650-A stuck on "Please press DEL or F2 to enter BIOS Setting" during boot up (help!)

[riffraff]

My ROG STRIX 650-A Gaming WIFI motherboard gets stuck on the BIOS screen with the message "Please press F2 or Del to enter BIOS Setting" and won't respond to F2 or Del keys.  It will respond to Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart but just returns to the screen.

1. I have flashed the BIOS with the latest version (twice, just to be sure). 
2. I have checked and reseated the RAM.
3. I have checked and reseated the SSD.  It was originally in the second slot, and I moved it to the first slot.
4. I have tried with and without the graphics card.

Initially I was able to enter the BIOS OS screen just fine but didn't see the SSD.  I checked and reseated it, but it still didn't see the SSD. I adjusted a BIOS setting to enable NVMe M.2 and rebooted, which is when the problem started.  After that, I moved the SSD from the 2nd to the 1st M.2 slot thinking perhaps it was just in the wrong slot.  Still no luck.  Then I flashed the BIOS with the latest version.  Still no luck.  I reset the CMOS, including removing the button battery and replacing it after a minute.  Then I checked and redid all the connections and tried again, still with no luck.

I have the ROG STRIX B650-A GAMING WIFI motherboard with the following components:

• AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 8-Core, 16-Thread Processor
• CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB)
• SAMSUNG 990 PRO SSD NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4, M.2 2280 Internal Solid State Hard Drive
• Noctua NH-D15 Dual-Tower CPU Cooler

Any suggestions?  I'm getting desperate.

[Pandur · Accepted solution]

Unless I am reading this wrong, you have not tested if this problem persists without the SSD installed?

[riffraff]

I intend to try that next. It occured to me right after I posted.

[riffraff]

Without the SSD, it works, but is it a compatibility issue or bad hardware?

[Pandur · Accepted solution]

With your extensive testing, I would say the drive is defective.

If the drive is brand new it should be considered doa, and the warranty is there for a reason no matter what. Get it replaced.

You could test it in another computer if you have access to one. But this is pretty conclusive as is.

[riffraff]

It was a faulty SSD.  I got a new one today, and we're off and running.  Thanks!