Install os hdd help please

I am trying to set my friend up with a pc and this hard drive does not like this pc I am giving him. It works fine and boots fine in my desktop(where i installed OS). I have tried windows 10 and gnome. But the screen flashes with underscore in top left of screen and stays flashing. its a dell optiplex 390 bios a02. I have tried to use usb uefi(usb installer) for gnome and windows 10 on the pc I am giving him but it locks up at the windows screen. The mobo has a battery and I took it out for a minute and put it back in. I also have reset the bios settings. I made sure legacy boot was enabled. The hard drive shows up in bios and in boot menu. I have an ssd with windows 10 installed which i believe i installed windows on using this dell problematic pc. When ssd is in the pc it boots to windows after the same flashing screen and underscore in top left. side noteā€¦ this machine doesnt post beep even with working ssd and when using usb uefi was enabled on boot

Any ideas on how to get this hdd working properly so I can give this machine to him? Thank you in advance for any help!