I purchased a Dell 3620 fitted with a 512GB NVMe solid state drive, the intention was to install Linux Mint for use as my daily driver.
The installation needed to be installed using the whole disk as opposed to a dual boot system which I have done, requiring only a modest change to the BIOS SATA settings to AHCI instead of RAID the default.
Whilst the machine would boot fine into Mint if left overnight it would then fail to start, pushing the power button initiated the fans but then shut down. After much trouble shooting it appears the BIOS cannot find the NVMe drive so gives up and powers down, only problem here is that it also prevents accessing the Dell splash screen entering BIOS setup via F2 key.
The only way around this is to remove components such as NVMe drive, CMOS battery and leave it for 30 minutes, reinstall and after several attempt's it picks up the drive and off we go. In the last couple of days this has improved somewhat by powering on the machine for a minute using the power button located at the back, then after it stops powering on as normal, it still takes 4/5 attempts but does power on needing no further attention throughout the day.
Troubleshooting steps
Read multi posts on Dell forum around very similar issues following each resolution without success
Flashed BIOS to latest (Nov 21) using Dell tool which specifically mentions this issue and the flash update which should solve it.
Engaged with other Mint users via the forum who have experienced similar multi start problems with their own individual work arounds, some more technical than others.
The end result I feel is using AHCI instead of RAID limits the BIOS seeing NVMe drive first thing, using SSD's instead appears to negate this problem but i would like to keep all of the features and storage associated with NVMe technology.
The thought did cross my mind to try another distro Zorin, but I think being Ubuntu based also uses the same Ubiquity installer, another one under consideration is MX which is deb based, might be an option.
Just tried starting up machine this morning, within a few hours it reverts back to not being able to detect NVMe drive.
Under the Boot sequence there is only one option (Ubuntu), whereas before I used to see the NVMe drive, is this correct?
Yup, in the beginning tried every combo of BIOS setting, the main problem I had each time is getting back in to reset or try another configuration, not sure what is happening overnight but it loses sight of the NVMe drive.
When it was running Windows in RAID mode no such problem, this might be an indicator that NVMe on a non RAID setup (i.e AHCI) is a no go.
Forgot to mention replaced CMOS battery as that looked good as a the culprit as did a poorly earthed extension lead.
What I may do is get another PC to experiment with, the hardware connections are getting a little fatigued taking in and out which may lead to poor connectivity in itself. I'll give SolydXK a go when I do.
I will check next time I need to reboot ( by memory I think I saw both things in different times )
The button on the back is a self test for the psu. It's not supposed to be used unless to test the psu, and keeping it pressed for too long "may" not be ideal ( got that impression from some older posts ).
Are you still under warranty ? ( aka, did you try prosupport to see , if under warranty, if they have some notes for this kind of situation )
Thanks, Dell have contacted me when I registered but this machine is just out of warranty, that said not sure it would be covered as removed original OS.
For the moment going to switch back to Win 10 using the Dell restore tool, will let you know if problem persists afterwards.
PS, even replying here I get stuck lol, this captha thing is a pain
- Power Switch - Power Supply (or harness/cabling) - Motherboard (or something on it).
I had a little machine that was working fine. Started doing this after adding some extra ram dimms. Troubleshooting revealed the power-supply had gone weak, and those extra DIMMs used just a bit too much power (to always start and Post).
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mazzinia_
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Posted January 11th, 2022 01:00
Do you have secure boot on, in the bios ?
Have you considered a different linux distribution ?