This really isn't a Debian specific question, but there are enough people here who know what they're talking about. Today, my old HP Pavillion desktop, about 11 years old, started something strange. I rebooted from my Debian testing to go into my Mint. I saw the shutdown sequence in Debian, as per normal, and the reboot target was reached. The usual HP screen that comes up, where you have a second or two to do the key dance to get into BIOS, didn't appear. The monitor just went blank and went to power saving mode, as idling. The GRUB2 menu did not show up, either. I just sat there, confused a bit, but heard that the computer was obviously doing things.
The display resumed absolutely fine once, I assume, the GRUB timer reached zero and it defaulted to Debian, and the kernel load began. First, I thought I maybe missed the GRUB screen because I wasn't paying attention and it timed out into Debian, as it is set to do. I rebooted again from the display manager login screen, and then confirmed, I'm not getting any OEM hardware splash screen or GRUB menu, just a suspended monitor until kernel load.
So, instead of the usual complaint about there being no video display when the kernel is up and when the display manager is loaded, I've got the opposite. The monitor powers down and is showing no signal after the kernel shuts down for a reset, and when the computer is powered up, booting, but prior to kernel loading. No BIOS screen can be seen, no OEM splash screen, no GRUB menu. As soon as the kernel starts loading, I'm in business. I'm using it right now to post here. Resume from suspend is fine, too. I tried the keyboard dance to get the BIOS up, and I probably succeeded, but I couldn't tell visually. The monitor was in suspend. I rebooted from there, and got back into Debian, no problem.
Any ideas about what may be amiss? The GPU is integrated and Intel, and I haven't seen this in 11 years of using this computer. I did power down completely and unplug the system for a few minutes, to no avail. I'm using HDMI, if that's of any interest. I'll be looking around for other cables while I'm at it, to see if it's HDMI being a problem.
[Solved] Startup Display - Dead During BIOS - Alive in Debian
Re: [Solved] Startup Display - Dead During BIOS - Alive in Debian
I'm marking this as solved. Resetting the monitor did nothing. I ended up turning the monitor off, and physically unplugging it for half an hour. All seems to be working, at least at this moment. The monitor is old. The computer is ancient. If I have to replace either or both, they owe my nothing. 