Can't boot from USB Flash Drive on HP Spectre x360

[DanielDG]

Whatever I do, my Kingston DT100G3 USB Flash Drive just won't boot on my HP Spectre x360. I tried via F9 to "Boot From EFI File", but no efi file booted. On my old HP ProBook 4530s this is simple. I just stick the flash drive in an USB port and the flash drive boots automatically.

How can I have the flash drive boot or, ideally, boot automatically without the need to press any keys?

Also, does this laptop have UEFI? Judging by the looks, it seems to just have the plain old BIOS.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Nowdays it seems to have become increasingly difficult to boot from a USB flash drive--especially when notebooks such as yours only have USB3 ports.

When they have at least one USB 2 port, it normally isn't a problem.  You boot from the USB 2 port.

There are a couple of things you can try.

1.  Go into the BIOS, enable legacy mode (which should automatically disable secure boot).

See if you can then boot from the flash drive.

2. See if there is a legacy USB setting which allows you to have the USB3 ports also act as USB 2 ports. 

If you have such a setting, change it to Auto.

[DanielDG]

Hi Paul,

I now see in BIOS, under System Configuration, the option to have "USB3.0 Configuration in Pre-OS" enabled or disabled.

According to the "Item Specific Help", "When this option is set to Enabled, BIOS will configure USB ports to USB 3.0 controller. When the item is set to Auto, BIOS will configure USB ports to USB 2.0 controller in pre-boot. After booting to OS, the USB ports will be switched to USB 3.0 controller. It is recommended to set to Auto when installing OS which does not have native USB 3.0 driver such as Windows 7 via USB optical device."

So changhing "USB3.0 Configuration in Pre-OS" from Enabled to Disabled or Auto will resolve the flash drive booting issues I had.

Thanks for the help!

Daniel

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Daniel.

I would agree that if you change the "USB3.0 Configuration in Pre-OS" from Enabled to Disabled or Auto will resolve the flash drive booting issues.

Don't forget to save the settings where you made the change and again when you exit the BIOS.

[rh104]

Hi - I was doing the same thing and it's been working.  However, with the newest shipments, bios version F.2C, the option to disable USB 3.0 is no longer in the System Config menu within the BIOS.  It's back to not reading USB drives after the Win7 image is loaded.   Any suggestions?