Computer always restarts

[Guest]

I purchased a new computer in December (MB = Intel DQ965GF). It works
wonderfully but it always restarts even when I have told the system to
shut down. I have repeatedly checked all the potentially relevant
power settings in BIOS and can see nothing that could cause this
restart even after a deliberate "shutdown."

Does anyone have any ideas of what could be going on here and how to
fix it?

Thanks for any help!

 

[MAP]

I purchased a new computer in December (MB = Intel DQ965GF). It works
wonderfully but it always restarts even when I have told the system to
shut down. I have repeatedly checked all the potentially relevant
power settings in BIOS and can see nothing that could cause this
restart even after a deliberate "shutdown."

Does anyone have any ideas of what could be going on here and how to
fix it?

Thanks for any help!

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q320299

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311806

 

[Anna]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q320299

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311806

paquette:
Also, take a look at
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil...XP+Professional&lang=eng&strOSs=44&submit=Go!
for BIOS and driver updates for that board.

I assume you have to hold down your computer's power button or pull the plug
when this situation occurs, right? That's the only way(s) to power off?

And you say this problem "always" occurs?

You've indicated you purchased the computer in December so I would think
it's still under warranty, yes? If so, have you been in touch with the
retailer/vendor/manufacturer about this?
Anna

 

[Vanguard]

paquette wrote in message

I purchased a new computer in December (MB = Intel DQ965GF). It works
wonderfully but it always restarts even when I have told the system to
shut down. I have repeatedly checked all the potentially relevant
power settings in BIOS and can see nothing that could cause this
restart even after a deliberate "shutdown."

Does anyone have any ideas of what could be going on here and how to
fix it?

Thanks for any help!

Do you have any events defined in Scheduled Tasks where the "wake
computer" option is enabled?

Did you check any wakeup triggers defined in the BIOS are enabled, like
"wake on LAN" or "wake on timer"?

"always restarts" doesn't tell us WHEN it restarts. Does it restart
immediately after powering down? Does "restart" actually mean the
computer never did power down but instead warm rebooted? Does the
computer power up for the "restart" after some period of time after
powering down? Are you actually hibernating instead of shutting down?

 

[Guest]

paquette wrote in message





Do you have any events defined in Scheduled Tasks where the "wake
computer" option is enabled?

Did you check any wakeup triggers defined in the BIOS are enabled, like
"wake on LAN" or "wake on timer"?

"always restarts" doesn't tell us WHEN it restarts. Does it restart
immediately after powering down? Does "restart" actually mean the
computer never did power down but instead warm rebooted? Does the
computer power up for the "restart" after some period of time after
powering down? Are you actually hibernating instead of shutting down?

Hmm--immediate restart--same as if one selected restart!

 

[Guest]

paquette:
Also, take a look athttp://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&Prod...
for BIOS and driver updates for that board.

I assume you have to hold down your computer's power button or pull the plug
when this situation occurs, right? That's the only way(s) to power off?

And you say this problem "always" occurs?

You've indicated you purchased the computer in December so I would think
it's still under warranty, yes? If so, have you been in touch with the
retailer/vendor/manufacturer about this?
Anna

I will try the retailer if I can't get to the bottom of it myself but
prefer the latter--basically I prefer to understand what is happening.

 

[Vanguard]

paquette wrote in message

Hmm--immediate restart--same as if one selected restart!

Go into the BIOS and check any power management options there.

 

[Guest]

I finally had a few minutes to go back and take another look at this
problem. I have gone systematically through everything in all of the
posts but unfortunately have not been able to get to the bottom of the
problem. More specifically, I have done the following:

1. updated BIOS;
2. checked for offending software as per one of the Microsoft
knowledge base links;
3. checked Event Viewer for system-error events that seem to be
associated with a shutdown-nothing;
4. unchecked automatic restart in system/advanced-no errors on
shutdown, however;
5. rechecked several times the power settings in BIOS-"wake on LAN
from S5" is disabled and also cannot be changed either in the old BIOS
or in the new-nothing else in BIOS power set up (there are only four
settings) seems in any way related to the problem.

