New SSD & trying to use Media Creation Too

[Sean_34]

So, I bought a used Dell Inspiron 5551 from some guy who had an Ubuntu boot loader on it. He screwed something up and from that point on had to enter setup to choose the Windows loader, over the Ubuntu boot loader, manually.

I planned on getting into Linux anyway, so I decided to take the laptop for $80. Now, I'm sitting with a laptop that is trying it's hardest to do nothing.

I reset something to default in the setup menu, idk what, and then I couldn't get to Windows. I decided to say, "screw it" just buy a new SSD, thinking I could just clean install Windows.

I used another laptop to download the Windows Media Creation tool > 64 bit default options > USB install, not the ISO DVD option > let it do it's thing for 30 minutes. As far as I know, it should just be plug and play.

Now when I plug the USB into the 5551, it says, "No boot device found, press any key to reboot the machine". I also notice that when I go to F12 boot options it says:

"Boot mode is set to: UEFI; Secure boot: ON

UEFI BOOT:
HDD1 - ubuntu
HDD2-Windows boot manager
EFI USB Device
EFI DVD/CDROM
EFI Network"

And then it has other options, one of which is the BIOS flash update, but seemed to change nothing (if I did it correctly: I downloaded the AO3 file from the other laptop, accessed it from the BIOS flash update option and pressed (Y)es). It seemed to do nothing.

I'm doing a diagnostic (from that F12 menu) as we speak and at 95% everything is green checks.

So, my first question is if I have a new drive and have flashed the BIOS, why is there still an Ubuntu option. And second, how do I get the PC to boot the USB so that the Media Creation Tool can do it's thing?

I should also mention that I've tried reprdering the boot order and hitting "save and exit", but it never seems to stick.

 

[smorizio]

you have to turn off secure boot to boot from usb. you may have ot change it from efi to legacy boot depending on the bios. on the drive with non windows os you have to use diskpart tools to clean the drive and the master boot record.

 

[Sean_34]

I sort of alluded to it in my main post, but I'm unable to change anything. Trying to flash the BIOS to AO3, changing the boot order and also switching to "secure boot: off" don't stick.

I continued to search around and found another post leading to an SPI bug in Ubuntu, which somehow altered the BIOS settings and exhibits:

Symptoms:
* BIOS settings cannot be saved
* USB Boot impossible
* EFI entries read-only.

Here is the link to the post, which closely resembles my problem:
http/www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3517196/bios-saving-settings.html#20364022

And this is the link that the OP updated his post with:
https/bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1734147

 

[Sean_34]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Sean_34 : "How to fix altered bios settings"

So, I bought a used laptop with windows 10 and an Ubuntu bootloader installed, however you needed to hit F12 and boot Windows manually because the boot order couldn't be changed. Since then, windows became unbootable on the old SSD and said SSD failed in the diagnostics test, so I bought a new one. I used another person's laptop to install Windows onto my new 1tb SSD and it works fine in that laptop.

Unfortunately, I think that the BIOS settings may have been changed by a buggy Ubuntu version (seen in the below link) and some of the symptoms include being unable to change any settings in the BIOS and not being able to access from USB ports.

https/bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1734147

I've tried flashing the BIOS, but once again, they can't be changed. I don't know what to do; I was hoping that I'd be able to access windows from the new ssd, like before the old SSD took a shit, even if that meant booting from the F12 menu.

Any ideas?

P.s. - the new ssd passes the BIOS diagnostics test. It's green checks down the list.