Help with fine tuning new OS install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary C
  • Start date Start date
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Gary C

* Abit AV8 with Award BIOS
* Seagate 160gig 7200.8 SATA drive.

I installed the above drive and installed Windows Media Center Edition,
OS. Basically, it's XP-pro, with a little extra. Everything up and running,
updated etc. etc., except for two small problems that I need advice with.

1.) I am unable to shut the computer off.
Hitting start, turn off, shut down ... only reboots. I have tried different
BIOS
options, and Power Options in Control Panel. No where do I have the
option to configure my power button to *turn off* the system.

2.) I get an MSG pop up box, when opening some programs, Abit Guru
for an example. The MSG tells me that in order to use this program,
I should log in as administrator. Well .... I am logged in to my desktop
as administrator, and *I* installed the program!
No one else is logged into the network.

Help, not much hair left to pull!
 
I had the same problem as you describe with a Gigabyte mb. It would reboot
when asking to shut down from Win XP. Some kind soul directed me to go to
the bios and make sure WOL was turned off. Doing this restored my hair,
(well for a month anyway). Can't say it's the same problem for your mb but
it's a thought.
 
By default Windows XP is set to restart on an error. Are you sure the
machine isn't blue screening and restarting? You can change this setting in
the startup and recovery section of the advanced tab in system properties.
Uncheck the box that says automatically restart. It will not solve your
problem, but it will allow you to see if an error is being generated. What
type of video card is in the machine? If you have an ATI or Nvidia card,
they both provide drivers specifically for Media Center Edition. If you
haven't tried those drivers you should install them.
 
Try this. Turn on the psupply switch on the back of the
box. If that turns the PC on, immediately turn the PC
off from the from (logic) power switch. That should
restore the proper logic setting of the front switch.

As for administrator .. ?? .. Almost sounds like your
personal user has no administrator rights. Or the security
settings of some programs does not have the administrator listed. Rclick on
the folder containing
the suspect program, and click on properties. See if
the security setting lists the administrator. If not, add
the administrator, and give him/her full rights to that
folder. Note: if you cannot see the security tab for
that folder, click on tools, folder options, view, and
go down and uncheck "use simple file sharing". Finally
if you can get the administrator to work, but not your
personal user, then also add that user with full rights
to the folder security settings.

johns
 
Jan Alter said:
I had the same problem as you describe with a Gigabyte mb. It would reboot
when asking to shut down from Win XP. Some kind soul directed me to go to
the bios and make sure WOL was turned off. Doing this restored my hair,
(well for a month anyway). Can't say it's the same problem for your mb but
it's a thought.
Click to expand...

No, no WOL option for me.
Thanks for the thought anyway, Jan.
 
Tweek said:
By default Windows XP is set to restart on an error. Are you sure the
machine isn't blue screening and restarting?
Click to expand...

No blue screen. Click *shut down* and agter Windows does its thing,
right to the post screen it goes.
You can change this setting in the startup and recovery section of the
advanced tab in system properties. Uncheck the box that says automatically
restart. It will not solve your problem, but it will allow you to see if an
error is being generated.
Click to expand...

Will try.
What type of video card is in the machine?
6600GT

If you have an ATI or Nvidia card, they both provide drivers specifically
for Media Center Edition. If you haven't tried those drivers you should
install them.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I'll have to search for such.
 
Gary C said:
No, no WOL option for me.
Thanks for the thought anyway, Jan.
Click to expand...

I am having that exact same shutdown/reboot problem right now on a new
Sempron-754 CPU and Asus K8S-MX mobo system. If I use a 1992
Northgate keyboard, I get the shutdown/reboot problem. If I use a new
pckey keyboard (very like old-time IBM PC keyboards) the
shutdown/reboot problem goes away, but after booting I have to unplug
the keyboard momentarily to get it to function.

While I have not yet solved this problem, I'm hot on it's trail. I
just learned that two of my friends have long had such
keyboard-related issues that went away when they used KVM switches.
(That's a Keyboard-Video-Mouse switch box that allows one set of stuff
to work on two computers, but one at a time.)

Now, a KVM switch is primarily thought of as a switch, but it is also
a buffer. Instead of a wire-to-wire contact between a mobo (with
ACPI) and the keyboard, the KVM acts as an electrical buffer. And,
with that switch/buffer, such problems go away (for them).

I was wondering if you - or one of your friends - have a handy KVM box
to try. Not as a switch, but as a buffer, to solve your problem. You
might also try a different keyboard and see if the problem goes away.

I'll be lurking to see how you progress in solving this problem, one
that we share. ;-)
 
I should have phrased my first sentence a little differently. Many times the
machine is actually giving a blue screen but it happens so fast that it
restarts before you notice anything on the screen. By disabling the reboot
on an error setting, you can see if the machine is erroring out causing the
restart or if it is something else.
 
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