This is an odd problem I have been fighting with for a while now.
I have 2 laptops, an ASUS x200CA and a Lenovo S400. Both are relatively new, both with UEFI. Both are running Crunchbang 11 Waldorf, fully up to date. Getting linux installed wasn't a problem, just the usual steps plus shutting off secure boot and enabling legacy mode.

It's after all that, that I have run into any problems. I cannot get either of these systems to recognize any live or bootable USB media on boot. The S400 hangs at the "Lenovo" boot screen, and the ASUS just flat ignores the media. Neither of the laptops see the USB drives in BIOS either.

The important clue here, is that this problem includes no longer seeing the USB media I used to build these systems in the first place. It doesn't matter what I use or how I built the USB drive, at best it's like it's not there, at worst the Lenovo hangs. Even media I know works, because I used it to install linux in the first place.

When I try any of the media in any of my desktops, or my acient Dell laptop, it gets recognized just fine. Of course, all these are 5+ years old, and don't use UEFI.

If it was just the one laptop, I would have chalked it up to funky BIOS/UEFI stupidity, but on 2 systems, that means I am doing something wrong. Please help?

They ought to see usb as a hard drive choice.

I know. That's what is so odd, neither system sees them at all.

Is there something I need to reset under UEFI?

edit: Is this a known issue, at all?

Try this. Power it off and remove ac plug. Press power button a few times. Then attach usb and go directly to bios. Do the usb devices show up?

Most times in new systems the silly secure boot will prevent even found devices from booting.

See, that was the first thing I tried. I had to shut off secure boot and fastboot in order to get Crunchbang to install in the first place.

So, the steps I have gone through are thus (for the ASUS, starting with the original Windows install):
-Initially disabled secureboot and fastboot before installing crunchbang
-Checked BIOS/UEFI for presence of drive (did manual boot device select), drive present
-Installed Crunchbang, went fine
-Decided wanted to go with a different Debian distro
-Built drive with dd (the usual process)
-Insert drive, boot, go to select... nothing
-ok, screwed up the install, try again... nothing
-try original media... nothing

My going theories are that I've either tripped something under GRUB, I have the wrong GRUB, or I damaged the UEFI somehow.

Did you read my reply?

I missed the part where all power sources are removed. I will try this when I get home. Sorry about that.