UEFI - No bootable devices

Question

Hi all,

At the end of my wits after 2 days wasted on trying to get my laptop to install fresh, following a hard drive upgrade.

Dell G3 3579, latest BIOS version installed (1.24.0).

I cannot get any devices to boot in UEFI mode - neither internal drive, nor USB sticks.

Tried two different USB sticks, tried all USB ports, tried to reset BIOS to default/factory/last known good settings, Safe Boot On/Off.

I can boot in Legacy Mode External Drives but that means no Secure Boot and therefore unable to install Windows 11 (unless using Rufus and turn off the TPM/Secure Boot requirements.. and even after that it won't boot from the internal drive).

Methods attempted:

-Dell OS Recovery Tool USB drive

- Windows Media Creator Tool USB drive

- Rufus and Windows 11 ISO (UEFI)

- @Philip_Yip USB drive guide.

I always get critical error "No bootable devices found". USB sticks work correctly on a different laptop (e.g. Dell OS Recovery Tool happy to book on Asus Zenbook but on the G3).

It must be a BIOS issue, but I cannot find a way to fix it. The only half baked solution is booting to Legacy with the Windows Media Creator USB (installation fails due to Safe Boot not enabled) or Rufus with Windows ISO and using MBR + disabling the options to check for TPM/Safe Boot (installation completes successfully, need to use the flash drive to boot every time otherwise it will not boot from the freshly installed Windows in UEFI).

Any idea what might be preventing any kind of boot when UEFI is set in BIOS?

Thanks in advance.

nightmans · Answer

to add to the above:

Used F12 to choose UEFI/Legacy USB during boot. Tried to restore the partitions of the original SSD from a Macrium image to the new SSD. Tried to rebuild the BCD, assign letter to the EFI partition and can't remember what else, while trying to stay sane and not give in to desperation.

The most frustrating thing is that the original SSD has not been touched following the upgrade, but putting it back in the laptop still results in the error rather than booting to what was there couple of days ago.

JOcean · Answer

UEFI, Secure Boot, TPM (or PTT) and AHCI should be enabled for Windows 11. Also make sure after you install Windows 11 that Windows Boot Manager is the first item in the BIOS boot order. And try another USB port as I have seen the installation get sketchy on one port but not another.

nightmans · Answer

Thanks @JOcean ,

UEFI, Secure Boot, PTT and AHCI are enabled in the BIOS, but I cannot boot to any of the USB drives in that config, always get the error. All USB ports have been tried with no success.

nightmans · Answer

Tried BIOSConnect today, recovery OS was downloaded from the Dell Cloud and after the message that the device is rebooting to recovery it came up with the same error for no bootable devices, it did not load the recovery at all.

Tried to remove the CMOS battery (unplugged the main battery too) and time and settings were reset, but still same error.

Tried to flash the latest BIOS using the recovery image file - same.

Tried downgrading the BIOS to v 1.15 using recovery image file - same, no boot from devices in UEFI, legacy works for USB.

Saltgrass · Answer

Booting to just the UEFI USB drive should not be problematic, if it is configured correctly. As long as Secure Boot is enabled, you should be able to see it as a UEFI option.

Do you run Optane Memory in that system?

The replacement drive was new and did not need to be cleaned? I have seen situations where a problematic system drive could mess up booting the system. You might try without the drive installed to see if you can boot the USB drive.

Your current configuration of the USB drive is one created using the Media Creation Tool?

Can we assume you have a have a working system you can use for downloading?

Any chance you could get a picture of the Bios and what it shows as current bootable devices. Keep in mind, a UEFI drive needs to be available to the system prior to booting or restarting.

nightmans · Answer

Thanks @Saltgrass ,

The laptop is with the original 8 GB DDR4 Samsung RAM, no Optane installed.

The replacement drive was brand new, no need to clean it (also performed several CLEAN commands in DISKPART during my attempts).

I disconnected the HDD and removed the M2 during troubleshooting and attempted booting from the USB drive only - I get the same error for no bootable devices.

Currently have three differently built USB sticks: Windows Media Creation Tool Windows 11 (tried with Windows 10 as well), Rufus built USB stick with Windows 11 ISO from the Media Creation Tool and Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery USB - none can boot when I select a UEFI option from the boot list. The Windows Media Creation tool created USB stick can boot in legacy, Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery USB requires UEFI and fails in legacy.

I have alternative working system which I can use for downloads and USB building.

Pictures to follow shortly.

Saltgrass · Answer

OK, Optane memory is not system memory but a prefetch device to speed up drive operation. It shows as optional on your system. It is normally in an M.2 slot, if you had it.

You should only have the primary drive installed when trying to do a clean install. The old drive can confuse the Install. What is the model number of the new drive?

When you look at the boot device listing, do you see the UEFI version of the USB drive. In some cases, it may be listed as both types so you have to select the correct one.

It might help if you could take a picture of what you are seeing when you try to boot.

nightmans · Answer

@Saltgrass , new M2 is 500 GB WD Blue SN570 NVME, replacing the factory installed 128 GB Intel SATA SSD (problem really similar to this thread, but I cannot find the storage pool referenced, maybe @MrKocurik can shed some light about his solution.. my complication is not being able to boot from USB drives anymore as well..)

I tried Ubuntu disk (USB with Ubuntu 22.10, built with balenaEtcher) and I can successfully boot from Ubuntu USB drive and I can install and use Ubuntu on the new SSD drive.