Boot USB isn't in Boot Menu for Probook 440 g3

[WillFord27]

Hi everyone, 

My flash drive/USB does not appear in boot menu, only my newly installed 2.5 SSD. I do not have an m.2 drive installed.

The USB is functional and I used it to install Windows recently on a different machine, it's a Memorex 128gb USB 3.1. 

USB ports are enabled in Port Options, USB Storage Boot is enabled in Boot Options. I have reset to factory defaults, including removing the battery first. The USB does not light up at any point so it's hard to tell if the computer is reading it or not. The ISO is GPT partitioned for UEFI.

I have tried: 

• All 3 USB ports, the two 3.0 and the one 2.0
• Secure Boot enabled and disabled
• Fast Boot enabled and disabled
• Network (PXE) Boot enabled and disabled
• Both exfat and NTFS ISOs
• Rufus and Windows Media Creation Tool
• With UEFI and Legacy boot order

Not sure what I'm doing wrong. It's possible none of the USB ports are functional, but I don't think that's likely. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading

[tk_srq]

@WillFord27,

See if you can manually boot from 'Boot from EFI File' in F9 Boot Option Menu.

First, create a bootable Windows installation usb drive with Microsoft Media Creation Tool.

Set legacy support 'disabled' in the BIOS.

Start the notebook and go into F9 Boot Option Menu. Select Boot from EFI File and hit the Enter key.

If you see USB 'file system' that looks like a huge string of characters and numbers, select it and hit Enter. From there, navigate to efi -> boot -> bootx64.efi and hit Enter to boot from the usb drive.

If you don't see the USB file system, most likely, the BIOS is not compatible with the 128 GB USB 3.1 drive.

Try a usb drive of a 16 or 32 USB 3.0 drive (you need a min. 8 GB usb drive for a bootable Windows installation media).

[WillFord27 · Accepted solution]

Update: I fixed it by connecting ethernet and updating BIOS. The previous BIOS version was 1.09 I believe? Upon updating the laptop booted directly into the Windows installation. Same flash drive, only newer BIOS.