Boot up issue.

[tinpanalley]

I have an issue which only happens when booting my computer. It's been happening for ages and through two different motherboards so it's obviously something I'm doing wrong.
When I boot, I won't get a display on my computer monitor. I see the logo of the motherboard and then it goes to black and that's that. I do a reset, it works fine. But I always have to do that reset. It's ridiculous and I don't like having to force rebot my computer like that.

The dektop is set up to output to my monitor and via HDMI to an HDMI splitter that feeds my TV.
Any ideas?

[Bombastinator]

53 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

I have an issue which only happens when booting my computer. It's been happening for ages and through two different motherboards so it's obviously something I'm doing wrong.
When I boot, I won't get a display on my computer monitor. I see the logo of the motherboard and then it goes to black and that's that. I do a reset, it works fine. But I always have to do that reset. It's ridiculous and I don't like having to force rebot my computer like that.

The dektop is set up to output to my monitor and via HDMI to an HDMI splitter that feeds my TV.
Any ideas?

So start up runs through post and hangs, hit restart button and it goes thorough post and boots windows.

 

A couple of possibilities here:

1 it’s a heat thing

-even the short cycle of heat through a boot process is enough to close a cracked solder joint and make things work.  Highly unlikely but not impossible. 

2 it’s a boot thing

-t start and restart are different.  Start is actually a hibernate type thing while restart actually forces a boot. This is why it takes longer.  So something is getting messed up that is cleared by attempting to boot instead of that weird obfuscated hibernation thing windows machines do. 
 

There is probably an easy not terribly invasive way to fix this.   I don’t know it though so mine would be backup your files and do a format and clean install.  a scorched earth solution.

[tinpanalley]

10 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So something is getting messed up that is cleared by attempting to boot instead of that weird obfuscated hibernation thing windows machines do. 

Just want to be sure I'm being clear.. I'm not in hibernate mode. When it won't display it's from 'off'. Like, off off. Not from sleep mode. Then I have to push the reboot button and that's the one that works.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

Just want to be sure I'm being clear.. I'm not in hibernate mode. When it won't display it's from 'off'. Like, off off. Not from sleep mode. Then I have to push the reboot button and that's the one that works.

“Shutdown “ has actually been an obfuscated sort of hybernate in windows for many years now.  To really really shut down you have to hold down some key or other when you do it.  If you don’t  It saves ram contents to drive.  So not a normal boot.

 

so it’s entirely possible that something that is only used on startup is getting corrupted and it only matters if one tries to start up with it which because of the behavior of windows is every time.   The workaround would be to hold that key (I think it’s [opt] but I’m not sure) when you shutdown so it starts from scratch like a restart.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Bombastinator

[tinpanalley]

On 1/26/2023 at 8:47 PM, Bombastinator said:

The workaround would be to hold that key (I think it’s [opt] but I’m not sure) when you shutdown so it starts from scratch like a restart.

I had no idea about any of this. How do I find out what's causing the problem, though?
So there is no chance that it's the splitting video output to the TV and to the monitor and that it somehow gets confused trying to do both or something?

[Robchil]

15 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

I had no idea about any of this. How do I find out what's causing the problem, though?
So there is no chance that it's the splitting video output to the TV and to the monitor and that it somehow gets confused trying to do both or something?

in power management, set your power button to shut down, not hibernate, and look into how to disable hibernation... in power management remove hibernation from any of the settings. 

 

it should save monitor setup after first time configuring it. 

 

[tinpanalley]

12 hours ago, Robchil said:

in power management, set your power button to shut down, not hibernate, and look into how to disable hibernation... in power management remove hibernation from any of the settings. 

 

it should save monitor setup after first time configuring it. 

 

Sorry to be annoying about this, but as I said before, I don't ever sleep or hibernate. When I "shut off" I shut off. And I don't have hibernate in any way enabled.

 

[Robchil]

35 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Sorry to be annoying about this, but as I said before, I don't ever sleep or hibernate. When I "shut off" I shut off. And I don't have hibernate in any way enabled.

 

did you disable all powermanaging features in the bios too? 

 

[tinpanalley]

5 minutes ago, Robchil said:

did you disable all powermanaging features in the bios too? 

