I built my first PC in several years, but it will not reach the BIOS normally. With the NVMe SSD and USB drive disconnected, it opens the BIOS. As soon as either device is connected, the system stops at a black screen with a white dash. The SSD is brand new, and I created the USB drive as Windows 11 installation media, but Windows has not been installed yet. I already tried setting the USB as the first boot option and the SSD as the second. Are there BIOS settings or hardware checks that might fix this? My system uses a Ryzen 5 5500, Gigabyte B550M K motherboard, 16 GB DDR4 memory, RX 5500 XT graphics card, Kingspec NE 2280 512 GB NVMe SSD, and a 500 W power supply.
2 Answers
Boot order alone will not help if the installer USB was not created as a proper UEFI boot device. Recreate the Windows 11 installer with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool or Rufus, choose GPT for the partition scheme and UEFI as the target system, then connect the USB and enter the motherboard's one-time boot menu to select the entry labeled something like “UEFI: USB.” You do not need to set the empty SSD as a boot option yet; Windows Setup will partition and install to it.
Since either device makes the system hang before you can use them, check the hardware as well. Power off completely, reseat the NVMe drive and its retaining screw, and make sure it is installed in the motherboard's supported M.2 slot. Test with only the SSD connected, then only the USB connected. If the SSD still causes the same behavior, clear CMOS and load the BIOS defaults; updating the motherboard BIOS may also help with NVMe compatibility.
Fast Boot is worth disabling while troubleshooting, but it normally would not cause a correctly made installer to stop at a blank screen. If the drive is detected in BIOS but the computer freezes when it is connected, the SSD itself or its firmware may be defective.
Also try a different rear motherboard USB port, preferably USB 2.0 if one is available. If the USB installer works, boot from it and choose the unallocated NVMe drive during setup.