Not powering off

[Ramesh]

HI,

When i shut down my desktop, the system does not power off. I only get the
display Its now safe to power off your computer (as in AT PCs), Are there
any settings in XP or the BIOS that i need to check to rectify this
situation? My PC has ATX power supply and AMD Athlon processor.

Thanks for any help.

Ramesh

 

[Paul]

HI,

When i shut down my desktop, the system does not power off. I only get the
display Its now safe to power off your computer (as in AT PCs), Are there
any settings in XP or the BIOS that i need to check to rectify this
situation? My PC has ATX power supply and AMD Athlon processor.

Thanks for any help.

Ramesh

Go to Device Manager, and check the properties of the "Computer" entry.
For proper shutdown, it should mention "ACPI".

http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2005/11/28/are_three_cores_better_than_two/devman.gif

If it says "Standard PC", well then, that is the problem.

Paul

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks Paul .. You were right .. it says Standard PC. How do i change to
ACPI?

Ramesh

 

[Paul]

Thanks Paul .. You were right .. it says Standard PC. How do i change to
ACPI?

Ramesh

There is a suggestion here. It might take a repair install for that one, to
change "Standard PC" to "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" or "ACPI Multiprocessor PC".
The multiprocessor option would be appropriate for a Pentium 4 with
Hyperthreading (one real, one virtual core), or a dual or quad core
processor of some type, or even one of the older, dual socket
motherboards.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299340/en-us

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

I understand, that you can change between "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" and
"ACPI Multiprocessor PC", by going to the Computer entry, and
updating the driver. But for other HAL changes, that is more difficult.
Perhaps someone else in this group, knows a more straightforward
way to fix it.

I recommend making a full backup, before you go any further. I would
back up the boot drive. Then, if you have a problem, and even safe
mode is not working, you have some alternatives.

The last time I discovered one of my computers had been installed
improperly, and the Computer entry said Standard PC, I reinstalled

Good luck,
Paul

 

[Paul]

Another thing I should note, is changing the HAL is only possible,
if the PC is compatible with the HAL you are trying to use.

The PC I had, where I ended up with "Standard PC", there was
a reason for that to happen. The BIOS on the computer (on an Asus
motherboard), just happened to have a defect in the support for
ACPI. When the Windows installer disc was used, I wasn't paying
close attention. There was a warning that "this BIOS is not
compatible with ACPI" or words to that effect. The installer
then installed "Standard PC" as its response to the bad BIOS
design. If the BIOS doesn't properly support ACPI (ACPI tables
should be passed from the BIOS to the OS), then the installer
is not going to be able to install an ACPI HAL.

To install the "ACPI" kind of HAL, I actually had to flash upgrade
the BIOS to the next available version. The ACPI problem in the
BIOS was fixed.

If you try and force a HAL, when the problem is with the motherboard
and the BIOS, then obviously the OS will be "very unhappy". As in
busted and potentially non-bootable.

You should do more research, regarding the make and model of computer,
the motherboard and BIOS version, to see if this is a known problem.
Also, check the BIOS settings themselves. Sometimes there are
settings in the BIOS, that affect ACPI. In particular, some BIOS
offer an option to support ACPI version 2.0. Sometimes, only one
of the ACPI options seems to be working. So do a little checking
first, before trying to change the HAL. Using whatever means
anyone else may contribute to this thread.

Fixing the BIOS, does not immediately cause the OS to change
the HAL in response. When you fix a BIOS, so that it supports
ACPI properly, that enables you to attempt a change of the HAL
at the OS level. But the OS doesn't immediately go "oh, I see
an ACPI motherboard" and fix it for you. The fix must be
initiated by the user.

If the CMOS battery on the motherboard has gone flat, and
some of the BIOS settings were forgotten or reset, that is
a possible reason for something important in the BIOS, to
have a changed value. So have a look around first.

Paul

 

[Anna]

Thanks Paul .. You were right .. it says Standard PC. How do i change
to ACPI?

Ramesh

Ramesh:
It's good Paul brought that to your attention.

The following may or may not work but it's worth a try...