 

Haven't looked there. But I'll check.
I've never done anything myself to the BIOS, so unless it comes as default, it probably won't have anything. 

[RiffTheRaff]

Disable "Turn on fast start-up" and try if the problem is gone.

[Harmsway1283]

16 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Haven't looked there. But I'll check.
I've never done anything myself to the BIOS, so unless it comes as default, it probably won't have anything. 

You’ve never updated the BIOS? That could be one place to start.

 

What motherboard and CPU are you using? Are your displays connected to a GPU or the motherboard?

[tinpanalley]

1 minute ago, Harmsway1283 said:

You’ve never updated the BIOS? That could be one place to start.

 

I have not as of yet updated my BIOS since building this desktop 2 years ago. I did a rough poll here and on another forum and the response was overwhelmingly to always leave my BIOS alone unless something major wasn't working.
 

Motherboard is an AMD B450 Tomahawk Max. The GPU is a GTX 1660 Super.

The displays are both connected to the GPU. I listed how I have them set up in the last line of my first post.

[Harmsway1283]

While it is a good policy to never arbitrarily update your BIOS, in my opinion this issue you’re dealing with is more than enough reason to update it.

 

There have been a couple BIOS updates to your motherboard  that specifically addressed PCIe compatibility and System Boot

[tinpanalley]

3 minutes ago, Harmsway1283 said:

While it is a good policy to never arbitrarily update your BIOS, in my opinion this issue you’re dealing with is more than enough reason to update it.

 

There have been a couple BIOS updates to your motherboard  that specifically addressed PCIe compatibility and System Boot

Ok, it was happening with my last desktop build as well which is why I was asking if it had something to do with the use of that HDMI splitter and that that maybe confuses the gpu about which display to use. 

[Harmsway1283]

6 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Ok, it was happening with my last desktop build as well which is why I was asking if it had something to do with the use of that HDMI splitter and that that maybe confuses the gpu about which display to use. 

Ah, i see. It “shouldn’t” be an issue with the splitter. A pc can still boot without a monitor plugged in at all and the splitter should only allow for one sense input to be detected. Have you tried using only one monitor to see if the problem persists?

[tinpanalley]

1 minute ago, Harmsway1283 said:

Ah, i see. It “shouldn’t” be an issue with the splitter. A pc can still boot without a monitor plugged in at all and the splitter should only allow for one sense input to be detected. Have you tried using only one monitor to see if the problem persists?

In the past when I'd disconnect the splitter altogether (so the PC has no clue I have anything other than a monitor) the issue doesn't happen but I can't say I've booted like that hundreds of times to know for sure. But I have the impression the issue began with the splitter. The splitter auto jumps to TV output for some reason and that kick starts the blank display issue. IT shouldn't when you click back to the monitor but nevertheless...

[Harmsway1283]

3 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

In the past when I'd disconnect the splitter altogether (so the PC has no clue I have anything other than a monitor) the issue doesn't happen but I can't say I've booted like that hundreds of times to know for sure.

Ok, sounds like you would be better off without the splitter then. Maybe it is allowing more than one input sense signal. 
 

I take it your GTX 1660 only has one hdmi port? They make adapter cables for both DVI to hdmi and displayport to hdmi

[Harmsway1283]

10 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

But I have the impression the issue began with the splitter. The splitter auto jumps to TV output for some reason and that kick starts the blank display issue. IT shouldn't when you click back to the monitor but nevertheless...

I think you’re on the right track. That splitter may have been intended for a home theatre setup instead of a multi-monitor PC setup

[tinpanalley]

Just now, Harmsway1283 said:

I think you’re on the right track. That splitter may have been intended for a home theatre setup instead of a multi-monitor PC setup

Ugh, it's annoying though because it's REALLY practical for our use when we output the desktop to the TV, which is quite often.

The GPU has 3 full-sized DisplayPorts (v1.4) in addition to an HDMI port (2.0b)

[Bombastinator]

14 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

I had no idea about any of this. How do I find out what's causing the problem, though?
So there is no chance that it's the splitting video output to the TV and to the monitor and that it somehow gets confused trying to do both or something?

That would just be a work around and part of a test. Specifically IF it’s a boot issue and not a heat issue. These days heat issues don’t force things to crash much they just throttle down and run really slowly.  This can cause crashes though.