In short, I at a dead end!

 

[Guest]

I finally had a few minutes to go back and take another look at this
problem. I have gone systematically through everything in all of the
posts but unfortunately have not been able to get to the bottom of the
problem. More specifically, I have done the following:

1. updated BIOS;
2. checked for offending software as per one of the Microsoft
knowledge base links;
3. checked Event Viewer for system-error events that seem to be
associated with a shutdown-nothing;
4. unchecked automatic restart in system/advanced-no errors on
shutdown, however;
5. rechecked several times the power settings in BIOS-"wake on LAN
from S5" is disabled and also cannot be changed either in the old BIOS
or in the new-nothing else in BIOS power set up (there are only four
settings) seems in any way related to the problem.

In short, I at a dead end!

 

[Vanguard]

Open the case and check where the pair of wires from the Power switch go
to the motherboard. With Windows running, and by touching the bare
metal case to ground yourself (static drain), pull the pwr connectors
from the mobo header. Now shutdown Windows (not a restart). Does the
computer stay powered off now? If so, you have a defective Power switch
(i.e., it is always shorted).

The Power switch is a momentary switch that closes when depressed. This
shorts the 2 pins in the header on the motherboard. The power supply
unit (PSU) is never completely turned off (unless you pull the power
cord on the back). It still supplies a 5-volt standby line to supply
power to logic on the motherboard used to determine when the PSU fully
powers up. On the 20-pin connector from the PSU to the motherboard,
there is a PS-ON line (green) which when pulled low (ground) tells the
PSU to power up. If this line is high or open (it gets pulled high if
open) then the PSU does not power on. If the Power switch is shorting
then it is pulling low the PS-ON line and telling the PSU to turn on.

 

[Guest]

Again, thanks--will do as soon as I get a chance.

 

[Guest]

I FINALLY got around to opening the box--to put in some new RAM.
While I was in the box, I tried disconnecting the power switch
connector from the motherboard while Vista was running and then tried
a shutdown. No luck--restarted as always! I then tried the same with
the "restart sw" connector and still no luck. Furthermore, when I
took it back to the retailer, one of their techies said he was able to
do a shutdown successfully from BIOS. He offered to do a clean
install of Vista--I don't think so after all the work I put into
getting a working Vista/XP dual boot with the Vista partition hidden
from XP so XP doesn't clobber the Vista restore points! In any case I
think the switch is now "out of play" as a suspect on this one.

Here are the BIOS power settings. I don't see how any of this could
force a restart on shutdown but perhaps someone knows better than I:

After Power Failure <Stay off>
Wake on LAN from S5 <Power on>
EIST <Enable>
Wake system from S5 <Disable>

Any and all ideas welcome!

 

[w_tom]

I FINALLY got around to opening the box--to put in some new RAM.
While I was in the box, I tried disconnecting the power switch
connector from the motherboard while Vista was running and then tried
a shutdown. No luck--restarted as always! I then tried the same with
the "restart sw" connector and still no luck. Furthermore, when I
took it back to the retailer, one of their techies said he was able to
do a shutdown successfully from BIOS.

First appreciate how a power supply system gets turned off. The
operating system must understand what power supply controller is being
used AND therefore how to talk to it. Things such as removing power
switch were recommended on wild speculation; not based upon how
hardware works.

Second, if the OS does not know how to talk to that power supply
controller, then it cannot command power off. BIOS, obviously, would
know how to issue those same commands.

So your objective is to install the appropriate software (probably
in HAL) for that particular motherboard. The rub. You cannot do
that. That information is simply withheld from or completely
mysterious to most techs. Sometimes that software for that
motherboard does not even exist. That software would be unique to a
motherboard chip set AND should be available from motherboard
manufacturer. That manufacturer should have provided correct software
for Microsoft to include in Vista. Often information is not
available unless you make yourself enough of a pain. Most motherboard
manufacturers are dealing with people who don't know how electricity
works, did not even know about the power supply controller, and did
not know why the power switch would be completely irrelevant. Better
from them is to say nothing; claim that information is not available.

