Shorted motherboard may fail to start GRUB interface
Shorted motherboard may fail to start GRUB interface
Hello everyone, I'm facing some issues with my PC setup. I have an HP EliteDesk 800 G1 running an Intel i7-4790 processor, equipped with 4x8GB DDR3 RAM, an AMD R7 250 graphics card, a 320W power supply, one SATA SSD, Wi-Fi card, and two HD cards. The system is dual-booted between Ubuntu and Windows, managed by GRUB. Recently, while cleaning out the card drive, the power cable stayed plugged in. When I tried to reinsert it, a metal bracket briefly made contact with the board. The machine powered on instantly without me pressing any key, so I disabled it and reinserted the card to view the error. It displays "Error 161-Real-Time-Clock-Power-Loss" immediately after the HP logo appears, offering options to boot or enter BIOS. Pressing boot navigates me to the GRUB shell where I can run commands. Using the `ls` command, I located the boot configuration file and told it to boot from there, but this triggers a restart, shows the same error, then returns to the GRUB interface. Attempting Windows Boot Manager results in "System BootOrder not found. Initializing defaults" and shuts down. On startup, it reverts to the error screen and GRUB shell again. I haven't tried breadboarding, swapping the CMOS battery (since I don’t have one), or using a bootable USB. I’ve observed that BIOS changes aren’t persistent across restarts, and removing boot devices alters the boot sequence. EDIT: Resetting CMOS didn’t help. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks ahead! Edited May 11, 2022 by ThAt_DiSpLaY_nAmE_iN uSe
This appears to address the "161-Real-Time-Clock-Power-Loss" issue found on the HP forum. It references a dual OS setup and points to an answer available at the provided link. The discussion also connects to a similar question on Ubuntu about boot order problems.
Hi spannvis, your reply is appreciated. Finding similar solutions online is tough with my phone as the sole working tool, so these links are really helpful. The HP forum instructions cleared the 161 Clock issue, which is good news—it shows the BIOS isn<|pad|>. Still, I keep getting "Boot Order not found" when trying to boot into Windows. I moved the drive to the top of the boot order in BIOS, above Ubuntu, but the problem persists. After checking again, the drive is now listed second under Ubuntu instead of at the bottom. This suggests the boot order settings aren’t completely broken. The second person’s experience is helpful; they can boot into Ubuntu but only access the GRUB shell. I’ll follow their guide and update my response with the link: https://superuser.com/questions/1237684/...grub-shell. Thanks for your support so far!
I've managed to reach the Kali GNU installation, though I realized I swapped Ubuntu for Kali earlier. It's requesting a username and password that I don't recall. I'm pretty sure I might have been able to guess the password, but the username is unclear—I think I installed Kali and then forgot about it. I've been checking files in grub like etc/password and ect/shadow for the username, but haven't found it. Maybe I'm searching incorrectly. Any suggestions on how to locate it? I'm also considering removing Linux entirely, since my Windows installation might still be damaged. The Windows files are on a different partition, so if that's safe, I could try that instead. Thanks ahead!
I haven't experienced that scenario before, so it falls outside my Linux knowledge base. Still, based on Kali's guidelines, the standard credentials are: User: kali Password: kali. Testing them might not fix the issue, but it could be worth a shot.
@spannvis There seems to be some HP specific bug outlined here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions...windows-10 Trying to find Custom Boot in the UEFI currently
It appears the problem stems from HP hardcoding the Windows bootloader path in the UEFI. You should check the relevant .efi files and see which ones are causing the issue. Avoid testing files outside the suggested folders: Microsoft, Boot, ubuntu, debian. Let me know if you need further help.