BIOS & boot issues
When your machine never makes it to the operating system, the BIOS is where you look. These guides cover the failure modes I see come up most often — heavily Asus-weighted because Asus's "EZ Mode" trips up more people than every other vendor combined.
Asus stuck in BIOS Utility EZ Mode
Every boot lands in the EZ Mode screen instead of Windows. Eight things to try, in the order I would try them.
How to exit BIOS Utility EZ Mode (Asus)
F10 does not always save. Here are the four exit methods that actually work, including the obscure one for older boards.
Asus EZ Mode: "no bootable device"
BIOS sees no drive to boot from. SSD missing? CSM disabled? Boot order wrong? Walk through it.
Asus EZ Mode: "no storage device present"
A subtler version of the above — the BIOS sees the drive in storage but cannot boot from it.
UEFI vs Legacy BIOS, EZ Mode vs Advanced Mode
What the modes actually mean and why your BIOS calls itself "EZ Mode" in the first place.
Before you start
Two things to check before any BIOS troubleshooting:
- Are you actually in the BIOS, or in a recovery environment? The Asus EZ Mode screen has the manufacturer logo and a temperature/time readout at the top. Microsoft's recovery screen has a blue "Choose an option" header. They look superficially similar but need different fixes.
- Did you change anything recently? Most "stuck in BIOS" cases come from a Windows update, a CMOS battery dying, or someone pressing F2 by accident. Knowing what changed cuts hours of guessing.
Then pick a guide above based on what your screen shows.