Strange Laptop Behaviors

[Burusutazu]

My Dell Inspiron 13 7348 is a few years old now (3 and 1/2) and has had a rough life being carried around for all my classes. Lately there have been a few issues that I have tried to get help with elsewhere but have had no luck...

 

Shutting the lid turns the laptop off.

I have used Ubuntu and Windows on this laptop for pretty much it's entire life yet all of a sudden when I shut the lid the computer just shuts down. I have run through a number of different troubleshooting tips from editing config files and testing if the lid switch is even recognized (it is) and nothing has helped. This has happened on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Solus.

• Uncommenting the lid switch actions and setting them to suspend in the file /etc/systemd/login.conf did not work.
• Setting the setting in the settings did not work.
• Testing systemctl suspend was a success.

Thanks @Tosa

I cannot boot from a Windows USB installer.

I cannot boot from a Windows 10 USB installer on all three ports of the laptop. Selecting the USB drive(s) just continues on to booting Ubuntu.

• I used various different USB creation tools including Rufus, Media Creation Tool, and Universal USB Installer.
• I used both a 32GB PNY Flash drive and a Samsung 64GB drive and neither worked.
• I tried NTFS, FAT32, and Extended FAT format choices on Rufus.
• I tried both UEFI for GPT and MBR and non UEFI. (The system is UEFI GPT).
• Booting from Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Elementary OS work on both of the above flash drives.
• Secure Boot is off.

 

BIOS settings are not saving.

When trying to change from UEFI boot to Legacy (or trying to enable legacy boot options with UEFI) the settings do not save after I save and exit the BIOS.

• The CMOS battery is not dead.

 

Any help on any of these issues would be greatly appreciated. The issues have gone on long enough now that I had to break down and buy a new laptop because these issues were getting in the way of work.

The issues are listed in the order they appeared.

 

I asked for help on Ask Ubuntu and got asked about if suspend worked. Never got a follow up.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/994864/laptop-lid-close-not-suspending

 

 

[Canada EH]

its your boot sequence within bios

 

change the battery cmos

[Burusutazu]

3 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

its your boot sequence within bios

The boot sequence is:

• HHD1 Ubuntu
• USB1 1

I'm selecting the USB from the boot menu, so how would I fix this?

[Burusutazu]

49 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

 

change the battery cmos

The battery is not dead as stated in the post.

[Canada EH]

1 minute ago, Burusutazu said:

The battery is not dead as stated in the post.

change it anyways

 

dont matter what the voltage is, could read solid 100% voltage but still crap out with no juice left.

[Burusutazu]

Just now, Canada EH said:

change it anyways

I've already changed it, that's how I know it's not dead.

[Burusutazu]

On 1/20/2018 at 11:52 PM, Canada EH said:

change it anyways

 

dont matter what the voltage is, could read solid 100% voltage but still crap out with no juice left.

I changed it again after a second battery arrived and the issues still persist.

[Tosa]

The lid doesn't happen by chance to push down the power button when you close it? And for the BIOS settings, have you been flashing the BIOS and/or altering the settings a lot? Anyway, you could try removing the CMOS battery, the regular battery and unplug the charger, then hold the power button for about half a minute. Then put everything back.

[Burusutazu]

37 minutes ago, Tosa said:

The lid doesn't happen by chance to push down the power button when you close it? And for the BIOS settings, have you been flashing the BIOS and/or altering the settings a lot? Anyway, you could try removing the CMOS battery, the regular battery and unplug the charger, then hold the power button for about half a minute. Then put everything back.

The power button is on the side of the laptop so it can't be that. And I haven't changed the BIOS settings since I first got it, and all I did was disable secure boot then. 

One of the main reasons I wan't to install Windows is so I can use Dell's BIOS flash tool to update the BIOS. I can't seem to get my head around flashing it via usb.

I'll try removing the two batteries and holding the power button. I'll report back in a bit.

[Burusutazu]

@Tosa Your suggestion fixed the shutdown on lid close, but not of the BIOS and USB Boot issues. Any other suggestions?