PC wont power down

[rodmansju]

I have built pcs in the past, no issues. For some odd reason, I now am having a bit of an issue with a new build.

Have an Epox socket939 board, athlon 64 cpu, new Antec 380 power supply. OS is Win XP MCE. Installed fine, runs fine. Boots without issue.

Windows shuts off. The motherboard and powersupply do not, unless I hit the switch at the back of the PC. having to do that all the time is a PITA.

the motherboard people told me to check connections, etc etc. checked them all. bios is the latest and greatest, the connections are all exactly as they should be according to the manuals. I can restart the PC no problem. but if I shutdown from windows or from the power button, the screen goes black and windows is off, but the motherboard and psu are still on. and then no power button or reset on the front works at all.

I have tried almost everything I can think of, and right now I am beginning to suspect a bad board.....any ideas??

thanks

[pcschrottie]

Maybe you could disable power management in the bios to see if it helps? Did you by the way install any drivers recently?

Michael

[rodmansju]

Maybe you could disable power management in the bios to see if it helps? Did you by the way install any drivers recently?

Michael

well, it hasn't powered down since it was built---i set it up last weekend, fresh install, fresh drives, and adding things piece by piece. with a bare pc or not, it has been doing it all along.

the only recent drivers came yesterday with new nvidia drivers for my geforce5200. which is flickering when i click certain icons, but thats minor to me now

i brought home my older athlon xp motherboard and cpu, just to rule out RAM and OS among other things. really suspecting the motherboard at this point

[Catweazle]

Unless it's something simple like a reversed power LED connector, I'd be suspecting the motherboard too.

Or perhaps a faulty power switch in the case?

[rodmansju]

Unless it's something simple like a reversed power LED connector, I'd be suspecting the motherboard too.

Or perhaps a faulty power switch in the case?

i triple checked the connectors. they all worked on the old board/cpu/psu combo. using windows xp or power button to turn off all worked.

im about to shut down and check to see if the old board still works. if so, ill be doing a replacement with epox.

[caperjack]

i once had this happend with a older computer repaired i reloaded and it was the keyboard .!
i would check the front panel connection to the board .

[rodmansju]

i once had this happend with a older computer repaired i reloaded and it was the keyboard .!
i would check the front panel connection to the board .

definetly not the front connections. unless they are bad on the board itself. I have connected, reconnected and checked them at least 3 or 4 times today alone, plus another several last night. nothing works. it runs fine, powers up fine, resets fine. just doesnt want to shut down at all.

i know the connectors are fine cabling wise. they worked perfectly fine on my old shuttle mainboard up until i retired it last week.

i pulled all extra cards and drives, and alternately pulled my DIMMs. nothing. unless I completely missed something, the culprit is definetly the motherboard itself, something I decided on earlier because the onboard diagnostic LED, when I tell it to shut down, displays code FF when the board/fans/PSU remain on. FF in the manual indicates a couple of issues possibly, and the only one I have left is a mainboard problem.

so, as annoying as it is, Ill end up somehow returning this/replacing. but i may opt for a different board now, so I can have the system running without missing a beat.

[Catweazle]

It's a quite recent board, and perhaps this is a matter which might be resolved with a BIOS update, but apart from that I'm in agreement with you.

[rodmansju]

It's a quite recent board, and perhaps this is a matter which might be resolved with a BIOS update, but apart from that I'm in agreement with you.

I have updated/reverted to the newest bios and what it came with. Nada. It's the biggest problem with the board, but not the only one. Had some good reviews, but maybe I was just unlucky. Time to hunt for a new one, me thinks

thanks for all the help, and I'll let you know how I make out

[Catweazle]

I was meaning that it may be a problem which, wuth your paticular configuration if hardware equipment, will need to be resolved with a future BIOS update. Such things do happen.

[rodmansju]

understood. just would be very odd, considering all my hardware is standard, nothing off the wall unique about it. and the problem is a basic function of a PC. that, and tech support from Epox, one would think, would have possibly known about such an issue.

