One embodiment describes a computing system that includes a boot device. The boot device includes nonvolatile memory that stores startup routine instructions and a first pointer, in which the first pointer identifies a first one or more memory addresses in the nonvolatile memory where at least a portion of the startup routine instructions are stored, and a microcontroller that retrieves the startup routine instructions from the nonvolatile memory using the first pointer and determines whether the startup routine instructions are corrupted before executing any portion of the startup routine instructions. The computing system further includes a central processor communicatively coupled to the boot device, in which the central processor executes the startup routine instructions to initialize the computing system when the microcontroller determines that the startup routine instructions are not corrupted.