Windows won't fully shut down

[RobertM]

I have Windows XP Pro SP2 installed in my rig and when I shut it down, the CPU and PSU fans remain powered while everything else has powered down. The problem remains even when I use the power button to turn off the PC, which forces me to use the off switch on the back of the PSU.

I have also flashed my BIOS and downloaded all Microsoft Updates and device drivers for my system with no success. I then saw that there was a Microsoft hotfix for AMD Dual-core systems and installed that before installing the AMD Dual-core optimizer software. No success either. For reference purposes, here is the link describing the MS hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256

I have checked device manager and windows is properly detecting my PC as an APCI compliant Multiprocessor system hardware wise and BIOS wise. Because of this, I cannot enable advanced power management in "Power Options" in the Control Panel. APCI is enabled in the BIOS.

One side issue which I should also mention is that when I choose to put my system in Standby mode, it defaults to the S1 power state even though I have enabled S3 Suspend to RAM mode in the Bios. I'm not sure if this is related to the shutdown problem or not.

I am fairly positive that Windows is the cause of this problem because when I force XP to install using the Standard PC Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), I can enable Advanced Power Management in "Power Options" in the Control Panel and the system will then shut down with no issues. I, however, do not want to use this as a solution because I won't be able to realize any performance benefits from using a Dual-core processor.

I have also tried all of the shutdown troubleshooting tips for XP found at: http://www.aumha.org

Thank you all in advance for any help or insight.

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers RobertM

A great post, full of very good information... except the model number of your motherboard :p :D

While your experiments seem to point to power options, this still could be something to do with a driver for a pci card not unloading properly or a profile problem.

What happens if you shut down from safe mode?
What happens if you shut down from Administrator?
What happens if you create a new account and shut down from that?

[slgrieb]

RM, an easy way to see if Windows causes your problem is just to eliminate it from the equation. Boot the system from some diagnostic diskette or CD (SeaTools, Drive Fitness test, or whatever) and see if the power button shuts everything down correctly.

If you want to pursue it a little further, and maybe have a bit of fun, there are lots of Linux distribution such as Ubuntu that let you run the OS from a CD. See if the computer shuts down properly from one of these.

[RobertM]

Motherboard is a Biostar TA690g (Integrated Graphics). Rest of system:

AMD Athlon X2 3600+ Dual Core CPU (Brisbane)
Western Digital 250GB SATA Hard Drive
Corsair 2GB DDR2TWIN2X2048-6400C4 memory
NEC/Optirac AD-7170A IDE 18x DVD Burner
Seasonic S12 430w Power Supply Unit
Logitech USB G5 mouse
Logitech USB Media Keyboard Elite

I have not tried shutting down in safe mode yet or the diagnostic tools method, but will try them this weekend and report back.

It's definitely not the PSU; I've swapped it twice now and tested. Turned off onboard devices too...nada. I've also done some registry modification to see if maybe a missing or unedited key value was the cause for the incomplete shutdown. Edited:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon --> PowerdownAfterShutdown --> 1

Added keys: AutoEndTasks --> 1, and also AlwaysUnloadDLL -->1
in some other parts of the registry.

[NooNoo]

so have you heard from MS yet? (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=32&threadid=2015498&frmKeyword=&STARTPAGE=2&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear)

[RobertM]

They suggested that I repair the XP installation because I couldn't install the hotfix. Got it working by installing xp again with a newer sp2 cd but it didn't solve the shut down issue so I'm back at square one and waiting for their call/e-mail once again.

Good detective work though, lol :)

[CCT]

This may be completely off-base but, there is an ACPI setting called 'ACPI XSDT Table' which defaults disabled in your bios.

This, when enabled, uses an ACPI 2.0 Table for 64 bit 'stuff'.


Like I say, may not be pertinent.

:)

[slgrieb]

I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that your mainboard is at fault, and the issue is most likely BIOS related. Yep, even after the update. I stopped using or selling Biostar boards years ago. I didn't find them reliable, they exhibited all kinds of problems with certain cards only working in specific slots, etc., and I never, ever got a response from their tech support to any of my numerous emails.

But, things change, and you should try contacting Biostar. I have an old machine running an Athlon 750 Slot A processor and a FIC mainboard with one of the early AMD chipsets that has never shut down correctly under W98, W2K, or XP. But, the power switch at least functions correctly.

[NooNoo]

Good detective work though, lol :)
Not really, I went looking to see if it is a known issue... all I could find where your posts. So it's not a known issue, so I am with slgrieb, RMA that sucker!

[RobertM]

So I tried out some of the suggestions yesterday night and

1) I was not able to shut down properly in safe mode.
2) I can't shut it down properly as an admin
3) I can, however, shut it down properly by creating a new account w/ admin privileges, logging on/switching to that, and then shutting down. It worked for me initially, but then I tried shutting down by switching users without creating a new account and it didn't work anymore.

4) I didn't adjust the ACPI setting called 'ACPI XSDT Table' in BIOS because I'm running on 32 bit XP and enabling the setting is suggested only for a 64 bit OS. I also haven't tried booting/shutting down from a diagnostic cd/diskette yet. Any software suggestions for my WD drive? I bought it OEM.

I'm going to test out what I stated in number 3 some more later tonight and report back. At this point, it is beginning to look more like a mobo issue.

[CCT]

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1019158863

[RobertM]

Was playing around the past few days with my setup and it turns out that it's the power surge or power cable going to the PSU that's causing the issue. Strange to think that that was the source of the problem. Thanks for all the help guys.