Updating fedora from 43 to 44 left me with a white underscore

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1

PC specs:

  • Model: PC Specialist PD50PNN (2022 Clevo barebone notebook)
  • CPU: i7 12700H with intel Iris Xe Graphics
  • GPU: GeForce RTX 3070Ti
  • Bios: InsydeH2O UEFI Firmware

Drives:
2× 1TB Intel NVMe SSDs (INTEL SSDPEKNU010TZ)

  • Drive 1: Dual-boot OS (Windows + Fedora 43)
  • Drive 2: Dedicated Data drive

My issue:

After finally deciding to upgrade fedora workstation 43 to 44 (2 weeks ago), when I was not watching my PC rebooted during the update and left me on a white underscore at the top left corner.
Grub still works fine and I can enter the bios too but when trying to boot anything it stops directly at the white underscore for any linux distro, USB included ! And Windows load indefinitely on the manufacturer logo…
Moreover Fedora 44 doesn’t appear on the grub menu and I have ZERO kernel log output whatever the method I tried. The laptop seems to halt the exact moment the bootloader transfers execution to the OS kernel.

What I already tried:

I’ve tried MANY method (with tips from forum with similar issues, friends and AI) to find what the problem is and try to resolve it but I’m at a dead end.

Software & Bootloader Tests
  • Manual Windows Chainloading: Booted bootmgfw.efi directly from the GRUB shell (grub>). Result: Frozen underscore.
  • Direct UEFI Boot Override: Booted Windows Boot Manager directly via InsydeH2O boot options. Result: Frozen logo (infinite load “repair detection” waited many hours but nothing).
  • Fedora Live USB Testing: Attempted boots using both standard kernel configuration and Safe/Basic Graphics modes. Result: Frozen underscore.
  • Kernel Parameter Stripping: Removed rhgb quiet to force verbose text output and appended acpi=off. Result: Zero text written to video memory; frozen underscore.
  • Driver & Modeset Blacklisting: Booted with nomodeset module_blacklist=nouveau,nvidia to prevent the kernel from initializing the dedicated graphics chip. Result: Frozen underscore.
Firmware & Controller Tweaks
  • UEFI Boot Entry Isolation: Disabled all internal NVRAM boot entries (Fedora, Windows, Ubuntu) to force a pure external USB handshake. Result: Failed.
  • Storage Controller Routing: Toggled the Intel VMD Controller between Disabled and Enabled in BIOS. Result: Failed.
  • Display Mode Switching: Attempted toggling display pipeline between MSHybrid and Discrete GPU in BIOS. Result: Failed.
Component & Chassis Isolation
  • Residual Flea Power Drain: Removed AC power and performed 30-second power button discharge cycles.
  • Secondary Storage Isolation: Physically removed Drive 2 (Data SSD). Result: Frozen underscore.
  • Primary Storage Isolation: Physically removed Drive 1 (OS SSD). Tested booting a Live USB with zero internal storage drives installed. Result: Frozen underscore (ruled out dead NVMe controllers).
    → At least my data is safe, I could read it with an older laptop
  • Deep Hardware CMOS Reset: Disconnected the main battery and the internal CMOS/RTC coin cell battery for 5+ minutes while draining residual power. Verification: Successfully triggered the firmware’s “First Boot / VRAM reset detected” hardware warning, proving NVRAM and volatile CMOS memory were completely cleared. Result: Frozen underscore.
  • Memory (RAM) Diagnostics: Removed and tested individual RAM sticks one-by-one across slots to rule out bad memory banks. Result: Frozen underscore.
  • Peripheral Bus Isolation: Unseated antenna cables and physically removed the M.2 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card to eliminate PCIe bus lockup from corrupted wireless microcode. Result: Frozen underscore.

Potential diagnosis (AI)

Because the system locks up across multiple operating systems even when stripped down to only the bare motherboard, CPU, and a single known-good RAM stick, this is a permanent, non-serviceable motherboard-level hardware failure.
The failure lies in non-removable silicon—most likely the dedicated NVIDIA GPU chip, the PCIe root complex, or the system chipset/PCH. When an OS kernel takes over from UEFI firmware, it polls every device on the main system bus; because a soldered controller fails to answer the bus handshake, the entire system enters a permanent hardware wait state.

Thanks for reading all this, if you have any tips or diagnosis I would greatly appreciate as this is my main laptop and greatly depends on it on my dailylife. Have a great day

2

When at the white underscore can you type Ctrl-Alt-F3 and get a login prompt?

3

I can’t get the login prompt, I tried Ctrl+Alt+F3 with the Fn key pressed to but nothing either, also when stuck on the underscore it seems my CPU is doing things because its fan gets faster

4

When you boot remove “quiet” and “rhgb” from the grub command line so that you can see the logs as the system boots.

What are the last few thing logs?

5

I already tried it and it only shows “Booting a command list” followed by the underscore and is stuck

6

Given you cannot boot Windows or Fedora Live USB it seems you have a hardware issue.

Are you using over clocking anywhere? If so turn it back to normal.

7

I don’t use overclocking, and I also think that it’s an hardware issue, thanks for the tips though ! If anyone has any other methods I’m still open to try anything.

8

What I do when this happens is remove as much hardware as I can from the system.
Unplug the nvme drives, the nvidia card and only have the USB keybaoard plugged in, all other USB devices removed.

Can the system boot the Fedora live image now?

9

I’ve already tried to disconnect everything, still got stuck on the underscore. As I have a laptop I can’t remove the NVIDIA GPU, I suspect it’s the main culprit because removing everything else didn’t do anything.

10

Some systems have ways to disable Nvidia graphics in UEFI as well as diagnostics. It is worth contacting the system manufacturer for advice.