Question BIOS won't boot from SSD after upgrading GPU

[Telleren]

I have a seemingly very strange problem. I just upgraded my GPU from a GTX 1660 Super to a RTX 3070 Ti, but after installing it, my motherboard does not recognize my SSD where Windows is installed as a bootable option anymore. My MB is an Asus PRIME Z690-P.

The SSD still shows up in file explorer, disk management, and diskpart, and seems fully operational. I can browse through all the files as usual, but my MB just refuses to accept it as a bootable device. It happened suddenly, working completely fine until the new GPU was installed. I've used this setup since august 2022 without any issues until now.

I've tried booting with different SATA-cables, and connecting the SSD to different SATA-ports, in case I damaged someting while installing the GPU, but that has not helped. The SSD seems to be connected correctly anyway, as I can browse the contents of the disk like normal. I've also tried enabling CSM in the BIOS, allowing both UEFI and Legacy-booting, and also resetting the MB by removing the battery and waiting for a bit. Still nothing.

My latest attempt was using Clonezilla to clone the SSD with Windows installer to an empty NVMe SSD I had available, but after cloning, the motherboard doesn't recognize the NVMe as bootable either.

Does anyone have any advice as how I can solve this? Or any more troubleshooting i can attempt? I cannot understand why this problem persists. It feels like the solution should be so simple, as the SSD seems undamaged, and all the files on it seems completely fine. It just refuses to boot all of a sudden.

 

[Colif]

can you show us a screenshot of disk management?

right click start
choose disk management
open the next window up so it shows the details of the drive in question.
take a screenshot and upload to an image sharing website, show link here

The reactions make me wonder if the drive has a boot partition on it. Not running after the clone makes me think its missing it. That would explain why CSM and or UEFI don't work.
Was there another drive in PC that isn't there now? Are all the other drives showing?

 

[adrifoxbg]

What is the power supply?
If a problem occurs after replacing the gpu, then it is probably related to it

 

[Telleren]

What is the power supply?
If a problem occurs after replacing the gpu, then it is probably related to it

I have a Corsair TX650M, 650W PSU. Do you think that could be an issue?

 

[Telleren]

can you show us a screenshot of disk management?

right click start
choose disk management
open the next window up so it shows the details of the drive in question.
take a screenshot and upload to an image sharing website, show link here

The reactions make me wonder if the drive has a boot partition on it. Not running after the clone makes me think its missing it. That would explain why CSM and or UEFI don't work.
Was there another drive in PC that isn't there now? Are all the other drives showing?

I have four drives installed, and all of them are still showing.

• A 240GB SSD with the OS installed (the one I want to boot from).
• A 1TB SSD for games.
• A 2TB SSHD for media.
• A 1TB SSD M.2 which I haven't used for anything yet.

All of them seem to be working as intended. They are browseable and interactable.

I will send a screenshot of the disk management. Just have to boot via an old Windows-installation I have on a USB-stick.

 

[adrifoxbg]

I have a Corsair TX650M, 650W PSU. Do you think that could be an issue?

It's worth checking out.
There is no logic that after replacing the gpu, the ssd does not boot

 

[Colif]

PSU could be it if it was just the ssd that didn't work but he cloned it onto an nvme that also didn't work. if it was a power thing, the drive wouldn't show at all? He can look at it, just not boot off it.
Makes me think its the files on drive to blame.

As for why it doesn't boot. It might be corrupted. Did you turn fast startup off on the PC before making the hardware changes?? Obviously I assume it was unplugged but win 10 by default isn't off at shutdown, its in a hybred hibernate where there is still power running and PC is semi awake enough to start if you hit a key on mouse or kb. So I have seen windows get corrupted just by being unplugged in this state. Its not common but it can happen. That shouldn't effect the boot files but its possible.