The Asus Z97 Pro stopped booting after you installed an SSD.
The Asus Z97 Pro stopped booting after you installed an SSD.
You might also consider setting the BIOS to use its default settings. They should perform the same action.
I powered off the PC, unplugged the power cord, and removed the CMOS battery for about two minutes if that’s the right procedure. After replacing the battery, I turned on the PC again and still faced the problem. It looks like removing the NVMe drive and installing W10 to an SSD might be the best solution. I’m spending a lot of time trying to figure out why MoBo doesn’t recognize the NVMe device.
It's frustrating we couldn't identify the problem. I had to take out the NVMe drive and switch to W10 on a 2.5" SSD. Since I have a USB-C to NVMe enclosure, I'll try installing it there to see if it's faulty. If it checks out fine, then what happened remains unclear. P.S. The screw holding the graphics card to the PCI slot slipped again—it's tough to tighten properly due to the tight space. I'm planning to run some tests on the card to confirm if it was damaged. Update: the drive health seems normal, which makes sense... but who knows what caused the issue? Why didn't MoB stop recognizing the device as bootable?