“Reset system” BIOS message

[jevakmeni]

I have an old HP Elite Slice desktop that I’ve fitted with 16Gb RAM and an SSD. It has been in a cupboard for 6 months or so. A while back I had it running Linux Mint 22.x. I thought it time for an update - and I thought a fresh build of Mint would be best. I banged in the USB stick I have (& which I have used to build other machines) & I booted the system. It booted fine, but wouldn't recognise the LMDE7 USB stick I had inserted, despite that having been used just the other day to build my Mac mini.

I rebooted and it has gone into a boot loop, powering up, displaying "reset system" very briefly and then rebooting itself. Spamming the heck out of ESC, DEL, F2, F9 or F10 just don't seem to make any difference. I've tried changing keyboards, changing ports for the USB2 cable, trying one of the on-board USB3 ports. Nothing works.

I removed the CMOS battery for 15 mins or so. No difference. Anyone got any useful ideas / suggestions?

[Heather_]

Hi jevakmeni,

Since it is stuck in this loop, I'd start by finding out if your inability to get into the boot menu is related to the hard drive. So I'd remove the SSD, then try to get into the BIOS with Esc or F10. If you can get into BIOS with the drive, I'd check to see if it is up to date. From the main menu of bios select Update System BIOS, then check hp.com for BIOS update, and if you have the device connected to Ethernet, it will update over your network. You may be able to do this over wifi as well by going into 3rd-party option ROM management under the UEFI drivers tab in the BIOS, connecting to your wifi network, and setting it to auto-connect under manage wifi networks.

If there is a BIOS update, hopefully you'll be able to connect the drive again and continue imaging with LMDE7

Did you also try putting the old memory back in just to confirm it isn't impacting the post error you seem to be getting each time?