{B85M Pro 4} freeze when plugging in USB drive

Hello there,

Yesterday I got a PC to fix from somebody I know and the problem is:

There's no OS installed, he just bought it and bought a new SSD for it and did some tries to get it working.

The MOBO is a ASRock B85M Pro 4. When I turn it on, it immediately goes to the UEFI settings which is good. 

The UEFI is outdated so I first wanted to update it. 

I put the files for InstantFlash on a USB flash drive and gave it a try. I plugged in the USB drive and turned the computer on; only thing I saw was ASRock boot screen with the different keys for functions like UEFI settings.

When I plugged out the USB drive, boom, I got into the UEFI settings. Mouse and keyboard worked fine. When I plugged the USB drive back in, it immediately froze. Plugging out USB drive fixed the problem so it worked again. Plug in - Freeze - Plug Out - no freeze.

How can I fix this? Booting up from a USB drive also isn't possible. I already tried legacy USB support which didn't do anything and I tried every single USB port of the computer. Nothing works. Swapped PSU from main PC, didn't help. Other computers did boot with the USB drive so it's only the B85M which doesn't want to work with me.

What can I do?

Hello TheTechGuyRudi,

Yesterday I got a PC to fix from somebody I know

 

What did they say the problem was that they were having.

Some additional questions;

What version of Windows are you trying to boot from.

Have you disabled fast boot and checked that the USB ports are enabled in the BIOS.

Have you checked that the Windows media is bootable.

Do you have a keyboard connected, POST will fail if you don't have.

Are you aware that on older UEFI boards you need to use the USB 2.0 pots for USB keyboards and booting media on USB from, this because the BIOS chips do not have USB 3.0 drivers mapped onto them. 

Hello there,

They told me exactly what I've told here, and asked if I could fix it.

Windows 10 which should work since the ASRock site is telling me "Windows 10 compatible"

- Fast boot disabled, check.

- USB Ports enabled, check.

- Windows media bootable, check with other computer.

- Keyboard and mouse connected as mentioned in the first post, check.

Just full freeze when I plug in a USB drive or even Android phone.

The MB shipped when Windows 7 was still around but even so Windows 10  should not be an issue as long as the Windows ISO on USB stick is plugged into a USB 2.0 port and for the reason that was explained/

There's no OS installed, he just bought 

What has he just bought and from where.

Have a random idea but need to know the above because atm it is looking like the MB could be bricked.

Hope there is an option for a refund because he may well have purchased a dud.

Has the CMOS battery been replaced with a known good one.

On cold boot tap F11 without the USB attached. Does it give a menu for Flashing. It may be F6.

The CMOS battery may well not have expired but they should always be replaced when having problems with an unknown system + they are inexpensive.

Other than a new CMOS battery I would not put any money in to this MB, you never know what else may be amiss, get it up and running then possibly spend a small amount.

So I formatted my usb stick to FAT32 and put latest UEFI files on it and tried instant flash…. Didn’t work, “no supported device”.

Suggest that you leave trying to flash the BIOS alone, at least for now, it will not help you install Windows in any event.

Was the Windows 10 ISO created using the media creation tool and by selecting the for use on another computer option.

Edited by PhillPower2, 31 March 2024 - 11:45 AM.