Boot > Black Screen No Bios No Cursor... Reboot Fine

Hello folks.
Every morning when I power on my PC it goes to this black screen, no bios, no cursor, no response to keyboard commands etc.
I then press and hold the power button, it powers off, then I immediately press it again and my computer boots normally.

This MAY have been caused by using Google Home smart plugs powering on by voice command, and having my PC set to "Boot when Power Resumes". I don't know. That should be ok as the PC is off when the power resumes!

Any ideas how I could fix this, I have reset Bios to default, makes no difference.

The computer is behaving normally otherwise.
Thanks, Mark.

Win10 Pro V20H2 build 19042.964
64bit 24gb Ram 512gb SSD
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU X 990 @ 3.47GHz 3.47 GHz

 

The other possibly salient piece of information is that for about a year now, my PC never boots first time. After about 5 seconds of fan noise etc the PC restarts 3 or 4 times and THEN I see bios and the fan is not interrupted by a odd reboot.
I wonder if this is something that may be caused by CMOS battery or faulty power supply? But then why has this been going on with no other problems for many months now?
Tx
Mark.

 

UPDATE: I powered off, pressed the Reset CMOS button, rebooted, and got the exact same boot to black, then after long pressing power and powering again, I got the 3x auto reboots, then boot normally.
So resetting CMOS did nothing.

 

Did it used to behave normally? When did the problem start?

I don't recommend "Boot when Power Resumes" except for unattended, mission critical systems. This setting is typically used so techs don't have to make a road trip in the middle of the night after a storm just to power up an important computer. But there are several problems with this.

One, it is not uncommon for power to "flicker" on and off violently for a few seconds when power is coming back up until the grid becomes stable. These fluctuations can contain extreme surges and can be extremely abusive to the power supply and components connected to it. I note your symptoms are not uncommon with a failing power supply. I recommend you swap in a known good supply and see what happens.

Also, this setting typically requires log-in passwords be disabled. That presents a security issue.

You told us nothing about the motherboard itself. If me, I would unplug the computer from the wall, open the case, touch bare metal of the case interior to discharge any static, then swap in a new CMOS battery. These typically are Cr2032 and can be found at most battery/camera/watch counters. I recommend recycling the old battery to keep it out of our landfills.

After the new battery is inserted, connect power and boot directly into the BIOS Setup menu to check/reset the date and time, and make sure your boot order is correct. Then Save and Exit and hopefully it will boot normally.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the help. I did a cmos battery change, and reset, disabled Express Gate (I have an Asus P6X58D-E mobo) and it started up first time, no restarts, no black screen... It seems the cmos reset fixed the boot to black screen issue, and the battery change fixed the 3x reboot before bios issue.
Thanks a lot,
Mark

 

Perhaps. But note removing the old battery to swap in the new also results in a CMOS reset. So one or the other fixed that part of the problem.

In any case, I am glad it appears to be sorted out and thanks for coming back with your followup post.

 

Hi again
Well, oddly, I had done the cmos reset on Saturday and noticed it was not booting to black any more but was doing the 3x reboot before Bios thing still... I removed the battery, reset all the bios stuff to boot correctly again, and hey presto, all working.
Yep, it will go to the recycle depot with my faulty AA rechargeables.
Cheers,
Mark.

 

A weak (but not dead) battery can behave radically - especially as its environment (operating temperature) and load varies. They even slight recover their charge when removed from the circuit. If the charge is teetering on the threshold, that can account for its radical behavior.

Remember, the CMOS battery is there to maintain a holding voltage on the CMOS circuit when the computer is powered off. And the CMOS circuit is designed to hold user variable BIOS settings ONLY as long as that holding voltage is present. You remove that voltage and the CMOS circuit forgets (resets, or dumps its data) those settings.

That voltage can be removed in several ways. You can remove the battery, short the reset pins by moving the jumper, or some motherboards even have a "momentary" reset switch that shorts those two pins. Any one way will reset the BIOS.

Sadly, there is a lot of misconception about this. The CMOS circuit is designed to be easily reset. And an characteristic of CMOS devices and circuits (which are memory devices and circuits) is they will dump all their stored data almost instantly once that holding voltage is removed either by removing the battery, or by shorting that voltage to ground via the reset pins. So my point is, there is no need to remove the battery "and" reset the CMOS with the jumper pins. One or the other does it.

Also, there are no capacitors in that circuit that hold a charge. So no action is necessary to "bleed" any residual voltages off. So removing the battery for a couple seconds is plenty, just as moving the jumper to short the reset pins for a couple seconds is plenty. I mention that because you will some times see folks recommend removing the battery then press and hold the power button to discharge any residual voltages. All pressing and holding the power button does is make your finger tired!

Had the motherboard designers wanted the BIOS to be hard to reset, or for it to maintain its data once the voltage is removed, they simply would have used a different memory device instead of CMOS - an EEPROM for example.

Any way - not sure where you live but Best Buy recycles those batteries.

 

Thanks great info!
I live in the UK about 1 mile from a recycling depot.
Cheers mate,
Mark.