timeouts require a hard reboot to take effect?

[Phil Edwards]

I'm very new to GRUB.  It was pre-installed on this dual-boot box, and it's
the first time I've used it.  (I grew up with LILO, forgive me.)

Anyhow, there are two lines in the configuration file (which I did not write)
that read

    default=0
    timeout=30

These settings -- the timeout in particular -- only seem to have an effect
after a cold boot, using the hard power switch at the back of the box.
If I simply reboot from a command line, or press the front-panel reset,
or -- and this is what really confuses me -- turn on power using the front
panel power button, then the timeout doesn't take effect, and the machine
will sit at the OS menu list forever, waiting for someone to press enter.

So it's not just rebooting, and it's not just power-off and power-on,
that's required to make the timeout take effect.  I have to power off,
and then turn off the power supply at the back.

I don't even know where to look next.


(I saw that '=' signs were not used in the online manual, but A) grub doesn't
complain, and B) it doesn't seem to affect the above situation.)

Phil

-- 
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater
than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace.  We seek
not your counsel, nor your arms.  Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you;
and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.            - Samuel Adams