I can only point you in the right direction. BIOS could power off
the computer suggesting computer hardware can talk to power supply
controller AND power supply controller can turn off power supply.
That implies Windows has installed the wrong software for your power
supply controller.

 

[Guest]

First, my sincere thanks to both of you for thoughtful and thought-
provoking responses!

With respect to Paul's suggestions I spent some time last night
looking carefully at Table 10 and especially at the footnotes to that
table as well as reviewing what seem to be pertinent parts of the
manual. In the wake of that exercise I've done several things though
I've not yet had the time to pursue in detail all of the threads Paul
raised. I did do a couple of things early this morning, however, that
seemed modestly promising to me after reflecting on Paul's comments
and the manual's content. First, I re-enabled legacy USB support
which I had disabled for reasons I won't bore you with. I also
downloaded from Intel and flashed in the most recent BIOS dated
today. One observation that troubles me is that the "Wake on LAN from
S5" option in the power tab of BIOS is inaccessible-both in the BIOS
that I had previously downloaded and in the one released today.
Scrolling down through the power options simply skips over that
option. That seems odd to me although the possibility of this being
some kind of wake-up-from-LAN effect seems very remote given that I
physically removed the LAN cable with no impact at all on the restart
behavior.

w_tom's points raised a couple of seemingly pertinent observations in
my mind. First, this is a dual-boot machine (Vista 32 and XP Pro) and
this behavior occurs on shutdown from BOTH systems. Second, the
history of this particular machine is that I installed XP Pro while
waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting) to receive my copy of
Vista. Unless my memory is playing tricks with me-which is possible
of course, shut down worked normally for several weeks from the
original XP Pro installation and then stopped working for some unknown
reason which leads me back to Paul's hypothesis about the possibility
of some sort of hardware problem. That behavior, of course, has
survived into the new dual-boot installations!

Do these observations lead anywhere, I wonder?

 

[Guest]

I guess Intel ATM does not allow BIOS control of "Wake LAN from S5."
In any case, I'm pretty sure that's a red herring.

 

[Paul]

I guess Intel ATM does not allow BIOS control of "Wake LAN from S5."
In any case, I'm pretty sure that's a red herring.

It could be controlled from the NIC properties in Windows. Waking features
can be controlled there.

For example, I have an Intel networking chip. I go to Device Manager,
select "Network Adapters", click on the instance of the adapter
"Intel Pro 1000/CT", do "Properties". A panel appears. Click
"Advanced". Scroll down the list, until you can see "Wake On LAN".
Select the "Wake On LAN" entry. Click "Properties" button.

Enable PME: OS Controlled (or enabled or disabled)
Wake on Link Settings: Disabled! (not forced or OS controlled)
Wake on Settings: OS Controlled (has several Magic Packet settings)

You can hammer your Ethernet chip into submission using those three
settings. I think the "Link" setting is the one you want Disabled.
"Link" means, if the light is lit, wake the computer. In other words,
as soon as another device is at the other end of the link, wake
me up (which would normally be always...). Very annoying. Magic
Packet is a bit more sane, because it takes a properly formatted
Magic Packet to wake the chip. The chip uses pattern matching for
that one.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Guest]

Hmmm--no "Wake on LAN" entry on mine but "Link" was active. I've
turned it off but I can't reboot until later (Acronis backup in
progress).

Thanks again!

 

[Guest]

There is no "Wake on LAN" entry. I tried setting the Link option to
"off" but that doesn't help.

I also disconnected all USB devices but no luck on that either!

BTW, the ONLY power-management options in BIOS are:

After Power Failure <Stay off>
Wake on LAN from S5 <Power on>
EIST <Enable>
Wake system from S5 <Disable>

So I'm still stumped!