PC keeps booting to bios.

[Poitings]

I would be grateful for some advice on the following:

1.) I've had my desktop for three years. Originally I had Windows 7 but upgraded to Windows 10.

A few days ago it crashed a few times and once it booted to the bios but when I exited the bios it loaded Windows.
Since yesterday though it keeps booting to bios and I can't get it to load windows. It's definitely set to boot from my SSD drive.
I bought a new Cmos battery and swapped that out just in case. I also cleaned all the dust out (although it was already pretty clean) and removed the ram and graphics card and put them back in and checked that everything was secure in their slots but no change.

Can anyone give guidance on the likely cause?
After doing some reading it seems it could either be my motherboard or the SSD that is faulty. I have some files on the SSD that I want so if anything I'd rather it was the motherboard.

Will it possibly help if I reinstall windows over the current installation?

What is a suggested course of action? I have limited ability to tinker myself but I can do some things.

2.) If the SSD is faulty, can data be rescued from an SSD?

3.) Is it possible to somehow connect my SSD to my laptop via usb and get the data.

4. Can I install windows on one of my external hard drives and boot from that so that I can then see if I can access the SSD?

I have an Asus Maximus VI Impact motherboard.
Intel Core i7-4770S 3.1GHz
16 Gigs DDR3-1333 ram
Samsung SSD drive

 

[tgp]

Do you get any message saying that it cannot find the operating system or something like that? The exact message may vary, depending on the BIOS.

 

[Poitings]

There is no message. Just this screen then I press F1 and it goes to bios. Sometimes it just goes automatically to the bios.

 

[Poitings]

When it goes to bios it goes to the 'Extreme tweaker' tab rather than the main.
If I click on 'main' it shows this. I checked the boot also and confirmed that it is still set to boot to the SSD.

 

[Poitings]

Sometimes it goes straight to bios and sometimes I get this screen and have to press F1

 

[beman39]

you said you took out the cmos battery? then probably what happened is the bios settings reverted to factory settings and if I remember correctly ASUS bios factory settings causes the problems like you're having.... go over the settings and make sure you set them correctly... I forget which it was... I had a computer with the same asus bios as yours and went through the same problems.. my suggestion is go check out the ASUS forums to see... I think I saw a video on YouTube that helped me out actually...

 

[Golfdriver97]

Do you have a spare drive that you can test? If you do, disconnect the SSD and use the spare to try booting the PC. If you have no issues on boot, the the drive is to blame.

 

[asus_usa]

Hi Poitings, we're very sorry that you're experiencing this issue. Is it possible to test another SSD or HDD on this board? Can you also confirm if you had made any changes to your bios settings or added any components before the issue started? There are third party housing kits to convert you SSD into an external storage device to connect to your laptop.

 

[Poitings]

@beman39. The problem of being stuck booting to the bios happened before I changed the Cmos battery. I changed the battery to see if that was the issue.

 

[Poitings]

I have two external usb hard drives. I will see if I can install windows on one of them and direct the computer to boot from it in the bios.
@asus_usa. Thanks for dropping in. I haven't added any new components since I had my friend build the computer about three years ago. It's been functioning fine since then. I usually leave it on overnight and it goes to sleep so I would say I have been rebooting only about 3 times a week.

I'm going to try to reinstall windows over the SSD first. I don't want to format as I have data on th SSD I need.
If that doesn't work then I will try another drive. Or possibly create a Linux Live usb just to see if it boots. That way I can know if it's the motherboard or the drive.

 

[Poitings]

There is a 'clear Cmos' button on the back of the computer.

I just created a linux usb using Rufus and Linux Mint with my laptop.
Then I set boot on my PC in Bios to usb and it loaded the linux mint desktop from the USB.
I can see my SSD and also my External USB hard drive.
when I click on the External hard drive icon it shows me the content files. But when I click on the SSD it says 'Unable to mount location: can't mount file'.
What does that mean?
Does it mean the motherboard works as it will run Linux from the USB and as it won't mount to the SSD does it mean I have narrowed the issue down to a fault with my SSD?

 

[asus_usa]

[FONT=sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet MS]Thank you for keeping us updated. Based on the information, we can confirm that your SSD could be at fault. Should you have another board we recommend testing this SSD or using another SSD/HDD to install the OS. Can you also confirm the bios version currently installed? We also recommend enabling [/FONT]Launch CSM under Boot Configuration.