UEFI installation media appears properly installed but fails to start.
UEFI installation media appears properly installed but fails to start.
I recently swapped a SATA hard drive for an M2 model. Now I’m facing an odd issue—my PC won’t start when I cut power from the outlet. If I unplug the outlet, it boots again, but if I turn it back on, the same problems return even though I haven’t adjusted any settings. CSM helped once, but now it keeps happening without any changes. Enabling Legacy boot mode prompts me to use a proper drive, yet UEFI still fails to recognize the M2 drive. It won’t appear in the boot menu at all. Switching off CSM just drops it straight into BIOS. I’m puzzled and frustrated; the drive is UEFI-compatible and correctly formatted, yet it refuses to boot. Most of the time, tweaking CSM settings seems to fix it, but nothing lasts.
Removing power from the outlet may cause some BIOS settings to disappear, indicating a flat CMOS battery that needs replacing. There could be an unstable connection with M2 that requires re-seating. If the system fails to boot, verify if it's detected elsewhere in the BIOS or only in the boot menu. When it's detected elsewhere and the boot settings are correct, consider updating the motherboard BIOS first.
It isn't the CMOS battery since I still have the settings; the system recognizes the M2 and understands its presence, yet it refuses to boot properly when placed in Legacy mode. This confirms it's UEFI-based. I'm beginning to suspect the issue isn't with the CSM after it stabilized recently. It functioned correctly both with and without the CSM, except when it was set to Legacy mode. Turning off the power now might resolve the problem.
CSM relies on the old BIOS configuration. This means the UEFI isn't a separate update but an updated version of the existing BIOS. Keeping this in mind brings us back to the idea of refreshing the motherboard's BIOS settings to check if the issue is fixed through standard stability patches.
For the Asus H610M K D4 motherboard, visit the official support page at https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Compon...Desk_BIOS/. Obtain the latest BIOS version (1402). Download and extract the zip file. Execute BIOS Renamer with admin privileges, then move the files to a non-problematic drive. In the BIOS Tools area, use ASUS EZ Flash 3 to read the new files. After applying the update, your system will restart and may ask for setup confirmation. It’s advisable to turn on XMP overclocking if memory supports it, activate Above 4G encoding, and set Resizable BAR to Auto or Enabled. Disable Secure Boot and keep CSM off while enabling Windows OS Secure Boot.