Linux became unresponsive suddenly, forced restart, OS apparently no longer drive according to BIOS, computer now super slow.

Dumbidiot5566

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Hey guys, I’m new to the forum so I’m not sure if this is the right place to post. Sorry for the long story but I’ve run into some difficulties.

Yesterday I was on my computer, which runs Linux Mint 20, watching the sopranos which I have downloaded on my hard drive, and all of a sudden while watching the sopranos my computer started making what sounded like cricket chirping noises. It started making this noise every second for over 5 mins straight, which again, sounded like chirping noise that a cricket would make. Like a noise as if something was being rubbed against another. So I began trying to open my documents but the documents application was being super slow to the point where it eventually froze. I then tried to restart the computer through the OS, not manually, but for about five minutes it would not do so, it just got stuck at the screen telling me it was preparing to restart. Because of this I decided to turn it off using the power button. When I turned it back on, it went to the boot up screen for like 10 minutes, and finally it went to a black screen saying I needed to reboot and insert proper boot device, indicating the computer did not see an OS on either drive. So I went into the bios and saw that the computer did not recognize any OS, and only had the option to boot from my SSD (which Linux was mounted on), and did not have the option to boot from HDD. It was as if the OS was just wiped from the drive. After messing with the options and really going through all the boot options I ended up seeing the HDD, so thankfully the computer did recognize both drives, but again it did not see any OS at all, and I tried to boot override from both drives multiple times each and nothing came up, it just went to the same black screen telling me I need to select proper boot device. Not only that, but the computer has been incredibly slow. Once I get into the bios it is normal speed, but getting to the bios from boot takes forever. And restarting it with CTRL ALT DLT after there’s a failed boot (due to no OS) takes forever also. The computer outside of the BIOS has just become incredibly slow. I’m not sure if this is a hardware issue or software issue.
 


I’m not sure if this is a hardware issue or software issue.
Welcome to the forums, in mint open terminal put in inxi -Fnxz [inxispace-Fnxz] and paste the results back here
 
Welcome to the forums, in mint open terminal put in inxi -Fnxz [inxispace-Fnxz] and paste the results back here
Thanks for the welcome! Like I said, it won’t let me boot into mint. It doesn’t recognize any OS on either drive and tells me I must insert a bootable device, I.e. a device with an OS mounted on it. This I cannot enter mint and use the terminal. I can only access BIOS.
 
OK then try.. as you switch on hold down Del or Esc button [depends on your motherboard] and it should [he said with fingers crossed ]open the grub menu, if it dose you could try the linux advance option and run repair.
 
The BIOS should tell you which disks it recognizes. What does it say?

It sounds like your SSD, with the OS, may not be working. It might have died.

Have you got a Live CD/DVD/USB which you could boot from? Will this allow you to see the HDD?
 
OK then try.. as you switch on hold down Del or Esc button [depends on your motherboard] and it should [he said with fingers crossed ]open the grub menu, if it dose you could try the linux advance option and run repair.
Unfortunately the grub menu will not open. It will only let me go to BIOS or simply go to black screen saying it needs something to boot from.
 
The BIOS should tell you which disks it recognizes. What does it say?

It sounds like your SSD, with the OS, may not be working. It might have died.

Have you got a Live CD/DVD/USB which you could boot from? Will this allow you to see the HDD?
Interestingly, now the BIOS is only recognizing the SSD. It’s not noticing the HDD at all, and only showing the SSD even from boot override settings. It’s as if the HDD is not installed. Everytime I start up the computer it makes the same chirping noise, but only for the few seconds of the start up process. The computer is still incredibly slow and will remain on the page with the Republic of Gamers logo for about five minutes before allowing me to access BIOS. This all leads me to believe maybe it’s a hard drive issue, considering when my computer started having issues and froze I was watching something installed on my hard drive, and the document application was freezing while I was looking through files on my hard drive. Maybe the hard drive is failing (which seems unlikely as I bought it new last year), or the computer is for some reason just failing to read the HDD. My computer is very dusty inside, maybe that helped cause it. I’ll add again that the OS Linux Mint was installed in the SSD, which is why I’m confused as to why it won’t boot Linux.
 
It may well be time to get down to the nitty gritty

What data etc do you have on those drives that needs saving ?

Do you have Timeshift set up ?....with snapshots saved externally?

Do you have a backup of any kind stored externally?

Do you have a bootable usb stick with Linux Mint 20 on it ?


How much dust, do you call "very dusty"...can you see the top of the processor?...can you take a pic?

When the chirping noise starts is there a pattern to it ?

When you look on the bios screen are any of the temperatures' abnormal ?


If you have a bootable usb stick with LM20, alter the boot order and boot to that usb stick. That will avoid using the hard drive.....it will load in RAM, and give you a chance to access/look at the hard drives.

Details will be good.

Edit to add: OS Linux Mint was installed in the SSD,""....high temp will also render a ssd inoperative.....follow @Alexzee's instructions to clean dust out.
 
Maybe try unplugging your computer and clean all of the dust out really well.
Try using a couple of can's of air to get rid of all of the dust and see if that helps.

