Strange motherboard shutdown problem

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December 12th, 2003, 10:10 AM
teksup95

Strange motherboard shutdown problem

Ok, a little system info first:

A7V8X-MX motherboard
AMD Duron 1.4 GHZ CPU
250watt power supply
256mb Apacer DDR2100 memory
Western Digital 20gb hard drive
USR internal modem
CD-ROM Drive
Floppy drive

Ok, now that that's out of the way, here's what's going on. When I press the power button to power it up, it comes on for about 2 seconds, then turns off for a second, then powers back on, and will come up ok. Also, when I shut down Windows (WinXP Pro), it goes to the "It's now safe to turn off your machine" screen, but when I press the power button, nothing happens. I have to hold the button for 5 or 6 seconds to get it to turn off. I have the power button set to "Instant Off" in the bios, and the rest are the fail safe settings. Any ideas on what's going on? Thanks
December 12th, 2003, 11:37 AM
TripleRLtd

Have you tried another PSU?
XP should not be giving you the "It's now safe..." screen, it should just turn off.
ATX instant off is via power button is almost never "instant".
The list of customers I have who say the power button does not work and they must unplug continues to grow.
Seems hardly anyone knows they must hold it in for four/five seconds until told.
First try this (and do not change the ACPI setting in bios), take all cards out but the video and boot into windows and try again and tell us what happens.
December 12th, 2003, 11:57 AM
teksup95

Quote:

Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

Have you tried another PSU?
XP should not be giving you the "It's now safe..." screen, it should just turn off.
ATX instant off is via power button is almost never "instant".
The list of customers I have who say the power button does not work and they must unplug continues to grow.
Seems hardly anyone knows they must hold it in for four/five seconds until told.
First try this (and do not change the ACPI setting in bios), take all cards out but the video and boot into windows and try again and tell us what happens.

ok, I already tried that. I took out the modem (which is the only card in the system) and tried it. Same results. I unplugged the CD-rom from the system. Same results. I have to check the PSU voltages tonight to see what they are. Windows XP should most definately shut down on it's own, but for some reason it's not doing it. Anyway, I'll let you know what I find tonight. In the mean time, if anyone has any other suggestions, please feel free to post. Thanks
December 12th, 2003, 03:15 PM
Radical Dreamer

Go to the device manager, click view then show hidden devices, and if its there, enable legacy nt/apm
December 12th, 2003, 10:43 PM
teksup95

Ok....just tested it out. No go. I put my power supply in there, which is a Thermaltake 360watt, and it did all the same things. I even cleared the CMOS, and re-flashed the bios to see if that was the reason for the turn-off, and back on thing. Apparently it wasn't. I then tried putting my memory in there, which was a stick of crucial DDR2700 512mb. Did all the same things. I am starting to thing that maybe the processor is bad. I will test that tomorrow. Anyone with any other suggestions? Thanks
December 22nd, 2003, 01:44 PM
teksup95

Nobody?
December 22nd, 2003, 01:46 PM
Radical Dreamer

Quote:

Originally Posted by teksup95

Nobody?

Did you try what I suggested?
December 22nd, 2003, 02:15 PM
NooNoo

look in device manager, under computer, what type of computer is listed there?

Sounds like you have acpi disabled in bios, or xp has found a wrinkle in the bios programming it doesn't like.
December 22nd, 2003, 03:05 PM
teksup95

Yes, I tried all of your suggestions. The computer now shuts down on it's own when I select shutdown. So that's cool.

The problem that I am still having, though, is when I power the machine on, it powers itself back off, and then on again every time. Anyone with suggestions on what might be causing that?
December 22nd, 2003, 03:07 PM
Radical Dreamer

Hmmm, I would first try resetting the bios to failsafe and then turn things on one by one and see what happens
December 22nd, 2003, 03:14 PM
teksup95

I tried that. I also tried clearing the bios, re-flashing the bios, and even removing the mobo from the case, and powering it up on a static-free surface with minimum peripherals plugged in. Notta.....
December 22nd, 2003, 03:23 PM
geoscomp

when you say it turns itself off, does the whole thing turn off and then restart at the initial screen again, or does the monitor go off but the power led on the case stays on?
December 22nd, 2003, 03:32 PM
teksup95

The whole thing powers down. I can hear the fans turn off, and everything.
December 22nd, 2003, 03:36 PM
geoscomp

right click on my computer, choose advanced, and then startup and recovery..make sure that automatically restart is unchecked. Also, check the event viewer to see if there are any interesting things there
December 22nd, 2003, 03:40 PM
teksup95

