• Happy holidays, folks! Thanks to each and every one of you for being part of the Tom's Hardware community!

Question My PC suddenly stopped working with a "Reboot and select proper boot device" error ?

SeriousGaming101

Distinguished
Mar 17, 2016
330
0
18,780
My motherboard is Z390 Godlike. The PC was working normally and then all of a sudden, the PC could not reboot normally with this error message: https://ibb.co/5xCv096

I have already tried fixing it by checking the "Boot Priorities" and my Samsung 2TB NVME is there #1 as normal.

My PC also detects the storage drive: https://ibb.co/zHxSvR1

Additional Photo: https://ibb.co/fqTGBLw

I have also tried installing a new NVMe SSD via a USB converter and setting that as the First Boot Device but I still get the same error message.

How to fix?

Is it a MOBO battery issue?
Do I have to wipe the NVMe SSD and reinstall Windows 11?
It doesn't seem to be a storage issue because I get the same error message after trying 2 separate NVMe SSDs
 
Last edited:
Sometimes bios can reset itself so go through all the settings to see if something else changed, like TPM UEFI or something else, if security settings changed it will not recognize the disk as being the same.

Also try all available disks as boot device since it's not 100% that the nvme got used as the boot device.

Booting a normal windows installation from usb will not work.
 
Sometimes bios can reset itself so go through all the settings to see if something else changed, like TPM UEFI or something else, if security settings changed it will not recognize the disk as being the same.

Also try all available disks as boot device since it's not 100% that the nvme got used as the boot device.

Booting a normal windows installation from usb will not work.
I'm curious why one couldn't try to boot from a USB device for troubleshooting purposes. what am I missing? Thanks
 
I'm curious why one couldn't try to boot from a USB device for troubleshooting purposes. what am I missing? Thanks
You can boot from usb just not a normal windows installation, you can boot a windows installation media and go into the repair option that has.
To boot windows from usb it needs to be windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) which will be limited.
Or 'windows to go' which is not supported anymore but you can still do.
 
I have tried wiping the drive via command prompt > diskpart > list disk > select disk 0 > clean
But then after - the computer won't let me install a new Windows OS even after the NVME has been wiped.
Sometimes the PC won't even detect the hard drive in the "list disk" CMD.

I just ordered a new Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVME!
 
Here is the error picture: https://ibb.co/Cztfc5V
The drive has not been cleaned. It has 100MB partition on it.

Redo cleaning. The drive has to be all unallocated. No partitions.

If you wish to create partitions before windows install, then they have to be created in specific way required for windows install.
With MBR partitioned drive you can not install OS in UEFI mode and
with GPT partitioned drive you can not install windows in legacy mode.
All that gets solved, if you clean the drive before install.

 
Last edited:
The drive has not been cleaned. It has 100MB partition on it.

Redo cleaning. The drive has to be all unallocated. No partitions.

If you wish to create partitions before windows install, then they have to be created in specific way required for windows install.
With MBR partitioned drive you can not install OS in UEFI mode and
with GPT partitioned drive you can not install windows in legacy mode.
All that gets solved, if you clean the drive before install.

I have "cleaned" the drive many different ways,(including with NO partitions as you said) all failed: https://ibb.co/qnj3Rv6
I have tried both in UEFI and legacy mode, both failed: https://ibb.co/w4XgY3x

After the failures, I tried to "clean" the hard drive again in CMD but then the PC can't find the drive anymore: https://ibb.co/DCL2k10
 
Can you show result of these commands?
diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
detail disk
BTW - if you delete all partitions and reboot your pc,
do partitions reappear after reboot? (as if nothing was deleted)
You can delete with
diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
(depending on number of existing partitions)
select partition 2
delete partition override
select partition 1
delete partition override
 
Can you show result of these commands?
diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
detail disk
BTW - if you delete all partitions and reboot your pc,
do partitions reappear after reboot? (as if nothing was deleted)
You can delete with
diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
(depending on number of existing partitions)
select partition 2
delete partition override
select partition 1
delete partition override


Here are some pictures of the "detail disk" you asked for(before and after I "cleaned" the drive in CMD:
https://ibb.co/kK4Pkgh AND https://ibb.co/cDTyT90

Another error code when I tried to install windows OS again: https://ibb.co/LYGMfx0

After I "cleaned" the drive and reboot my PC, the drive was not recognized anymore 🙁 https://ibb.co/y0CPJyS
 
Notice in detail disk output - current read-only state is YES.
Should be NO.

Disable secure boot in BIOS.
Execute following and check current read-only state.
diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
attributes disk clear readonly
detail disk