Windows 11 Setup freezes after a few seconds, and when it does not freeze, the computer restarts and returns to the beginning of the installation. This can happen anywhere in the installer, even before selecting or installing to the storage drive. The system uses an ASUS PRIME B550-PLUS AC-HES motherboard, Ryzen 7 5700G integrated graphics, a 2TB WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. The BIOS has been updated to version 3637, the SSD is detected in the M.2_1 slot, and the issue occurs with both the dedicated GPU and integrated graphics. The RAM has also been tested with one stick in DIMM_A2 and with multiple sticks. The Windows 11 USB was recreated, and an ei.cfg file was tested to manually select the Pro edition. What else could be causing the installer to freeze or restart?
2 Answers
Since it happens even while you are still on the initial setup screens, the SSD and Windows edition selection are probably not the only suspects. That pattern points more toward the installation USB, memory or CPU stability, power delivery, overheating, or another hardware issue. Try a freshly created installer on a different USB drive and test with the minimum hardware connected. Also check CPU temperatures and stability in the BIOS, and if possible test with another power supply or another memory stick.
The important detail is that the restart occurs regardless of where you are in Setup, not just when Windows starts writing to the NVMe drive. That makes this less likely to be an installation-target problem. I would first recreate the USB using an unmodified official ISO, remove the custom ei.cfg, and disconnect unnecessary drives and peripherals while testing.
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