Background (I apologize this will be long): I received this laptop from an end user after it stopped booting. Laptop is an HP ProBook 640 G5. NVMe M.2 contains Windows 10.
Problem is, when the laptop attempts to boot with the m.2 installed, it will freeze on the HP SureStart screen. You cannot access boot menu options, but you can still CTRL ALT DEL to warm restart. Your only other option is to power down. I have encountered this problem once before on a newer Probook. I was able to resolve it after taking the following significant steps, although I don't know if it was a combination of both or only one that mattered:
- I noticed that BitLocker was suspended. This indicated to me that the laptop died at some point during a firmware update, since that seems more likely to me than the user somehow suspending BitLocker (they do not have administrative permissions). I know that for HP Firmware updates, BitLocker is suspended during an update. So, I deencrypted it.
- I put the m.2 into a Dell laptop my coworker had. The m.2 proceeded to boot. I put that m.2 back into its original ProBook, and it booted there as well.
FYI I did attempt a power reset sans the battery beforehand but that did nothing. I did also try the Winkey + B during boot to rollback the BIOS, but it did nothing (I got no response whatsoever indicative of anything).
Now, in my current case with this laptop, I noticed that BitLocker was active. I deencrypted it, and then I put it into my coworker's Dell. It exhibited the same behaviour as the previous m.2 did. It initialized (Getting devices ready) and then booted. However, it would still refuse to boot on the original laptop. So, I put the m.2 into another newer ProBook, a ProBook 440 G10. It booted there. Seeing as the m.2 is perfectly fine with intact data, I moved onto eliminating the laptop as being the problem.
The ProBook 440 G10 already had its own M.2, with Windows 11 installed. The Probook 650 laptop does have TPM 2.0, so it indeed booted that M.2 just fine when I tested it. We wondered if it was the TPM causing problems with the original M.2, so I cleared the TPM on the laptop and then tried booting the original M.2. No dice. I disabled the TPM. still nothing. I reset the BIOS to factory default and still nothing.
I have a feeling that there is some sort of cache on the original M.2 that refuses to reinitialize the hardware of the original laptop, and is stuck in a bad configuration. Is there a way to actually force the m.2 to reinitialize? Or is there something else I am missing?
Note that I have not yet attempted to run sfc/dism combo on the m.2 as I do not believe it would help, and it was not required to get the m.2 in my previous case to boot on the original laptop. If I should try that next let me know (I would boot the m.2 in another laptop and then run it). I also did try the power reset, the bios rollback, but still nothing.
Note my ultimate goal here is to get the m.2 to boot without having to wipe it (which would probably work), and also understand what exactly is getting stuck here.
