even if I didn't know it was a rule...)
Anyway, if the mods could lock this thread, I'd be grateful. I don't think there's any reason not to suspect that Secure Boot was the reason for the issues mentioned above.