A friend of mine had a lot of dust sitting on top of the RAM sticks.
As soon as he removed the dust the pc booted right up.

From your description it could be that your HDD is going south.

One way to tell if your HDD is done for, you won't be able to install another os it won't work.
 
G'day
lets look at possible causes of your problems,
overheating..
blocked ventilation ports /case fan [if fitted]not working
dust and fluff covering the components
breakdown of the thermal joint between the CPU and the cooler
system trying to draw more power than the PSU can supply
an application running in the background [legitimate or not] over working the system
over clocking

spin/click noises
there are only a few components that will cause such noises
CPU cooler fan
case fan
HDD drive [not ssd]
optical drive [dvd/cd] if fitted
PSU fan

Bwiz
 
After reading your description I would suspect the HDD has gone south on you. Try booting form live media see if that works first at all. If you can boot with a live session see if the live OS sees the HDD. If not your most likely looking a a new HDD or replace that with a new SSD. The slowness of boot is most likely being caused by the bios trying to find the HDD which if damaged it can not find. You could try disconnecting the HDD see if it will boot off the SSD. The other possibilities posted should also be tried.
 
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Can you boot from the install medium [pendrive/or dvd] if so do a live install [ as if you are testing the disro] make sure your connected to the internet, open the terminal and put in ..inxi -D [dont forget the space between inxi and -] post the results back here
 
FWIW, when my HDD died it made grinding noises and I couldn't install another distro as it wouldn't take.
 
OP was online around 10 hours ago, leaving no response.
 
Hey guys. So I took some action but things have gotten worse. I did some dusting, I inspected the HDD and SSD. However, now the BIOS will not recognize either drives. None. The BIOS acts as if there is no drive at all. Another issue is that the computer forcibly goes into the BIOS every time I turn it on now. It still takes forever to do so, and will remain on the “Republic of Gamer’s” startup screen for a few minutes, but instead of then going to the boot up error screen asking for boot device, it will instead go to the BIOS. When trying to exit the BIOS, it will simply go black for once second and come back to the BIOS as of it refreshed. This all leads me to believe it is a motherboard issue. Motherboard failures usually express themselves with not recognizing software or drives, freezing, glitching, and being slow. There’s no other explanation in my mind. I should also add for anyone curious that all of my hardware is only one year old. Everything was purchased new except the SSD, which had a few years of usage. I recently switched over to Linux Mint 20.4 about two weeks ago and it was working fine. Why the motherboard would stop working? I’m not sure. It’s certainly not old. One reason could be a virus. I did some torrenting recently, which I’ve done on Windows and never had issues. I know what I’m torrenting and only torrent the MP4 or MP3 files, and I know viruses or malware usually end in .exe. I also was confident because there are so few viruses on Linux. On another hand, there are even fewer that affect the motherboard, so I don’t know how right I am. I was watching an MP4 file I had torrented when the computer began spazzing out (refer to earlier posts for specifics). If this sounds likely, lemme know, and if I sound absolutely stupid and none of what I’m saying makes sense, feel free to call me out and correct me. I’m not too knowledgeable on this stuff and I’m learning on the fly. Again, my guess after all this is the motherboard is failing. Whether it be due to a dud unit, a virus, or dust, I’m not sure.
 
Virus...unlikely

Dust....unlikley

Did you assemble the motherboard/hard drives etc etc yourself?
 
what i am saying is this. a virus or dust to fritz your motherboard is unlikely

The fact that the motherboard takes you straight to BIOS would suggest the motherboard is prob ok

Why I asked who assembled the motherboard and hard drives etc etc is...is there a posibility that the connections are loose?...something like that. The fact that NO drives...either ssd or hdd are recognised may suggest that

@brickwizard may have better insight than me when it coes to hardware.
 
Simply disconnecting the drives and reconnecting them may help

MAKE SURE the power is off....and that you touch some of the metal frame in side the tower.....so as to earth yourself, before touching the drives and connections etc
 
what i am saying is this. a virus or dust to fritz your motherboard is unlikely

The fact that the motherboard takes you straight to BIOS would suggest the motherboard is prob ok

Why I asked who assembled the motherboard and hard drives etc etc is...is there a posibility that the connections are loose?...something like that. The fact that NO drives...either ssd or hdd are recognised may suggest that

@brickwizard may have better insight than me when it coes to hardware.
This is a very interesting theory. Also I should tell you thank you so much for replying with such detailed responses so quickly. I appreciate your help as well as everyone else’s. Thank you. Back to your theory, I did suspect a bit that the connections might be bad. Meaning the wires that came with the case that attach everything to one another. I did not put the motherboard together or connect everything, I watched as my two friends who know infinitely more than me about computers put it all together. I did in fact disconnect, inspect, then reconnect the drives several times when I was dusting. Both drives looked great. Perhaps the wires of the case have deteriorated and the connections are no longer working, which could be why the computer isn’t recognizing either drives. However the computer is still incredibly slow when waiting to get into the bios. It takes minutes to get from the opening screen to the bios, but once in the bios it is fast. But like I said, now the computer goes automatically to the bios and once in I cannot exit.
 

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