laptop fails to boot up

brad haack

"The computer hit 0% battery and shut down ungracefully recently, could this have caused something like this?" >>

Yeah - could have left the file system in an inconsistent state.

I do suggest that you run a file system check/repair from a live environment ( live USB) .
Here run in a terminal
sudo blkid
to identify the drive and partition(s)
see then what 'fsck' reports:
sudo fsck /dev/sda2
IF 'fdisk' output show the root file system as residing on that 2nd partition of the first hard drive; amend the command as needed.

-all in the process-

fsck shows the linux partition and the boot partition as clean

brad haack;

Still with boot issues ?

Then next is to see what the kernel reports:
terminal commands:
journalctl -p 3 -xb #to filter for errors
journalctl -b -0 # shows all messages from the current boot

-still, a process-

Thx. Before you posted I gave up and re-installed the OS. I haven't seen any boot issues with the new install, but journalctl does show errors after the new install.
brad@brad-dell:~/Notes$ journalctl -p 3 -xb
-- Journal begins at Sun 2022-01-23 13:38:05 MST, ends at Mon 2022-01-24 10:39:15 MST. --
Jan 24 07:51:25 brad-dell kernel: pci 0000:00:07.0: DPC: RP PIO log size 0 is invalid
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\S4CT], AE_NOT_FOUND (2021>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PC00.LPCB.ECDV.NGFF._CRT due to previous e>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\S4HT], AE_NOT_FOUND (2021>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PC00.LPCB.ECDV.NGFF._HOT due to previous e>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\S4PT], AE_NOT_FOUND (2021>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PC00.LPCB.ECDV.NGFF._PSV due to previous e>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [\S4AT], AE_NOT_FOUND (2021>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: ACPI Error: Aborting method \_SB.PC00.LPCB.ECDV.NGFF._AC0 due to previous e>
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel: dell_smm_hwmon: unable to get SMM Dell signature
Jan 24 07:51:26 brad-dell kernel:
Jan 24 07:51:27 brad-dell thermald[636]: Unsupported condition 57 (UKNKNOWN)
Jan 24 07:51:27 brad-dell thermald[636]: Unsupported condition 57 (UKNKNOWN)
Jan 24 07:51:27 brad-dell thermald[636]: Unsupported condition 57 (UKNKNOWN)
Jan 24 07:51:27 brad-dell thermald[636]: Unsupported condition 57 (UKNKNOWN)
Jan 24 07:51:27 brad-dell thermald[636]: Unsupported condition 57 (UKNKNOWN)
Jan 24 07:51:27 brad-dell thermald[636]: Unsupported conditions are present
Jan 24 07:52:30 brad-dell kernel: ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: ucsi_handle_connector_change: GET_CONNECTOR_STATUS fa>
Jan 24 07:52:47 brad-dell lightdm[1208]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
Jan 24 07:52:48 brad-dell pulseaudio[1138]: Error opening PCM device hw:sofhdadsp,4: No such device
Jan 24 07:52:48 brad-dell pulseaudio[1138]: Error opening PCM device hw:sofhdadsp,3: No such device
Jan 24 07:52:48 brad-dell pulseaudio[1138]: Error opening PCM device hw:sofhdadsp: No such device
Jan 24 07:52:48 brad-dell pulseaudio[1138]: Error opening PCM device hw:sofhdadsp: No such device
Jan 24 07:52:48 brad-dell pulseaudio[1138]: Error opening PCM device hw:sofhdadsp,6: No such device
lines 1-25/25 (END)

I'm going to mark this as solved for now.
I don't want to divert attention from a more pressing bug right now:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/700384

Note to the reader, don't buy a Dell vostro laptop and try to install linux on it. This has been a royal PITA

brad haack; Hey -

A quick look shows this as an old but ongoing bug with Dell:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202583

Over my skill set to know the impact or a resolution.

-my bit to try and help-