I may be trying a different board. not sure, still researching.

[Catweazle]

So would I be, to tell the truth. I'd not be using an Epox board to start with actually. While some recent motherboards made by Epox have received favourable review, Epox has had a notoriety for poor quality in the past, and I'm yet to be convinced that their current products are meritorious. I suspect the favourable reviews are purely made on the basis of a handful of motherboards which benchtest well, and would like to see how user experience pans out over time.

[GYRUS]

:!: I got it! Replace the Power Supply. :!:

I was having a similar issue with a pc I was rebuilding, brand new mainboard, CPU, RAM, and power supply. The bizarre thing was right when I first put everything together, it worked fine and powered off properly ( 4 second power switch hold). Then after a HDD format, OS reinstall, and some tinkering with the front connections, it suddenly stopped working. The last thing I wanted to do is Flash the BIOS so I kind of did a process of elimination and ended up disconnected everything from the power supply, plugged it in and to my astonishment - it powered on! I replaced it with another one and it now powers off fine. I can't say how this problem occurred, the only thing that comes to mind is something I did with the front connections, moving them around and such? for some reason the HDD LED has to be in backwards contrary to what the mainboard indicates. I hope this post isn't to late, maybe it will help some one in the future.

in case anyone was wondering the systems specs are:

MSI KM3M-V mainboard
AMD Sempron CPU
512 DDR RAM
and the culprate, A (lightning bolt!!!) Power 400w power supply

[rodmansju]

:!: I got it! Replace the Power Supply. :!:

I was having a similar issue with a pc I was rebuilding, brand new mainboard, CPU, RAM, and power supply. The bizarre thing was right when I first put everything together, it worked fine and powered off properly ( 4 second power switch hold). Then after a HDD format, OS reinstall, and some tinkering with the front connections, it suddenly stopped working. The last thing I wanted to do is Flash the BIOS so I kind of did a process of elimination and ended up disconnected everything from the power supply, plugged it in and to my astonishment - it powered on! I replaced it with another one and it now powers off fine. I can't say how this problem occurred, the only thing that comes to mind is something I did with the front connections, moving them around and such? for some reason the HDD LED has to be in backwards contrary to what the mainboard indicates. I hope this post isn't to late, maybe it will help some one in the future.

in case anyone was wondering the systems specs are:

MSI KM3M-V mainboard
AMD Sempron CPU
512 DDR RAM
and the culprate, A (lightning bolt!!!) Power 400w power supply

Not even close to a good option, if you read my original post, the PSU was brand-new and non-defective. Can't recall if I added it or not, but the PSU was tested on other machines to not be the issue at all.

In the end, it was the motherboard. I had thought the nice-looking Epox which had good reviews would have been a good one to try. in the end, it was crap. a new out of box mobo was that bad.

no more epox here

[GYRUS]

Not even close to a good option, if you read my original post, the PSU was brand-new and non-defective. Can't recall if I added it or not, but the PSU was tested on other machines to not be the issue at all.

In the end, it was the motherboard. I had thought the nice-looking Epox which had good reviews would have been a good one to try. in the end, it was crap. a new out of box mobo was that bad.

no more epox here

In my case too, I was dealing with a new PSU but replacing it worked.

[rodmansju]

In my case too, I was dealing with a new PSU but replacing it worked.

yes, but if the PSU works on one board and not another, logic dictates that the board, not the PSU, is the culprit.

Im up, running now for a while, so no worries

[JANINE]

yes, but if the PSU works on one board and not another, logic dictates that the board, not the PSU, is the culprit.

Im up, running now for a while, so no worries

it can be a number of issues but in this case you are both right. sometimes it can be the board and sometimes it can be the power supply. the best thing to dao is go through the process of 'elimination'. get hold of another PC (as it seems you both did) and check the PSU on the machine that you know works. if all is well then you know its the MOBO in the sick machine. if nothing happens or you get the same problem on the well machine put it down to a fault in the PSU.

bear in mind the rule of elimination for all components.

I know this advice might be a little late but better to be late then never. :)