Access your BIOS and in the power management section, see if there's a
setting that states "ACPI Suspend to RAM" (or something similar). The
setting will (probably) be either Enabled or Disabled. Whatever it is,
change it to the alternate setting and see if that corrects the problem
following a reboot.
Anna

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks Paul again for your detailed explanation.

My situation is that I didnt have this problem when XP was installed and I
was using the system. For a few months, I gave the PC for an associate to
use. The problem happened only thereafter. That s why I was suspecting
some setting either in XP or in the BIOS. I tried doing a default restore
in the BIOS but didnt help.

Looks like it has to be reinstall now which i shudder to try!!

Ramesh

 

[Ramesh]

Ramesh:
It's good Paul brought that to your attention.

The following may or may not work but it's worth a try...

Access your BIOS and in the power management section, see if there's a
setting that states "ACPI Suspend to RAM" (or something similar). The
setting will (probably) be either Enabled or Disabled. Whatever it is,
change it to the alternate setting and see if that corrects the problem
following a reboot.
Anna

Thanks Anna for the suggestion. I didnt find the setting ACPI Suspend to
RAM. However I did find a setting called ACPI Suspend Type which has options
as S1(POS), S3(STR), S1&S3. I tried all the 3 options, none of them changed
status of problem.

Could it possibly any problem with the SMPS? I am asking cos I think the
SMPS was changed for some reason a few months ago, not sure if this problem
started only after that. Just a random uneducated thought!

Ramesh

 

[Paul]

Thanks Paul again for your detailed explanation.

My situation is that I didnt have this problem when XP was installed and I
was using the system. For a few months, I gave the PC for an associate to
use. The problem happened only thereafter. That s why I was suspecting
some setting either in XP or in the BIOS. I tried doing a default restore
in the BIOS but didnt help.

Looks like it has to be reinstall now which i shudder to try!!

Ramesh

You can try the "repair install" procedure. I don't know how well
it works for HAL problems, but it is less work than a clean
install. A "repair install" leaves your programs and settings
intact. (Press F5 to specify the HAL.)

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Say, for example, you have a WinXP SP1 install CD. You
do the repair install with that CD. Then you'd install
SP2, to bring the OS up to the second service pack level.
Then, connect to Windows Update, and get the security
updates and patches. If you were using IE7, then you'd have
to install that again as well. But all of your
other programs should remain as they were. The repair
install takes the OS state, back to the way it was
when you used that CD to install in the first place.

Using SP3 would be a good way to reduce the Windows
Update downloads, if you have access to a copy
from somewhere. But if you have any question about
the side effects of SP3, you can always use SP2
and use Windows Update to get the rest of the
patches and updates.

Paul

 

[RJK]

....possibly relevant is that my main PC, (after installing P3), would no
longer resume from hibernation properly, (PC would hang at a black screen
after the big "dos" progress bar - i.e. immediately after hiberfil.sys had
been read), until I enabled "STR" in bios.
This had always been set to the default? /disabled, i.e. I'd never really
looked into it, and it had never been a problem in any XP shut-down modes
prior to SP3.

....looks like a multitude of sins in XP ACPI code have been corrected, ...or
altered, ...with SP3

regards, Richard

 

[Ramesh]

Thanks Paul. Saved your mail. Will schedule a good time to take on the
adventure!!

Warm regards
Ramesh

 

[Ramesh]

RJK, am still with SP2 with latest updates. It was working fine when i
installed it. not sure at what point the problem developed.

Thanks for your inputs.
Ramesh

 

[RJK]

....having just re-read this thread. This shut-down behaviour, (PC pausing
at the "it's now safe to turn off your computer"), was very common with
Windows 98. I'm wondering if similar conditions which caused that, can
cause it in XP ?
....e.g PC Chips boards, many years ago, would exhibit this behaviour
"assign IRQ to VGA" was not enabled. (i.e. enabling "assign IRQ to VGA"
would cure it).
A few months ago I got a hang at "it's now safe to turn off your computer,"
I've since forgotten what I was doing !!

....anyhoooo, one good source for XP shut-down problems is www.aumha.org
specifically - http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

regards, Richard