The only other thing I can think of is that you're dual-booting and Windows isn't playing nice with GRUB as usual.
If that's the case, well then this is why I gave Linux and Windows their own dedicated drives, with a switch installed on my case to physically select the drive. That way they can both have their own bootloaders so Windows can't get in the way. They're not even aware that the other OS exists.
That sounds amazing. Could have great potential on consoles if online multiplayer was more of a thing back then. The Xbox was the only console at the time that had its shit together in terms of internet connectivity.