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Thatcherw's avatar
Thatcherw
Iron Contributor
Jun 11, 2025

Drive LED flashes once then nothing happens

I have a PC with Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC motherboard running Windows 11, version 24H2, with Samsung SSD 980 1TB. It suddenly wouldn't boot up today. Symptom is, from power up, one flash of drive LED then a black screen with a cursor in top legt corner. The boot sequence doesn't proceed from there. After 4 power up cycles, it booted normally.

What should I check first of all, please? I've run chkdsk on c: and no problems were found.

2 Replies

  • Treysil's avatar
    Treysil
    Iron Contributor
    Jun 18, 2025

    Enter BIOS/UEFI by pressing Delete or F2 during startup. Check whether the Samsung SSD 980 is listed in the storage devices. Verify that the boot order is correctly set, prioritizing your boot drive. Ensure that UEFI boot mode is enabled, and Secure Boot is configured per your OS installation.

  • Jedidiahin's avatar
    Jedidiahin
    Iron Contributor
    Jun 16, 2025

    Since this issue is intermittent (it booted after a few tries), keep an eye on the drive’s SMART data and system logs once you get into Windows—sometimes these problems are early signs of drive failing.

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