2

When using either VeraCrypt or BitLocker full system disk encryption for my Windows 10 Pro install, I see the behavior seen in this GIF image. When doing the initial "system check" where I reboot to see if full disk encryption works, I find that I cannot reliably type my password.

Animated GIF image showing an empty VeraCrypt preboot password prompt, me hitting a single key, and then an inordinate number of characters showing up on screen

A single key press at the boot authentication screen results in multiple characters being added to the password field. The input is distorted. This is not simply a view/display/feedback choice to disguise the password. It's as if the keyboard is too sensitive/fast and multiple keys are input to the box.

Animated GIF image showing an empty BitLocker preboot password prompt, me hitting a single key, and then an inordinate number of characters showing up on screen

With VeraCrypt, if I hit Esc, the screen shows a progress bar then freezes and I have to reboot. The screen locks up at different points in the progress bar when that happens. It's not consistent. 1/50 or so times I'm able to hit Esc and successfully bypass the test boot screen and get back to Windows.

For BitLocker, Esc reliably gets me back to Windows any time I use it.

This issue behaves very similarly for both VeraCrypt and BitLocker, but it is slightly different for BitLocker. In the past, BitLocker behaved almost identically to VeraCrypt, but when I test today I see that BitLocker immediately freezes after I hit any key that is not Esc.

I've tried...

  • Different USB ports
  • Different keyboards
  • PS/2 to USB keyboard adapters
  • Using an Arduino device which typed out the password to emulate a keyboard
  • Tweaking various BIOS/UEFI settings
  • Clearing TPM keys and updating chipset drivers

BitLocker actually did work for me in the past after some troubleshooting. The password prompt was fine then. However, one day after a Windows update ran, this issue cropped up again. I had to try and try until I could get to the recovery tools and manually decrypt the disk. I tested again today with the hope things were magically fine, but no. The preboot authentication process is too finicky for me to trust at this point.

I'm on an Asus AB350 Pro4 with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X.

It seems I'm not the only person with this issue. Someone even has an identical CPU, and a potential fix of their own with UEFI settings, but it sounds like their "fix" seems not to have fully resolved things.

Improve this question
4
  • Are you sure multiple characters are actually being detected and this isn’t just a privacy option? I assume you have tried to type the password and it’s NOT actually accepted?
    – Ramhound
    Dec 31, 2020 at 23:11
  • Yes. It's not simply a visual feedback mechanism. The input is mangled. My password does not work, and Backspace does not delete a consistent number of asterisk characters.
    – Will Haley
    Dec 31, 2020 at 23:14
  • Lotus Notes does this on purpose. Is there another field that you can type into and observe the actual characters being typed?
    – music2myear
    Jan 1, 2021 at 18:21
  • Unfortunately there's no other field I can really test against. This is the initial sort of pre-flight check where I reboot and the encryption system wants to verify thing are working before it starts encrypting. In the past, I did have BitLocker working (no idea what allowed it to work then), but eventually it stopped working and started doing this input weirdness. When BitLocker was actually installed and functioning in the past I was able to drop to WinPE/recovery tools when this issue cropped up. I could use the recovery tools to manually decrypt, but I can't get back to that state again
    – Will Haley
    Jan 1, 2021 at 19:38

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Updating to the latest firmware seems to have resolved this issue for me.

Once I updated to BIOS version 6.40, I was able to get VeraCrypt working. Keyboard input works reliably. One key press yields one character in the password field and my password is accepted.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .