System reboots seconds after reaching desktop

sboerm

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Hello.
I have built a Linux workstation recently, with an AMD Ryzen 3700X processor and an Asus Prime X570-P mainboard (plus a Geforce RTX graphics card, m.2 SSD, 64 GB of RAM).
The system worked well with OpenSUSE 15.1 for about three months, apart from some instances when it slowed down considerably due to kernel activity apparently related to the graphics card.

Last week it suddenly rebooted, reached the login screen for a few seconds, and rebooted again repeatedly until I turned off the power.
I tried booting Windows, but the boot process stopped without even reaching the desktop.
I replaced the graphics card, but the problem remained.
I tried booting to runlevel 1, but this also gave me just a few seconds in a root shell before the system rebooted again.
I ran memtest86, and it worked without any problems and reported no memory errors.
Finally I replaced the mainboard with an Asus Prime X570-PRO, but this just gives me a few more seconds before the system reboots itself again.

Is there a way to find out what is happening, despite the fact that I cannot boot an operating system to, e.g., run diagnostics or even read log files?
Is there a way to boot just a minimal Linux system from a flash drive to let me access the log files?
What could be the reason for the system suddenly rebooting under Linux, failing to boot at all under Windows, and working without problems with memtest86?
Any suggestions?

Best regards,
Steffen
 


With the machine turned off, plug in your Live Linux USB thumb drive.
Than, turn the power on and and soon as it's on start pressing the key to get into the BIOS.

Once you are in the BIOS go to your Boot order and set your machine to boot to USB.
In other-words; make USB the first option in the Boot order.

Save and Exit and your machine should reboot into the Live USB.

I'm not sure what the reason is as to why the system keeps rebooting.
My first thought was the run level:-

Do you have the PDF of your Asus Prime X570 Pro?
 
Thank you for your suggestion.
I have tried it with an Ubuntu 20.04 thumb drive. GRUB started from the drive, I chose to boot into Ubuntu, and the system appeared to stop in the middle of the boot process. The fan suddenly became very loud for a moment, which usually means that the system is restarting, but the screen remained black and there was no BIOS message.
I am pretty confident that it is a hardware problem, since OpenSUSE 15.1, Windows 10, and now Ubuntu 20.04 fail to run properly. As I said, the system seemed to work well until it suddently didn't. Since memtest86 works, I was wondering if there is some minimal Linux distro that I could use to run diagnostics. Or if it is possible to make the system send boot messages via Ethernet or USB to allow me at least to see how far it gets and if any errors are reported.
In case of a kernel panic, I would have expected the system to stop, not reboot. Are there error conditions that Linux responds to by rebooting without any user interaction?
If there are not, maybe my PSU is malfunctioning?
 
If your PSU was failing the machine wouldn't boot at all most likely.

You can use Test Disk for data recovery.
There is also a program called 'smartmantools' that you can install and use.

The minimal Linux distro that you could use for diahnostics that comes to mind is Puppy Linux and Ubuntu. You can also use Parted Magic that comes with a lot of tools.


Here's 5 programs that can help you when your pc starts giving you a hard time:


Look in your BIOS settings and ensure that all of the settings are right. And when you have time, read through the PDF of your Asus X-570 Manual.
 
Check the event viewer logs to see if that tells you why the system keeps rebooting.
Here's your manual:
 
G'day @sboerm and welcome to linux.org :)

By all means follow through with what Alex has suggested above, first.

With regard to a minimal system on USB, you could try Knoppix and or Puppy.

If you choose to try that, then I am flagging @captain-sensible (Knoppix) and @darry1966 (Puppy) to be on standby should you need an assist.

Andy and Darren, can you guys keep an eye on this Thread, please? TIA.

BTW for the benefit of Alex, other Helpers, and The Viewers - openSUSE - neither its Leap version, nor its Tumbleweeds version, has a Live Disk, you install it or you don't.

Don't ask me why :D

Good luck and Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
G'day @sboerm and welcome to linux.org :)

By all means follow through with what Alex has suggested above, first.

With regard to a minimal system on USB, you could try Knoppix and or Puppy.

If you choose to try that, then I am flagging @captain-sensible (Knoppix) and @darry1966 (Puppy) to be on standby should you need an assist.

Andy and Darren, can you guys keep an eye on this Thread, please? TIA.

BTW for the benefit of Alex, other Helpers, and The Viewers - openSUSE - neither its Leap version, nor its Tumbleweeds version, has a Live Disk, you install it or you don't.

Don't ask me why :D

Good luck and Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
Will do :)
 
Check the event viewer logs to see if that tells you why the system keeps rebooting.
Thank you, I have tried to find event logs in the BIOS menu, but did not find any. They are also not mentioned in the mainboard manual.
 
If your PSU was failing the machine wouldn't boot at all most likely.

(...)

Here's 5 programs that can help you when your pc starts giving you a hard time:


Look in your BIOS settings and ensure that all of the settings are right. And when you have time, read through the PDF of your Asus X-570 Manual.
Thank you for the suggestion, I have tried both SystemRescueCD and Rescatux.
SystemRescueCD apparently manages to boot, but after a message about "uevents" only random-looking dots are displayed instead of text. I assume that the software tries to access the framebuffer directly and fails. If I type "reset" blindly, apparently the terminal is reset, i.e., most of the dots turn black, but that's not very helpful. The good news is that the system does not reboot on its own, but since I cannot read what's on the screen, there does not appear to be a lot I can do.
Rescatux seems to behave like OpenSUSE: it starts booting, then the computer restarts.