The problem with that idea is that the system has not even had a chance to POST yet when this happens, so I don't see where it would be an OS controlled item.....
December 23rd, 2003, 09:29 AM
teksup95

Stumped all of you, did I? :)
December 24th, 2003, 09:43 AM
3D Prophet III

Quote:

Originally Posted by teksup95

Ok, a little system info first:

A7V8X-MX motherboard
AMD Duron 1.4 GHZ CPU
250watt power supply
256mb Apacer DDR2100 memory
Western Digital 20gb hard drive
USR internal modem
CD-ROM Drive
Floppy drive

Ok, now that that's out of the way, here's what's going on. When I press the power button to power it up, it comes on for about 2 seconds, then turns off for a second, then powers back on, and will come up ok.

Pull the memory out and see if it will POST without doing what you said. I know, you'll get error beeps but try it. Another thing you could try is going to Radio Shack and buying an intermitent push button switch for $2 and hooking 2 wires to it and hooking that up to where your system power switch hooks to your motherboard with 2 small insulated hook clips, you could have a sticky switch in your case.
December 24th, 2003, 10:25 AM
teksup95

One of my initial troubleshooting steps was to pull the memory out my my other machine, which I know works, and try it in this computer. It did the same thing. I did the same with the processor, and the power supply as well....
December 24th, 2003, 10:37 AM
TripleRLtd

Quote:

Originally Posted by teksup95

One of my initial troubleshooting steps was to pull the memory out my my other machine, which I know works, and try it in this computer. It did the same thing. I did the same with the processor, and the power supply as well....

First you said that the PC now shuts down fine from within Windoze.
Now you say it will turn off as soon as you turn it on.
So, can you get into Windows at all anymore?
And, if so, how many of these failed power on's does it take to actually boot up properly?
Can you get into windows or not?
Is what you describe only random?
December 24th, 2003, 11:03 AM
3D Prophet III

Who knows, maybe your motherboard doesn't like the Duron since it wasn't even designed to use the Duron. AMD doesn't even recommend the use of this motherboard with Durons. From ASUS site -

This VIA KM400 chipset-based motherboard is just the right solution for Socket A 2.25GHz+ Athlon XP processors. With quality graphics right out of the box and industry-leading technology such as AGP 8X and DDR333, the A7V8X-MX is a value-rich motherboard.

CPU Socket A for AMD Athlon XP/ Thoroughbred/Barton up to 2.25GHz+
Chipset VIA KM400
VIA VT8235 CE
Front Side Bus 333/266/200MHz
Memory 2 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 2GB PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory
VGA Integrated VIA UniChrome Graphics
Expansion Slots 1 x AGP 8X/4X
3 x PCI
IDE 2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66
Audio ADI AD1980 6-channel CODEC
LAN VIA VT6103 10/100 Mbps Ethernet PHY
USB Max. 6 USB2.0 ports
Special Features -Power Loss Restart

Maybe the BIOS is detecting irregularities with the voltage it's supplying to the processor and then restarts itself after saying to itself, yup, that's the voltages alright.
December 24th, 2003, 01:40 PM
teksup95

Quote:

Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

First you said that the PC now shuts down fine from within Windoze.
Now you say it will turn off as soon as you turn it on.
So, can you get into Windows at all anymore?
And, if so, how many of these failed power on's does it take to actually boot up properly?
Can you get into windows or not?
Is what you describe only random?

Ok, if you read my original post, I said that it shuts off right after I turn it on. I ALSO said that it wouldn't shut down from within Windows. That problem is now resolved, but the problem with the shutdown upon powerup remains. It is not an intermittent thing, it happens EVERY TIME. It could very well be what 3D Prophet described. I bought the board from Newegg.com, and on that site, it listed the Duron as one of the supported processors, but if AMD doesn't list it, maybe that's it. I am going to try another board as soon as I can get my hands on one, so I'll post the results. Thanks for all your help guys.
August 4th, 2004, 11:10 PM
Braindead`

Try changing your powerswitch. I have the same mainboard and I thought the switch was stuffed so I changed it over to the restart switch and that seems to work fine now.
August 5th, 2004, 06:10 AM
Radical Dreamer

Quote:

Originally Posted by Braindead`

Try changing your powerswitch. I have the same mainboard and I thought the switch was stuffed so I changed it over to the restart switch and that seems to work fine now.

Another post has risen from the dead........ :devil: