Unable to enter BIOS setup screens on ASRock B550 MB

I have an ASRock Steel Legend AMD B550 MB that I have been using since last July. I have 5 OSs installed in this PC, each on a different M.2 drive, so I use the BIOS settings screen to bring up the boot order to select a drive. This has worked fine since last July and continued to work OK after the latest BIOS update months ago. Even continue to work fine when I switched to a new ASUS video card with 4 HDMI ports -- to drive three flat panel monitors I have connected.

Then suddenly, a few weeks ago, I rebooted, pressed F11 to get into the BIOS boot order screen, and the screen went blank. PC did not shut down, but the screen remained blank and dark. I tried again, pressing the Del key, and the same thing happened.

Thinking it might be the video card (since only text is displayed upon reboot but the BIOS settings screens, being UEFI, are graphic) I switched to an older card that had only one video port, reconnected the primary monitor, rebooted, and it was OK again. I tried each of the three monitors in turn, and in each case, was able to reboot into BIOS settings without issue. To me, that rules out the monitors and cables as being the issue. So, I suspected the video card -- which I then replaced with a new one.

But when I reconnected the monitors and rebooted, I got the same dark, blank screen. When I disconnected all but one monitor, it did reboot into the BIOS settings OK. I put the old card back -- and with only one monitor, it also rebooted into the BIOS settings screen OK. So, that ruled out the video card as the issue.

Not knowing what else to do, I replaced the motherboard with a new one. But after spending two days swapping the two and reconnecting everything, discovered the very same problem again. I thought it might be a video setting in the BIOS settings, so I changed it from "HD" to "AUTO" -- with no change other than much larger text on the initial boot screen.

With the OSs being on m.2 NVMe drives connected to the motherboard, unlike with 2.5 inch SSDs connected with cables, there is no simple way to change the boot order without getting into the BIOS settings, so I was stuck booting into one OS.

Since then, things have changed...

First, I discovered workarounds to get into the BIOS settings from inside Windows. You press a key when restarting Windows, this gets you to a Troubleshooting screen, which allows you to reboot into UEFI/Firmware settings after that. Then, you get the regular BIOS settings screens.

Second, I noticed that the date/time in the taskbar was wrong -- not by an hour (due to DST) but by 45 minutes. So, I checked the BIOS battery, confirmed it was low, and replaced that. Then (as if by some miracle) I was suddenly able to reboot into the BIOS settings again!

So, I chalked this all up to a BIOS battery failure -- even though that does not make a lot of sense!

But then last week, during a routine reboot, the screen blackout was back. So, swapped BIOS batteries again, but this time, that fixed nothing. I can still do the workarounds, but direct boot into BIOS settings no longer works -- again.

I don't know what else to try -- other than replacing the motherboard again -- which is a time and cost expense I am trying to avoid.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to present all the details such that, if anyone else has run into this, maybe they can provide me some ideas.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions.

@Mark Phelps

Maker sure the BIOS time/date matches the Windows time/date exactly... or things will get seriously weird.

Ghot said:

@Mark Phelps

Maker sure the BIOS time/date matches the Windows time/date exactly... or things will get seriously weird.

Click to expand...

I don't think that will help. The BIOS doesn't care about Windows time.

geneo said:

I don't think that will help. The BIOS doesn't care about Windows time.

Click to expand...

I agree -- the two (AFAIK) are unrelated.

Mark Phelps said:

I agree -- the two (AFAIK) are unrelated.

Click to expand...

No. I'm just saying... that while you're troubleshooting one problem, don't inadvertently let the BIOS/Windows time, get out of whack. I could have worded that better... above.

Mark Phelps said:

I agree -- the two (AFAIK) are unrelated.

Click to expand...

As to your problem.... when I first started using my RTX 2070 (up from a 780 Ti), I had an issue with black screens at weird times during the boot process. Without getting into an 18 page dissertation, I found out that it matters which monitors are plugged into which vid card ports.

In my case I have a DELL monitor and an LG TV. The LG TV had to be HDMI, because it had no other ports.
That left 3 display port connectors on the vid card for the DELL monitor.

The DELL is set to be my primary display.





If I want the entire boot process, from BIOS splash screen to Windows desktop, to "show" on the DELL (the primary display), the DELL "must" be connected to the display port marked with the green dot.


Short version...

Your black screen, may not really be a black screen. It may just be that what you "should" be seeing on the screen, is actually showing up on another monitor that might be turned off.

In my case... the first half of the boot process, was showing up on my LG TV, which was turned off.
Once I experimented and found the correct vid card port, for the DELL... the entire boot process showed on the DELL,
and all was fine in computer land, again.

EVGA premium tech support verified, that when I used the HDMI port... it mattered "which" display port I used.
Something in the vid card firmware (BIOS), was responsible for this.

When explaining the problem to EVGA tech support... the guy said: "Turn on the TV and reboot".
And there was the first half of the boot process, on the TV.



Really short version...

I can reproduce this problem 100% of the time. If I hook the DELL to either of the display ports marked with the blue dots, I get the first half of the boot process on my LG TV.
Right after the Windows spinning progress bar, the screen image returns to the DELL.

