New problem: 'No Active Partition' on cold/reset boot

[Bubblehead78]

PROBLEM:
Upon a cold start or reset, PC will stop after BIOS POST with 'No Active Partition'
Must enter BIOS, then save settings and reboot (even when no changes have been made) to get to Windows login
Note: entering BIOS and exiting without saving settings will not work

STEPS TAKEN: (none fixed problem)
Changed CMOS battery (old = 3.11V, new = 3.62V)
ASUS EZ Flash 3 BIOS (in UEFI mode)
Flash BIOS (at I/O panel)
Remove memory (from 32gb to 8gb)
MemOK! (mb button)
Reset(mb button)
SafeBoot (mb button)
USB BIOS Flashback (system-off BIOS update)
Boot options priority (F8 during BIOS start)
OLD M.2 (Samsung EVO 970) did not appear to SMART though no problems noticed in OS
NEW M.2 (Corsair CT1000P5SSD8) still the same problem
Fresh download of 1301 BIOS
EZ Flash 3 BIOS (again)
Load Optimized settings
Multiple boot configurations in BIOS - did not work
Boot options - manual

PENDING STEPS:
Fast boot - enabled/disabled
CSM
SMART status
Remove SATA drives one-by-one-by

SPECIFICATIONS:
ASUS Maximus IX Hero (two years old)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz(stock voltages and speeds)
EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 Gaming iCX (11G-P4-6696)(stock voltages and speeds)
Corsair Vengeance RGB CMR32GX4M4A2666C16 (8gb x 4) (stock voltages and speeds)
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 850W Gold (RGB Sync Edition)
BIOS AMI UEFI 1301 3/14/2018
Windows 10 Pro version 10.0.19042.804 (Win10 20H2 October 2020 update)
Monitor #1 HP Omen 27i IPS
Monitor #2 Asus ROG Swift PG278Q

DRIVES:
Drive #6 - Corsair CT1000P5SSD8 (931 GB) C:
#1 MS Recovery 1 MB 450 MB
#2 EFI System 451 MB 100 MB
#3 MS Reserved 551 MB 16 MB
#4 Basic Data C: (System SSD) 567 MB 952789 MB
#5 MS Recovery 953356 MB 505 MB

Drive #5 - WDC WD40EZRZ-00GXCB0 (3726 GB) K: J: H: I:
#1 MS Reserved 0 MB 128 MB
#2 Basic Data K: (Backups3_WD4Tb) 129 MB 953721 MB
#3 Basic Data J: (MyData2_WD4Tb) 953850 MB 953867 MB
#4 Basic Data H: (Backups2_WD4Tb) 1907717 MB 1185866 MB
#5 Basic Data I: (Backups4_WD4Tb) 3093584 MB 721863 MB

Drive #4 - WDC WD2003FZEX-00Z4SA0 (1863 GB) 😧
#1 MS Reserved 0 MB 128 MB
#2 Basic Data D: (MyData_WD2Tb) 129 MB 1907600 MB

Drive #3 - TOSHIBA HDWR180 (7452 GB) G:
#1 MS Reserved 0 MB 15 MB
#2 Basic Data G: (Games_Toshiba8Tb) 16 MB 7630869 MB

Drive #2 - Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (232 GB) E:
#1 MS Reserved 0 MB 15 MB
#2 Basic Data E: (Backups1_SSD250Gb) 16 MB 238458 MB

Drive #1 - PNY CS1311 480GB SSD (447 GB) S:
#1 MS Reserved 0 MB 15 MB
#2 Basic Data E: (Backups1_SSD250Gb) 16 MB 238458 MB

[Saltgrass]

I will look at your information later but just to start, you have an EFI System partition on the Corsair drive. Does you boot options show a Windows Boot Manager?

Active partitions are used on Legacy installs so maybe some bios setting has changed and forcing you into that mode as opposed to UEFI.

Have you changed any slot usage which might make one of the SATA drives inaccessible?

You changed out the M.2 970 EVO with the Corsair? I assume the problem started prior to this being necessary but how did you install on the new drive?

Overclocking?

[Bubblehead78]

Saltgrass wrote:
I will look at your information later but just to start, you have an EFI System partition on the Corsair drive. Does you boot options show a Windows Boot Manager?

Active partitions are used on Legacy installs so maybe some bios setting has changed and forcing you into that mode as opposed to UEFI.

Have you changed any slot usage which might make one of the SATA drives inaccessible?

You changed out the M.2 970 EVO with the Corsair? I assume the problem started prior to this being necessary but how did you install on the new drive?

Overclocking?

Yes, there is an option for Windows Boot Manager. I've selected both the Corsair drive as boot and Windows Boot Manager, but no difference
No change in slot usage
Yes, the problem was there before I switched the Corsair in place of the Samsung. I thought it might have been a Samsung problem.
I had a recent rr-tools r-image available, made from the Samsung. After installing the Corsair, I booted with the r-image recovery CD and moved that image onto the Corsair.
No overclocking at all.

I tried setting the active partition, but I'm learning, as you seem to know, is not necessary on a UEFI system. I looked around for FixMBR as well, but I'm guessing that is no longer used with UEFI?

I have to manually enter BIOS, save changes (whether I make any changes or not), then reboot; the system will then boot to Windows.

Note - my boot order currently is 1) optical drive 2)corsair m.2 ... the option for Windows Boot Manager is down quite a ways. Should WBR come before anything else?

[Saltgrass]

The WBM should be the primary boot device.

If I want to boot to something else, I use the Boot Device menu that boots that device just the one time so I don't have to change the Bios boot order..