Computer restarts instead of shutting down

[nicokw]

Hi all,
My computer keeps restarting every time I click "Shut down" from the start menu. It seems like it is shutting down normally but as soon as it finishes "saving my settings" it restarts itself.
This has been happening ever since I intentionally clicked on the restart button a couple of weeks ago, and after that whenever I click the shutdown button it just acts like I clicked the restart button.

About the same time we changed our mouse, from a USB Razer Viper to a PS/2 Genius NetScroll 120, could this have anything to do with it? There were no specific drivers installed for the Razer mouse, and I haven't installed any for the new Genius mouse. The driver in use is the standard "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" 5.1.2600.0 01/07/2001. Nothing else has been recently installed or upgraded, hardware or software, and I don't have System Restore turned on, so I can't roll back.

Operating system is Win XP SP2, antivirus is Avast, Spyware is Search & Destroy, we connect to the net with an ADSL router (connected to this PC through a USB/Ethernet adapter).

AMD Athlon XP 2500, 512MB RAM, nVidia GeForce 6200, motherboard AZZA KT400-ALH, PS/2 Keyboard, we have a USB Hub connecting to a printer and a webcam.



Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated, many thanks!

 

[muckshifter]

By default, XP operates an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. Therefore, more or less anything cocking-up the operating system during the shutdown process could account for this reboot.


I would first suggest turning OFF auto-restart ...

Right-click on My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab.
Under Startup & Recovery, click Settings.
Under System Failure, uncheck the box in front of Automatically restart.

Now, with a bit of luck, you should get a BSOD ...

Please post the error in full, if you do get one.


There is a whole host of hardware/software that has contributed to the 'infamous' Shutdown problem.

Try This Site for some good pointers.

 

[nicokw]

No luck, I'm afraid,

Automatic restart is turned off but no error screens come up, and I checked the logs in Administrative tools and there's nothing that seems out of the ordinary.

I checked the site you linked to and most of the possible issues weren't relevant, except for the USB hub tips, which I turned off the "allow this device to be turned off to save power" option in all the USB root hub entries in device manager, however the computer is still restarting instead of shutting down.

I thought it might be something to do with processes as I was trying a few things one time and decided to shut it down as soon as Windows loaded, and it shut down fine. However I went through the active processes and ending the ones that could be a problem didn't make any difference at shutdown, it seems to only work if I shut down right after Windows loads without doing anything else.

Do you have any more tips or assistance?

Many thanks