[SOLVED] Strange PC Bios Post Problem

[jhaveri]

I recently got a used PC from a friend that I want to use as a Linux PC. I reformatted the Sata Internal drive and installed Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Anyway, I have begun observing a strange boot problem. If I restart the PC from Ubuntu menu, the PC shuts down, but during the rebooting, BIOS does not post. There is power light on PC and fan is running but no Bios Post, and black screen. So I power down the PC and in few seconds, power again and no BIOS Post, just black screen. So I power down again pushing the power button. Now I wait for 10 to 15 minutes, and power on again, and the PC boots, bios Posts, I see linux booting into descktop. If I restart from linux, same problem again. If I use power off from Linux, and try to boot again using power button on PC, same problem, no Bios post just blank screen. Then I power down again, wait for 10 to 15 minutes, and it boots.

What is this strange behavior. The fact that I have to wait 10 to 15 minutes, means the PC is overheating, and 10 to 15 minutes wait after power off cools the motherboard and parts down. I am lost. Is it possible some components are going bad.

The motherboard is Asus A58M-K , cpu AMD A6-5400K, and power supply Logisys PS460D. Ram is DDR3 4 GB 1600 Mhz.

 

[Ralston18]

What make and model used PC?

How old?

Not sure about that Logisys PSU - part of the original build?

Did your friend mention why the PC was being given up - any problems or reasons?

Might be worth trying a new CMOS battery just as a matter of elimination.

Are you able to access BIOS or does the PC not even get that far?

Could be that the CPU needs to be removed, cleaned, and new thermal pasted applied. Pattern does suggest overheating.

 

[jhaveri]

What make and model used PC?

How old?

Not sure about that Logisys PSU - part of the original build?

Did your friend mention why the PC was being given up - any problems or reasons?

Might be worth trying a new CMOS battery just as a matter of elimination.

Are you able to access BIOS or does the PC not even get that far?

Could be that the CPU needs to be removed, cleaned, and new thermal pasted applied. Pattern does suggest overheating.

The friend wanted to upgrade to Laptop. It is seven year old, bought from a local PC Shop, not a particular brand.

When the PC does boot, after 10 to 15 minutes of wait, it does POST, and I can also get into BIOS. When it does boot into Linux, it works just fine.

If it is overheating, then like you said, I would try removing the CPU and apply thermal paste. But what is bothering is that, even if after 10 to 15 minutes of waiting, when I do boot, and then immediately shut it down, and try again, it does not boot. Can it really overheat in just 5 minutes it takes to boot from cold start and shutdown?

 

[Ralston18]

Actually the CPU can overheat almost immediately and that causes a self-protective thermal shutdown.

The entire system does not need to heat up or even get warm.

FYI:

https://levvvel.com/cpu-overheating/

If you google "CPU thermal shutdown" you will find quite a number of links.

Do a bit more reading and then revise your search criteria as necessary to include the CPU, motherboard, etc..

Hopefully the revised search will help to more specifically identify the problem at hand along with possible solutions.

 

[jhaveri]

Actually the CPU can overheat almost immediately and that causes a self-protective thermal shutdown.

Thank you for your reply, it makes sense.

I also got one suggestion from google search to update the Bios. I did update the bios to latest available from ASUS support site, and the strange behavior is gone. I have not seen the strange behavior, not even once in last 3 days with numerous reboots. I do not understand why the bios update can fix it.

Anyway, if the problem happens again, I will follow your suggestion and search for CPU overheating. If you do have an explanation for how a bios update resolved my issues, I am curious to learn. Thanks.

 

[Ralston18]

BIOS firmware is simply code.

And something in that code was corrupt, buggy, or broken in some manner. May not have immediately been apparent until something else changed and the code no longer functioned as it was supposed to do.

Maybe something to do with temperature sensing and/or how the system responds if a given temperature "X" is detected. And determining
"X" could be problematic just on its' own merits.

The BIOS update fixed that corrupted, buggy, or broken code.

Sometimes when you look into and read through the update release information you may find some relevant reference to what was fixed. May or may not be readily apparent or clear.