Boot Fails (Sometimes) After BIOS Change

[Mike365]

I have a Dell XPS One 2710 AIO with Mint 20.3 installed. A couple of weeks ago I reset the BIOS to the default settings and since then it has been very flakey booting. At present most times I do a restart it boots normally but if I actually power off and then boot it goes to a blank screen and freezes and I cannot reboot it for hours at a time. I can't boot with a live USB either as there is no opportunity to access the BIOS settings to boot from a USB.
I will leave it for three or four hours and once overnight and it then boots normally so I don't know if it is a over heating issue (I suspect not) or if the BIOS has been corrupted somehow.
If anyone can shed some light on this I would be most appreciative.

[kato181]

Was LM installed in UEFI or legacy mode when you reset the bios? Why did you reset your bios for?

[Mike365]

Mint was installed in Legacy mode and I reset the BIOS because there was a rolling screen of errors at boot time that apparently could be solved by resetting the BIOS.

[Jo-con-Ël]

Most the times after charging Default Settings, if it is not done automatically when restarting, you need to get into BIOS setup (F2) again to see if there is something you need to change (boot option, boot priorities/order, disable Fast boot,...) .

So, the main problem is you can not get into BIOS settings (F2) and then F12 to get boot menu. I do recommend to try tapping F2 as soon as you power on computer, even before. Your user manual said it is sometimes tricky (see page 157, Chapter 70).

NOTE: The F2 prompt indicates that the keyboard has initialized. This prompt can
appear very quickly, so you must watch for it, and then press <F2>. If you press <F2>
before the F2 prompt, this keystroke is lost. If you wait too long and the operating
system logo appears, continue to wait until you see the operating system’s desktop.
Then, turn off your computer and try again

Also you can try restarting the computer pressing Alt+Ctrl+Del as soon F2 fails (not waiting to start Linux Mint to turn off) and then press/tap F2 immediately.

About that black screen and freeze issues, you can try pressing Esc (maybe twice) to see what happens in the background.

In other hand you don't say anything about other systems installed, GRUB menu or the way you have installed Mint. If Mint was installed in UEFI mode you can try pressing or tapping SHIFT key as soon as you power on computer to get into GRUB menu, there will be an option to get into UEFI/BIOS settings (System setup).

In that case, it is good you can see GRUB menu always as it doesn't show by default if there is no other system installed or detected. Post back following code result to be sure in any case.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxzr

PD: Sorry I was late on submitting and now you say it was installed in BIOS Legacy Mode. Also I have found an inxi report on september's posts but you have installed una now.