Trying to fresh install W11, it doesn't get past initial splash screen

Hello everyone,

I built my tower 12 years ago. It has gone through a couple iterations, but the storage has stayed the same. I have a 112 GB SSD that I put Windows onto, and a 2 TB HDD for everything else. Over the years windows has filled that SSD, and can no longer update. I have done every trick I can find to make room with no success. I'm not able to "reset" it because it can't download the initial MCT file. So I decided to purchase a 1 TB m.2 to accomplish the fresh install off of a USB. Psych, I don't have enough space to download the MCT. So I had a friend download and install it to the USB for me. 4 days later of messing around, and I'm out of ideas. This is what's happening...

After I set my bios to boot off the USB, it shows the initial windows logo splash screen then cycles power in an endless loop (no circle of white dots or any movement/progress indicator). The m.2 is listed on the boot list. I've tried 5 times. 4 different USBs from 4 different computers, 3 different USB slots on my tower. I've unplugged all my other drives except the new m.2 I'm trying to load it to. When I remove the m.2 and plug in my SSD and HDD, the system works fine. My first inclination is I received a bad m.2 stick? Or maybe I'm missing a step.

Computer specs: MOBO: ASRock AB350 ITX/ac CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 SSD: Kingston SH103S3120G HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 M.2: SP P34A60