Thanks for your look at this.
Restore and circumstances were mentioned as background on why mobo battery was removed.
(non-)Functionality is the same with
1: restored HDD, actually an SSD (was to a brand new SSD)
OR
2: the SSD with two year old image I was on before restore (that did NOT have the "all USB Storage devices inaccessible" problem)
OR
3: with bootable USB win7recovery image stick (both with and without any system SSD connected)
OR
4: with win7recovery CD inserted
I only get as far into BIOS as I described in detail in original post, so it is before it's looking for an os to boot, and something appears to be wrong with BIOS so I can't even get into BIOS menu content beyond the 'title' of the menu I expect to be on.
BIOS worked fine before mobo battery was removed, so I imagine I need recovery action that would customarily be performed when that happens (i.e. dead mobo battery). I've since tried hitting the clear CMOS button on mobo for 10 seconds (with battery present but AC and all cords disconnected) and symptoms remain exactly the same.
When a BIOS is not functional enough to do anything and doesn't make it to any kind of bootable device connected, is there some sort of 'factory reset' to recover some sort of BIOS functionality?