Are there kernel parameters that I can use to tell Linux not to do any fancy initialization of the graphics card and just use the BIOS for text output? If the PSU is the problem and if it shuts down the moment the graphics card tries to get more power, this might help.

I checked the mainboard manual and did not find anything suggesting a solution. The BIOS settings also appear to be quite standard (I started with the default settings). Since I encounter the same problems with both the X570-P and the X570-PRO, it seems unlikely that the BIOS is the problem, doesn't it?
 
Last edited:
G'day @sboerm and welcome to linux.org :)

(...)

With regard to a minimal system on USB, you could try Knoppix and or Puppy.

If you choose to try that, then I am flagging @captain-sensible (Knoppix) and @darry1966 (Puppy) to be on standby should you need an assist.

Andy and Darren, can you guys keep an eye on this Thread, please? TIA.

BTW for the benefit of Alex, other Helpers, and The Viewers - openSUSE - neither its Leap version, nor its Tumbleweeds version, has a Live Disk, you install it or you don't.

Don't ask me why :D

Good luck and Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

Thank you for your kind welcome :)

I was unable to download Knoppix (pressing the "Accept" button after the website's disclaimer did nothing, and the knoppix directories on the RWTH ftp server appear to be empty).
Puppy Linux shows the same behaviour as OpenSUSE: After a few seconds the system reboots. In this case, I made it as far as choosing the time zone before the screen went blank again.
 
There are some actions you can take. On the assumption that something is wrong hardware-wise, with your machine completely shutdown, remove your RAM. Inspect the connectors as they can become corroded even when attached. You could also run a pencil eraser over the surface of the connectors, and then with a clean cloth wipe them clean. Reinsert the RAM. You can also check the CPU/fan. Clean off and replace the heat sink thermal paste, and reassemble/install the fan.

Button everything up and restart. If it starts and runs, all is good. If not then it's either electrical - power supply or MB power control/rectifier circuit - or the MB itself. That's been my experience.
 
There are some actions you can take. On the assumption that something is wrong hardware-wise, with your machine completely shutdown, remove your RAM. Inspect the connectors as they can become corroded even when attached. You could also run a pencil eraser over the surface of the connectors, and then with a clean cloth wipe them clean. Reinsert the RAM. You can also check the CPU/fan. Clean off and replace the heat sink thermal paste, and reassemble/install the fan.

Button everything up and restart. If it starts and runs, all is good. If not then it's either electrical - power supply or MB power control/rectifier circuit - or the MB itself. That's been my experience.
Thank you for your suggestions.

I have recently replaced the mainboard, and that involved moving the memory modules and cleaning and reinstalling the fan and the CPU. Unfortunately, it did not help, the system still reboots itself a few seconds after launching.

I ran memtest86 without any problems, and it did not find any memory errors.

Since the problem remains even with a completely new mainboard, the next possible step would be replacing the PSU, right?
 
Since the problem remains even with a completely new mainboard, the next possible step would be replacing the PSU, right?
I experienced some similar issue like yours and replacing the PSU did solved the problem, so if you can I guess doing that is the right thing to do.
 
I experienced some similar issue like yours and replacing the PSU did solved the problem, so if you can I guess doing that is the right thing to do.
Thank you, I have ordered a new PSU. I hope that 750W will be enough for a Ryzen 3700X and a GeForce RTX 2060 ;)
 
Thank you, I have ordered a new PSU. I hope that 750W will be enough for a Ryzen 3700X and a GeForce RTX 2060 ;)
Is it a good quality certified PSU?
 
I think replacinf PSU is the right move, I think the symptoms point towards this.
 
Thank you, I have tried to find event logs in the BIOS menu, but did not find any. They are also not mentioned in the mainboard manual.
The events logs are probably in /var/logs/.
You can also look at system logs by entering:
var/log/syslog (this is a very long log)

The dmesg command may show you some things too.

How to View Linux Logs
 
I think replacinf PSU is the right move, I think the symptoms point towards this.
That would be great :)
I haven't even had a chance to properly try out the graphics card before it failed. "Slay the Spire" isn't exactly heavy on graphics ;-)
 
Thank you for the suggestion, I have tried both SystemRescueCD and Rescatux.
SystemRescueCD apparently manages to boot, but after a message about "uevents" only random-looking dots are displayed instead of text. I assume that the software tries to access the framebuffer directly and fails. If I type "reset" blindly, apparently the terminal is reset, i.e., most of the dots turn black, but that's not very helpful. The good news is that the system does not reboot on its own, but since I cannot read what's on the screen, there does not appear to be a lot I can do.
Rescatux seems to behave like OpenSUSE: it starts booting, then the computer restarts.

Are there kernel parameters that I can use to tell Linux not to do any fancy initialization of the graphics card and just use the BIOS for text output? If the PSU is the problem and if it shuts down the moment the graphics card tries to get more power, this might help.

I checked the mainboard manual and did not find anything suggesting a solution. The BIOS settings also appear to be quite standard (I started with the default settings). Since I encounter the same problems with both the X570-P and the X570-PRO, it seems unlikely that the BIOS is the problem, doesn't it?
After reading a handful of google searches on rebooting problems the Asus X570 has shown issues repeatedly. It could be the BIOS or the PSU on it's way out.

Yes, there is a way to control the GPU with parameters. I've never tried it though:-

FWIW, My main board is the Asus X-570 Tuf Gaming and I've only had one issue one time.
Suddenly, my system shut down for no reason. Still don't know what that was about.
 

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