XBOX Series X startup / boot screen temporarily freezes, goes black, and restarts itself...

Do any of you with an XBOX Series X | S console have this problem?

Powering on the XBOX Series X, or Series S for that matter, the XBOX logo / boot sequence plays, and then it freezes, the power button blinks a couple of times, and the console restarts. After that, it comes up normal.

I have an XBOX Series X with the 1TB Expanded Storage card and an external USB 3.2 HDD (WD Black 8TB) connected to my console. Whenever I restart the console, or do a full shutdown and turn on the console, the opening XBOX logo animation plays, and then near
the end, it freezes, and then the XBOX light on the console blinks, and then, the console restarts itself.

At this point, it comes up normally. This happens every time I do a restart, or turn it on from a Full shutdown, or, if I turn off the console, while using the Energy Efficient power mode, and re-starting the console.

This never happens if only one of the storage devices is connected, so if I only had the Expanded Storage card connected, and NOT any USB HDD, then it turns on without any problems. The same goes for booting up with only one or more USB HDD's connected
and NOT having an Expanded Storage card plugged in. Everything boots up just fine.

I returned my Expanded Storage card and got a new one, and it made no difference. I also Factory Reset my console three times and re-formatted all of the storage devices, to have a clean-slate, and this problem still occurs when Cold Starting / Booting
the console, or restarting it.

For this reason, I definitely use the Instant-On power mode, since turning the console off, and turning it on, does not involve the XBOX logo boot sequence, and it come up without any problems. LOL.

:)