[SOLVED] System Won't POST Without USB

[Lovin1995]

Hey everyone,

I recently decided to do a fresh install of Windows 10 and I've come across a weird issue. I completely cleaned my drives and wiped them, and went through the installation of Windows on an SSD. I used a USB with a Windows installation made from the installation media. Everything went well and the PC booted up into Windows. Fast forward, and now my PC refuses to POST/boot without that USB I used for the installation installed. With the USB in, a white dash flashes in the left upper corner on startup and the PC boots as it's supposed to. If I have the USB out, then the white dash stays up there and the VGA debug light on my motherboard stays on.

I have tried reinstalling Windows over a dozen times today, tried different USBs, updated my BIOS, and tried different hard drives to no benefit. I'm completely at a loss and have no idea what to do. Is it possible my motherboard is messed up?

Specs:
Ryzen 7 5800x
MSI B550 Gaming Plus Motherboard
GT 1030 (3080 is in RMA process)
16 GB DDR4 Ram
SSD for the OS
Windows 10

 

[Deleted member 362816]

Seen be before it most likely install the boot info onto the USB stick.

 

[Lovin1995]

Seen be before it most likely install the boot info onto the USB stick.

Is there a way to change that? It’s weird it doesn’t seem like it posts without the usb

 

[Karadjgne]

Put the gpu into the other slot temporarily, see if that gets you past the vga error. It's not uncommon for the cpu (uses pcie lanes) to refuse to see the gpu at first, using the other slot uses the chipset lanes.

 

[Deleted member 362816]

Is there a way to change that? It’s weird it doesn’t seem like it posts without the usb

This same thing can happen if lets say you Installed windows on your 500gb SSD but has a 4TB HDD in the system at the same time. For some reason during clean installs this sometimes happens.

Reinstall Windows and remove the USB when it restarts