MSI A520M-A Pro with "U-Key" power-on lock removal

[brock-s]

I've searched the forums, including review of the "BIOS Guides, Methods, Resources and Tools" section but could not find anything regarding this problem. Additionally, I could not find a thread related to a U-Key lock on an MSI motherboard (or any other brand board for that matter).

I'm working on an MSI A520M-A Pro (aka MS-7C96 ver1.1) motherboard that displays "Warning!!! Please insert USB key press any key to check." upon power-on. This appears to be caused by a setting in the BIOS for "U-Key" being enabled. The owner states they didn't enter the BIOS and didn't intentionally set any "U-Key" lock. This locks the motherboard power-on process so that it will not continue without the key. Resetting the BIOS did not remove this lock. Ultimately, the motherboard was replaced with a new one. However, within a week, the same problem occurred on the new motherboard. Once again, the owner states they were not in the BIOS and did not set any power-on locks.

I'm hoping I can get some help from someone who could possibly look at the locked BIOS and the clean copy from MSI's latest bios update and remove this lock. There are two EEPROM's on the motherboard: a Winbond 25Q256JWEQ, and an MXIC 25V2033F (this was read using an xgecu T56 programmer - using the settings for a 25V2035F since it doesn't have the 25V2033F in it's library).

[m1ch43lzm]

Try, I used 7C96v1I as base, copy from 1021000h-10219FFh and 1029000h-10299FFh from your original BIOS to the new one downloaded from MSI website
NVRAM area should be clean now
Flash the W25Q256JW only

The owner states they didn't enter the BIOS and didn't intentionally set any "U-Key" lock.

UkeyData NVRAM variable is populated in the original dump

22 03 31 00 31 00 37 00 32 00 30 00 39 00 31 00 30 00 30 00 30 00 34 00 39 00 36 00 30 00 36 00 35 00