Ghot said:

As to your problem.... when I first started using my RTX 2070 (up from a 780 Ti), I had an issue with black screens at weird times during the boot process. Without getting into an 18 page dissertation, I found out that it matters which monitors are plugged into which vid card ports.

In my case I have a DELL monitor and an LG TV. The LG TV had to be HDMI, because it had no other ports.
That left 3 display port connectors on the vid card for the DELL monitor.

The DELL is set to be my primary display.

View attachment 52614



If I want the entire boot process, from BIOS splash screen to Windows desktop, to "show" on the DELL (the primary display), the DELL "must" be connected to the display port marked with the green dot.


Short version...

Your black screen, may not really be a black screen. It may just be that what you "should" be seeing on the screen, is actually showing up on another monitor that might be turned off.

In my case... the first half of the boot process, was showing up on my LG TV, which was turned off.
Once I experimented and found the correct vid card port, for the DELL... the entire boot process showed on the DELL,
and all was fine in computer land, again.

EVGA premium tech support verified, that when I used the HDMI port... it mattered "which" display port I used.
Something in the vid card firmware (BIOS), was responsible for this.

When explaining the problem to EVGA tech support... the guy said: "Turn on the TV and reboot".
And there was the first half of the boot process, on the TV.



Really short version...

I can reproduce this problem 100% of the time. If I hook the DELL to either of the display ports marked with the blue dots, I get the first half of the boot process on my LG TV.
Right after the Windows spinning progress bar, the screen image returns to the DELL.

Click to expand...

In my case, all three are flat panel monitors and are all on all the time. I can try switching the cables to see if that makes any difference.

A detail I forgot to mention is that the first time this happened, the PC would boot into the UEFI settings with any ONE of the three monitors connected to any of the four ports. But the second time, it will NOT boot into the UEFI settings, regardless of which port and which monitor is connected.

But I can experiment and see if anything changes.

Thanks for the information.

UPDATE: OK, so I disconnected all three monitors and then, with each one alone, I connected it to each of the four video ports and in ALL cases, the results were the same -- the initial text screen comes up, I press the Del key, the screen clears, there is a quiet "click" inside the PC, and the screen stays dark.

Do you have a new USB peripheral attached to the PC while trying to reboot to boot menu? Your PC proabably cannot complete the POST because of a driver issue with a USB peripheral. Try leaving just the mouse and the keyboard.

badrobot said:

Do you have a new USB peripheral attached to the PC while trying to reboot to boot menu? Your PC proabably cannot complete the POST because of a driver issue with a USB peripheral. Try leaving just the mouse and the keyboard.

Click to expand...

OK, so I disconnected all the USB devices, including the dongle for the Logitech WiFi mouse, connected a Microsoft wired mouse, rebooted, pressed Del -- and the UEFI settings came up! So, it looked like drivers WERE the issue, most likely, the Logitech drivers, and that made sense since I recently updated Logitech Options+.

So, I then removed all the Logitech software and went into the DriverStore and removed the Logitech drivers. I shut down the PC, figuring this was solved.

Then, I rebooted later and went into the UEFI settings again -- and once again, got a black screen after pressing the Del key.

I rebooted into Windows, went into Control Panel and confirmed no Logitech apps or software were installed. I ran a DISM command to export the driver list and confirmed no Logitech drivers were installed.

So, I'm back to square zero, again.

Mark Phelps said:

OK, so I disconnected all the USB devices, including the dongle for the Logitech WiFi mouse, connected a Microsoft wired mouse, rebooted, pressed Del -- and the UEFI settings came up! So, it looked like drivers WERE the issue, most likely, the Logitech drivers, and that made sense since I recently updated Logitech Options+.

So, I then removed all the Logitech software and went into the DriverStore and removed the Logitech drivers. I shut down the PC, figuring this was solved.

Then, I rebooted later and went into the UEFI settings again -- and once again, got a black screen after pressing the Del key.

I rebooted into Windows, went into Control Panel and confirmed no Logitech apps or software were installed. I ran a DISM command to export the driver list and confirmed no Logitech drivers were installed.

So, I'm back to square zero, again.

Click to expand...

Your PC is randomly having POST issue.
You might want to look into POST troubleshooting.

Mark Phelps said:

So, I'm back to square zero, again.

Click to expand...

Have you tried re-seating the RAM.
Intermittent RAM connection has been known to cause black screen.

Ghot said:

Have you tried re-seating the RAM.
Intermittent RAM connection has been known to cause black screen.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have just tried that -- and no change.

While it also COULD be a BIOS version issue, since I have updated the BIOS since installing the board, I don't know if I can even get the old BIOS version back, and in my own experience, using the latest BIOS version is usually the best policy.

The only "new" hardware I added after using this motherboard for months without any issues is the ASUS video card. And, if that was the problem, I would think that replacing it with the original Nvidia video card would eliminate the problem, but it does not.

I'm thinking the ONLY way to "fix" this is to change motherboards to a completely different brand -- but the B550s are getting hard to find now that the newer models are out, and I don't have the $250 for another board right now.

Besides, since I have workarounds, I can eventually get into the UEFI settings, it's just a LOT MORE complicated than simply pressing a key during the boot process.

If those workarounds quit working, I probably WILL have to get a different board.