Computer Reboots Instead Of Shutdown

[Matt]

I was over at my girlfriend's house the other day and they were telling me about this old computer they had that they couldn't get to turn on. After some investigation, I discovered that the issue was just their power cord--a simple fix. Brought over a new power cord, and the thing booted immediately. Now however, something odd is occurring. They tell me that every time they shutdown the computer, it will reboot instead of turning off.

I tried it myself, and this is exactly the case. Every time it just reboots. I'm not sure if this is a hardware issue or not.

The computer is running Windows 98.

Thanks,

Matt

[shanenin]

You could try booting it with a live linux cd, then shut it down from linux. This would tell you if Windows or hardware(bios) is the problem.

[TheTerrorist_75]

I remember that problem.

Go to Start > Run > type msconfig, press the <Enter> key, click on the Advanced button and check Disable fast shutdown.

[Matt]

Now I'm thinking this is a hardware issue. Sometimes it doesn't turn back on; but after shutdown I can hear a very high-pitched squeal coming from the PSU.

[martymas]

we had this problem when i was posting at techtv

with win 98

i think

pete posted on how to fix the problem

go to power options

on the top tab look for APM

open it and check the blank box

i know it is some were in power options

it is so long ago

ive forgotten the settings

in win xp the apm option has to be set in the bios

marty

Edited June 19, 2008 by martymas

[TheTerrorist_75]

Now I'm thinking this is a hardware issue. Sometimes it doesn't turn back on; but after shutdown I can hear a very high-pitched squeal coming from the PSU.

Sounds llike a bad capacitor in the PSU.

[Pete_C]

First thing I would check is boot to safe mode and try to shut down from there.

If it shuts down you know it is a problem with something which loads in normal windows (software or driver) which is crashing so badly when it is told to close that it crashes windows too.

Normally this is a driver (generally sound card or video card) but it could also be a virtual machine like antivirus.

But I agree, that if you hear a whine from the power supply it is probably a capacitor . It is possible that the power supply is at fault. Modern power supplies are switching power supplies, they are not supposed to totally shut off, certain traces on the motherboard are constantly energized and the momentary interrupt switch on the case connects two which trips a solenoid on the power supply.

Boot to the bios, and see if resume on power failure or similar is enabled. If so disable it. Possibly if the power supply is failing when told to shut down, when the solenoid is tripped the voltage to the motherboard power management circuits is interrupted and when it resumes the motherboard bios tells the power supply to switch back on.