Power off fault

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In recent weeks my pc has developed quite a strange, but simple(and annoying) fault.

Basically whenever i power it down from windows xp, it restarts.
Anybody got any ideas because at the minute i have to turn it off manually which i'm sure does no good whatsoever.

 

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These are really frustrating problems. A few questions: How old is your PC? You said that this problem just started recently. Did anything change right before this problem began to occur?

If the computer is old enough to have a reset button, make sure that it isn't pressed in continually. You might also want to check the power settings in the BIOS to make sure there isn't something there causing the problem.

 

My PC is resonably old in terms of PCs (about 2 years) also it was a budget system running a 2ghz celeron. The wierdest thing is it seems to be quite a temporamental fault, ie it works sometimes and not others. I have had a look in the BIOS and cannot see anything which would affect it. I also flashed the BIOS which seemed to help it for a while then it went back to its old ways. It did the same when i reformatted and reinstalled windows.

My colleague seems to think it my be the CMOS battery which i havent got around to replacing yet. what do you think?

 

Wouldn't have thought the battery would have died after just 2 years, PrestD, the only time I've had to replace that is on a machine that was around 5 years old. They should last at least 5-7 years before playing up.

IMHO

 

Try looking at the power scheme settings. On desktop, right click then go to properties, screen saver tab, power button. It's a long shot but try exploring the different tabs to see if there's a power setting that's gone awry. Also, consider that the power supply might have a fault. None of that should be the problem in a 2 year old machine but you never know...especially if it was an "economy special".

 

Also, check all connections from Power Supply Unit to motherboard are secure. Not just the main power supply to the board, but also all wiring relating to the front end power switches.

 

Still no luck i'm afraid. I can't understand why it would work sometimes and not others. The only other thing i can think of is that i have a usb phone charger which has malfunctioned since i trod on it! oops. so sometimes now when i plug it in it causes the pc to reboot. Any ideas?

 

You could have a malfunctioning power supply. When it gets overloaded it might play up.

Also, how is the heating issue? Is it well ventilated, cleaned recently, fans working ok etc.

 

im working on a 2k pro machine right now with the same problem, whenever i activate apm it just restarts the pc. not sure why this is the case. i know the machine USED to auto power off, but it just keeps restarting now. could be BIOS, but i have no idea which features to check in the power managment setting of BIOS.

Fergal

 

The common theme in both Prestd's and Fergal's stories is malfunctioning attached devices. The most obvious first step is to detach these devices from the computers and monitor the computers to see if they function normally.

I also agree with nugget that overheating can be an issue. The problem with an intermittant malfunction is that they are very hard to diagnose. It's like taking your car into the garage with a banging noise that's intermittant and the car won't make the noise for the mechanic. No way to figure it out.

In cases like these, it's pretty much trial and error. If you have a spare power supply handy (don't laugh...you'd be surprised what I have hidden away in my garage that my wife hasn't gotten me to throw out yet), you might want to throw it in the computer and see if it behaves.