Help required Asus A7N8X deluxe power oddity

[Sie]

Recently and for no apparent reason when shutting down from windows XP the
PC would shutdown and you would hear the drives power down e.t.c and the
power light would go out but the hard drive light would stay on permenantly
and the cpu/AGP card and chassis fans would stay on. Only by switching the
hard switch on the back could I get the whole PC to completely power off.

A strange problem but although a concern was not seroius as I could power
the PC back on as normal by pressing the power button on the front and all
would boot up and operate as normal until I once again wanted to power off
the PC and the same thing happened again.

I scoured the internet looking for similar problems and found only one
thread that matched my problem with the conclusion being to accept the PC
was working ok and not to worry about it. Being a bit of a prefectionist
when it comes to my PC I was not happy but accepted this.

Until now that is when I went to power up the PC this morning. I switched on
the hard switch at the back as normal and the HD light and fans came on as
normal but when I puched the power swith I got nothing.

Basically to cut a long story short. I have disconnected everything and
taken off all memory e.t.c to leave just the cpu,motherboard and PSU
connected and still cpu fan powers up just by putting the power cable in the
back and switching the Hard power switch on the PSU. I have even taken the
MB off it's mountings and held it away from the case and exactly the same
thing happens.

I have swapped the PSU with another that I know works. I have swapped the
CPU with another I know works and exactly the same thing.

The only conclusion I can come to is that there is some kind of short or
fault on the motherboard. Before I give in and have to replace it. Does
anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Sie

 

[Paul]

Recently and for no apparent reason when shutting down from windows XP the
PC would shutdown and you would hear the drives power down e.t.c and the
power light would go out but the hard drive light would stay on permenantly
and the cpu/AGP card and chassis fans would stay on. Only by switching the
hard switch on the back could I get the whole PC to completely power off.

A strange problem but although a concern was not seroius as I could power
the PC back on as normal by pressing the power button on the front and all
would boot up and operate as normal until I once again wanted to power off
the PC and the same thing happened again.

I scoured the internet looking for similar problems and found only one
thread that matched my problem with the conclusion being to accept the PC
was working ok and not to worry about it. Being a bit of a prefectionist
when it comes to my PC I was not happy but accepted this.

Until now that is when I went to power up the PC this morning. I switched on
the hard switch at the back as normal and the HD light and fans came on as
normal but when I puched the power swith I got nothing.

Basically to cut a long story short. I have disconnected everything and
taken off all memory e.t.c to leave just the cpu,motherboard and PSU
connected and still cpu fan powers up just by putting the power cable in the
back and switching the Hard power switch on the PSU. I have even taken the
MB off it's mountings and held it away from the case and exactly the same
thing happens.

I have swapped the PSU with another that I know works. I have swapped the
CPU with another I know works and exactly the same thing.

The only conclusion I can come to is that there is some kind of short or
fault on the motherboard. Before I give in and have to replace it. Does
anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Sie

Maybe the motherboard has a short between +5VSB and +5V ? If you have
an ohmmeter, you could disconnect the ATX 20 pin connector and check for
a short between pins. Generally, returning the motherboard is the
only option, unless the short is an obvious solder blob somewhere.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Rivergoat]

Have you recently installed any programs? I just built a PC on that
same mobo and it took me over 3 weeks to solve the same kind of
problem. Turned out to be an HP backup program; once removed all is
well.

Then the other night I was testing some wma-mp3 converter utilities
and found that program also left the PC up, although I could soft off
from the keyboard (something that didn't work with regards to the HP
glitch). I also removed that program and all is well again.

Not sure if it's an ASUS thing or what; I've run into shut down issues
on 2 different models of ASUS mobos.....

 

[Tim]

I agree with Mr Goat.

There are several programs around that can be configured to shutdown when
they have finished doing what they have to do.

You current problem (may be separate and coincidental) may be the result of
Power Fail / Restart settings in the bios. I forget the settings but
basically the intent is if you have a UPS and the power goes off without a
tidy shutdown, then one of the settings is to automatically power on when AC
is restored so that the UPS can restart the system automatically. May be
not...


- Tim

 

[Sie]

My problem did not ever lye with locked up shutdowns. As far windows was
concerned the PC had shutdown successfully and the all powered off including
power light apart from fans and HD light which then stuck on.

It is however only yesterday that the PC will not switch on at all and only
the fans and hd light comes on as soon as I plug the power cable in.

If this is a BIOS restart setting then how do I reset it?

Thanks

Sie

 

[Tim]

Sie
That won't be a bios setting although it could be a corrupt bios or bios
chip, video card, psu, or many other things. Sounds more serious than that.
- Tim