unable to restart using advanced startup to access uefi settings

Bree said:

I have now revisited my past 'mistake' to check how it behaves. Enabling fast boot in the bios skips displaying the OEM logo, so it would seem you have enabled fast boot in the bios as you no longer see the logo at boot.
I suggest you try a Restart and start spamming your F2 key as soon as the screen goes blank, that worked for me.

Restarting and spamming F2 doesn't work. It does take slightly longer to turn on, but I can't get into the BIOS. I've tried several times and started spamming as soon as I press restart and don't stop until I see the windows log in screen. Additionally, I can't boot from the USB drive I made. It just sits at a black screen.

Well, not having an MSI I think I have run out of suggestions to offer. You could try clearing the cmos to reset it to its defaults.

How to clear the CMOS

MSI manual at manualslib:

Jumper; Jbat1: Clear Cmos Jumper - Msi Z97 GAMING 5 User Manual [Page 41]

Bree said:

Well, not having an MSI I think I have run out of suggestions to offer. You could try clearing the cmos to reset it to its defaults.

How to clear the CMOS

MSI manual at manualslib:

Jumper; Jbat1: Clear Cmos Jumper - Msi Z97 GAMING 5 User Manual [Page 41]

It worked. I broke a PCI-e port in the process and my motherboard didn't have a jumper so I had to take the battery out, but it worked.

I normally turn off fast boot in the BIOS and in Windows since all my PCs have SSD boot drives. Fast boot can cause issues and the performance benefit is negligible.

Does reagentc / info show that the recovery environment is enabled. If not, then enable it Enable or Disable Windows Recovery Environment in Windows 10

I boot to the BIOS setting fro within Windows by pressing the Shift key + Restart then navigate to the option to boot to UEFI settings. Otherwise hit the relevant key to boot into the BIOS at power on for your PC.

Bree said:

Also, I found a nice feature from the MSI UEFI settings that will cause the computer to boot directly to UEFI if the power button is held for 4 seconds upon start up. Had I knew about that, it may have saved me early on.