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My son (too young for a Stackoverflow account) has an ASUS X515EA on which he had installed Ubuntu versions 23.04 and 20.04 in addition to the pre-installed Windows 11 OS (so three partitions in total). Suddenly, it only boots into BIOS Utility, showing “the system cannot find any bootable devices”. Nothing is listed in the boot sequence.

Details of the problem:

  • It was booting into Ubuntu 20.04, which was also listed first under “Boot Priority” if you booted into BIOS Utility. Now it boots directly into BIOS Utility, and nothing at all is listed under Boot Priority
  • In “Boot”, there are no available devices or paths to an OS boot configuration
  • Both storage devices are showing up (I assume this means they are not physically disconnected). When the problem started, the main storage device (256 GB NVME SSD) had disappeared from the list but the other 238.4 GB NVME SSD was still listed. When he enabled AHCI, the main storage device reappeared, but nothing else changed.

What he has tried:

  • Tried to turn on CSM (Compatibility Support Mode) to find the operating system, but CSM option is no longer there in BIOS utility
  • Tried turning off Secure Boot (in case that was blocking the Linux systems). Result: no change.
  • Disabling Fast Boot, based on a suggestion on a different post. Result: no change.
  • Enabled AHCI in BIOS Utility. Result: main storage device reappeared, but still no boot options.

Guesses so far:

  • Hard drive might be corrupted (so needs to be wiped or replaced)

Nothing obvious caused or preceded the change. The problem started after he installed a new icon theme for Ubuntu and restarted the computer so it would show. Some weeks previously, he had attempted to use Gparted to move a partition to make more space for Ubuntu 20.04 filesystem and given up because it was too slow; some time before that he had uninstalled Python, the process of which appeared to delete some Windows System 32 files for some reason, making Windows 11 too glitchy to be usable, but Ubuntu continued to work without changes or problems.

What should we check or try at this point? We are noobs so "obvious" suggestions are also appropriate.

The device:

ASUS X515EA Processor: Intel Core i3 1115G4 Storage: 238.4 GB NVME SSD + 256 GB NVME SSD (main storage device) Driver: Intel RST

OS partitions:

  • Ubuntu 23.04
  • Ubuntu 20.04
  • Windows 11 22H2 (not working properly)

BIOS version 312

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  • turn on CSM ...... This will NOT work. Get the ASUS hardware diagnostic App on bootable USB and test the hardware. If the hardware is OK, rebuild and use a Virtual Machine for Ubuntu to much lower the risk of OS breakage.
    – anon
    Commented Sep 30, 2023 at 15:33

1 Answer 1

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Undo your BIOS changes : Disable CSM and enable Secure Boot.

Boot an Ubuntu Live USB and check if the disk is visible. If the disk is not visible at all, then it has died.

If it's visible, use Smartmontools to run disk tests. If the tests fail horribly, then the disk has died. Your BIOS may also include such tests.

If the tests run, even with some errors, use the command sudo smartctl -a /dev/sd? to get the SMART data and add it to your post for further analysis.

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