No bootable device detected after hard reboot on Intel NUC

[voidpointer]

I have a 7th generation Intel NUC (NUC7I5BNH) with 32GB RAM and a 2TB SSD drive. I have Proxmox 7.1-8 installed on it.

When I boot up my NUC after a hard shutdown or power loss, I get the message: "A bootable device has not been detected". After I reset at that point, it boots fine. Here's the exact sequence of events. This is 100% reproducible each time. Step 1 starts with Proxmox fully booted and functioning.

1. Unplug the NUC or hold the power button down to power it down.
2. Plug NUC back in if needed and press power button to start it up
3. Intel BIOS POST Splash screen appears
4. The error message "A bootable device has not been detected" appears at the top left of a black screen.
5. Cycle the power by pressing the power button to turn it off, wait a few seconds, press power again to turn it on
6. Intel BIOS POST splash screen appears
7. GRUB boot menu appears with the first option automatically selected
8. Proxmox boot process begins and you can see console output
9. Terminal for proxmox appears with login prompt

I started observing this issue at first when the power would go out in my house. I have the BIOS set up to automatically start the NUC again when power is restored. On that first time boot, I get that bootable device issue. I have to do a reset after that (as described in the steps to reproduce above) to get it fully booted again.

Stuff I have plugged into my NUC usually:

• An Aeotec Gen5 zwave controller USB stick
• Wired ethernet cable
• HDMI port connected to monitor (only for debugging this issue; this is usually a headless server)
• USB keyboard attached (only for debugging this issue. normally not plugged in)

I have spent a lot of time looking at my BIOS settings to try to work out any issues there. Here are some things I've already tried or done:

• Upgraded my Intel BIOS from some 2019 version to the latest version (BNKBL357.86A.0087.2021.1210.1903 at the time of this post)
• Disabled all optional on-board devices: WLAN, Bluetooth, Audio. The only devices left enabled are: On-board wired NIC, USB, Video
• Tried various combinations of UEFI boot and legacy boot. Originally started with both enabled. Also tried just UEFI and just Legacy. All combinations yielded the same result.
• Completely disabled USB boot option
• Disabled optical drive boot option
• Disassembled the NUC and re-seated the SSD and relevant cabling

I'm really out of ideas at this point. I don't understand why that first boot up fails. I needed to post here to try to get some help. I'm not sure if this is a GRUB issue, hardware issue, NUC issue, BIOS issue, or whatever else. I do not necessarily blame Proxmox by posting here; I just need a starting point for support.

Thank you in advance for any help debugging this.

 

[Dunuin]

You now that you always loose data on an hard reset/power outage and that this might even currupt your system disk to a point where it can't boot anymore and you need to reinstall PVE and restore guests from backups? If power outages are common, maybe you should think about getting an UPS (you get new ones with HID for as less than 50€) so there never will be an hard reset because the NUC will be always gracefully shutdown, even on an power outage, instead of trying to make your NUC auto start after a hard reset.

 

[voidpointer]

Yes, I know I need a UPS. Yes I know that power interruption can yield data loss. I appreciate the advice but none of what you are saying has anything to do with the issue I posted about. I'd appreciate it if we could keep the discussion focused on the specific problem I described.

 

[Mirmanium]

It may have been something related with NUCs. It happens the same in mines that by default, if I use legacy boot it always shows me "a bootable device has not been detected". But the funny thing is during bios load, if I press F10 and select the default drive (which should load without going to F10 menu...) voilà, it works.
It is a p*** in the a** to have to use my keyboard to boot so my guess is it is a bios bug that is not handling the default load when legacy boot.
Anyway, @voidpointer did you solve it? I was just sharing my own experience with my NUC.