Occasional boot prob on Lenovo desktop

[Tom_ZeCat]

I have a Lenovo Desktop PC that I bought used and put Kubuntu 14.04/LTS on and no other operating systems. Usually, it works great, but sometimes it gets buggy. For example, all of a sudden my LIbreOffice profile was screwed up -- I lost all my macros and custom toolbars, and got error messages when I tried to boot into it. Fortunately, I had that profile backed up and all was fine after I restored it. Sometimes when I got to boot this thing up, Kubuntu does not load, but instead I get the message: "1962: No operating system found," as well as a bunch of other stuff that you can see in the image below. The computer started doing this after I bought it and it had a 250 Gig hard drive. From those symptoms, I thought the hard drive was going bad. I wanted a bigger one anyone, so I bought a brand-new 1 TB internal Seagate drive, which I installed. After reinstalling Kubuntu and all my software, all seemed to work great. However, then the same problems as before returned. It seems unlikely that a brand-new drive is dying just like the old one. I'm wondering what it might be. Much of the time this thing works perfectly. I just get that message from time to time. If I restart the machine, sometimes it gives the message again and sometimes it boots back into Kubuntu. Sometimes one boot is enough. Other times it needs 2, but never more than that. I'm wondering what gives.


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[Qqmike]

You didn't state what model you have. This could be something like a BIOS/UEFI issue, or properly installing your OS in BIOS or UEFI mode, re-setting the machine, AHCI BIOS issue, many ideas--No end of opinions on the 1962 error. If you search this, all kinds of ideas pop up, including a repeated reference to a quirky cable from HDD to motherboard (carrying both the SATA and the Power signals)--see the YouTube vids.

1962: No operating system found
https://www.google.com/search?client...utf-8&oe=utf-8

This guy mentions all the false diagnoses in the first couple minutes of his vid:

Error Code 1962 - No Operating System Found *HOW TO REPAIR* on a Lenovo C440

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fawyhddZMFE

[marco07]

@Tom_ZeCat:
I once got a similar message on my Lenovo desktop when I was booting a live OS from a USB flash drive. The reason, I found out, was because the OS was put on a partition (hdc1) of the USB (hdc). So the system could not locate the OS on the USB (hdc). Therefore the error message. When I placed the OS on hdc, the isue was then resolved.
How this relate to your problem, I am not sure. But I Think you should make sure that your grub is pointing to the right partition where the OS is placed.
Hope this help!!

[Qqmike]

Hi marco07. Yes, that's one way this pops up. The usual cause of that error (No OS found) is a "missing" hard drive. It can be "missing" either because of a software glitch or a hardware glitch, like a bad cable, or, worse, a bad HDD. It might even depend on where GRUB was placed.

[oshunluvr]

The first thing I would suspect in this case is the BIOS. Besides - you bought it used and you might have just discovered why it was being sold.

After updating the BIOS, I would swap out the cables and change SATA ports to see if this makes it go away. I've had bad SATA cables (the ones manufacturers include are notoriously cheaply made) and I've even broken SATA connectors (snapped the plastic piece that holds the cable in place). I'd give serious attention to the video that Qqmike linked - even if your model is different it's possible that the same issue is part of their overall design.

As far as the drive itself, it seems unlikely that you would have two HDs in a row that were bad and I've not had a drive die in recent times that didn't kick SMART errors first.

[Qqmike]

oshunluvr: After updating the BIOS, I would swap out the cables and change SATA ports to see if this makes it go away. I've had bad SATA cables ...

Which is why I wonder what his model # is. Looks like that SATA cable is a weirdo, a combo carrier of the SATA signal and the Power signal. If this is hardware. Maybe it is entirely software/BIOS? The guy in the video I linked to says that the software fixes all seem to be temporary or don't hold for long; that the real culprit is that weirdo HDD cable (connecting HDD to motherboard).