After the hard drive and CMOS battery were reseated, this computer now starts directly in UEFI setup. The 1TB WD Green SN350 NVMe SSD passes the built-in self-test and appears in the boot settings, but selecting it does not start the installed operating system. A Windows installation USB created with Microsoft's media tool also appears in the boot menu, but the computer will not boot from it either. The SSD is currently first in the boot order. The motherboard is an MSI PRO B650-VC WIFI. What settings or repairs should I try without making the situation worse?
3 Answers
For the USB, recreate it carefully with Microsoft’s official media creation tool and try a different USB port, preferably a rear motherboard port. Open the one-time boot menu and select the entry that starts with “UEFI:” followed by the USB name. If it appears but immediately returns to setup, try temporarily disabling Secure Boot or loading the motherboard’s default UEFI settings before testing again.
Since removing the CMOS battery resets firmware settings, check the UEFI boot mode and boot entries rather than only the drive order. The installed system may have been using a Windows Boot Manager entry that disappeared. Make sure the SSD is detected under NVMe or storage information, use UEFI mode for a modern Windows installation, and check whether a Windows Boot Manager entry is available. If it is missing, the EFI boot files may need to be rebuilt from the installer’s repair tools.
CSM is mainly for older legacy installations. Switching to it will not fix a normal GPT/UEFI Windows installation and can make the existing boot entry unusable, so leave CSM disabled unless the operating system was installed in legacy mode. If the installer USB still refuses to start, test another freshly created USB drive; if that works, use its Repair your computer options to rebuild the bootloader rather than reinstalling immediately.
The SSD is first in the boot priority, but selecting it still sends me back into UEFI instead of starting Windows.