Question PC doesn't boot from a cold boot the first time, but will boot when turned off and on again

[Electrokite]

Hi, my current PC has had this problem for about a month or so ever since I established a dual drive dual boot setup with Windows 11 and Linux Mint. Basically, whenever I first turn on my PC in the morning it will power up (all fans run including the CPU fan, all peripherals also receive power, and the GPU light is lit) but it fails to boot (boot light on monitor does not light, no output to monitor). If I turn it off and then on again it will boot perfectly fine however.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 580
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WI-FI
RAM: 2x8GB 3200MHz Silicon Power Value Gaming DDR4
PSU: Toughpower GX2 80+ Gold 600w
SSD: TEAMGROUP MP33 1TB SLC Cache 3D NAND TLC NVMe 1.3 PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 (Windows 11 Drive) & Crucial MX500 500GB 3D NAND SATA (Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon Drive)
Case: Zalman S2 ATX Mid Tower PC Case
Monitor: Viotek GFV22CB 22-Inch 144hz

I've tried various things to fix this issue, including clearing CMOS, unplugging and plugging back in various motherboard cables, and reseating RAM (although maybe I didn't do this optimally, I basically just took the RAM out and put it back in). Fast startup and hibernate are disabled on Windows 11 and the issue occurs regardless of whether secure boot is on or off. The issue also still occurs whether GRUB's OS probing is enabled or disabled. Linux Mint has been first in the boot order, although my next course of action is to put Windows 11 first, although I won't be able to report any results on that until tomorrow morning.

When setting up the dual drive dual boot I took out the Windows drive before and during the setup of the Linux Mint drive to make sure the drives would be completely separate.. SMART self-tests indicate that both drives are healthy, but I have yet to do any extended tests. Restarting the PC and swapping between OSes works without issue as well.

I would appreciate any help or advice on what to do here because I'm kind of at my wits end. It doesn't seem like a major PC-killing issue, but obviously I can't know that for sure and unintended behavior is pretty spooky!

 

[LinuxDevice]

This is just a guess, and I might be completely wrong. The switching power supplies have more than one rail, e.g., 3.3V, 5V, +/- 12V might be involved. Some of the rails have to be under a small load before they are stable, and so there is a sensor, and if the rail is not stable, then it will be held back from booting. It is likely one rail is not stable on cold boot, but the reason why is hard to say.

Keep in mind that stability might be related to something in the power load, and not the supply, or it might be within the power supply. Or both. It'd take some fairly expensive equipment to analyze that and know for certain. However, it is like a failing capacitor is involved. Electrolytic capacitors do fail over time (usually a very long time, but this varies enormously depending on brand/quality). When first starting up cold that capacitor is likely not charged at all, but as a result of charging, the temperature would change. Restarting in that condition could possibly allow the power rail to become stable and to accept boot.

This is almost always the power supply itself at fault. However, if your power line is low voltage ("brown out"), and not up to standards, then this too would cause a perfectly good power supply to not be stable. I'm going to suggest the odds are on the power supply beginning to fail in one of the capacitors.

The CMOS battery could also be old and memory corrupts. When power is completely off it is possible that a bad battery allows bits to flip. This is the equivalent of a power supply brown-out. Most of the time one has to provide power, adjust the BIOS, and then it reboots, so you really can't differentiate whether the successful boot after this is due to some other issue or from the CMOS being reset. I tend to think it isn't the CMOS because a cold boot followed by a reboot would not succeed if the BIOS were corrupt. Again, I think it is the power supply, but sometimes there is more than one reason. Batteries and capacitors fail.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

When doing a Dual boot you should follow these steps. It's been the same for the prior Windows OS, which is install Windows first, then install Linux without removing your prior OS drive.

How old is the PSU in your build? As for your BIOS, does the time keep resetting? If so, then the CMOS battery might be low on power and/or you have a grounding issue in your abode.

 

[Electrokite]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

When doing a Dual boot you should follow these steps. It's been the same for the prior Windows OS, which is install Windows first, then install Linux without removing your prior OS drive.

How old is the PSU in your build? As for your BIOS, does the time keep resetting? If so, then the CMOS battery might be low on power and/or you have a grounding issue in your abode.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

This build is currently only about a year old as of today, which includes the PSU. I haven't had any issues with the time resetting either.

 

[Electrokite]

This is just a guess, and I might be completely wrong. The switching power supplies have more than one rail, e.g., 3.3V, 5V, +/- 12V might be involved. Some of the rails have to be under a small load before they are stable, and so there is a sensor, and if the rail is not stable, then it will be held back from booting. It is likely one rail is not stable on cold boot, but the reason why is hard to say.

Keep in mind that stability might be related to something in the power load, and not the supply, or it might be within the power supply. Or both. It'd take some fairly expensive equipment to analyze that and know for certain. However, it is like a failing capacitor is involved. Electrolytic capacitors do fail over time (usually a very long time, but this varies enormously depending on brand/quality). When first starting up cold that capacitor is likely not charged at all, but as a result of charging, the temperature would change. Restarting in that condition could possibly allow the power rail to become stable and to accept boot.

This is almost always the power supply itself at fault. However, if your power line is low voltage ("brown out"), and not up to standards, then this too would cause a perfectly good power supply to not be stable. I'm going to suggest the odds are on the power supply beginning to fail in one of the capacitors.

The CMOS battery could also be old and memory corrupts. When power is completely off it is possible that a bad battery allows bits to flip. This is the equivalent of a power supply brown-out. Most of the time one has to provide power, adjust the BIOS, and then it reboots, so you really can't differentiate whether the successful boot after this is due to some other issue or from the CMOS being reset. I tend to think it isn't the CMOS because a cold boot followed by a reboot would not succeed if the BIOS were corrupt. Again, I think it is the power supply, but sometimes there is more than one reason. Batteries and capacitors fail.

Oh that would be a real headache if true. I do think it would be a pretty strange coincidence for my PSU to start failing right after I install a new SSD though, not impossible of course, but I wonder if there is there any chance it could be an issue with either of the SSDs?

 

[LinuxDevice]

Oh that would be a real headache if true. I do think it would be a pretty strange coincidence for my PSU to start failing right after I install a new SSD though, not impossible of course, but I wonder if there is there any chance it could be an issue with either of the SSDs?

Disk failures are always possible, but you did say the SMART tests showed ok. Odds are that it is something else. "Odds" is a good way to say "a guess based on experience, but still just a guess".

 

[Electrokite]

Just wanted to do a small update:

My PC has booted fine for the past two days ever since I made Windows the first boot option. Of course, the issue has been inconsistent (I went almost a week without it happening before) so I could just be getting lucky, but I thought it was worth mentioning.