[vinny_the_hack]

About 6 months ago or so, I had various PC problems and (among other things) I installed a new power supply. It resolved one problem but now I'm pretty sure it introduced a new one. I didn't pay much attention to it before because of the other issues, but now with an otherwise stable system and time on my hands, I'm ready to tackle it.

The problem is that the machine no longer shuts down completely. At least the power supply and (a) fan(s) stay on and maybe, not positively, the hard drives stay on. I've read that a power supply must be type ATX (whatever that means) and that the BIOS must have APM (advanced power management) enabled. Well, the power supply was new, so I assume it is type ATX. And the BIOS should have APM enabled since the machine was shutting down properly before the new PSU. Soooo, WT(expletive deleted) can it be?

Edited by vinny_the_hack, 28 July 2007 - 10:28 PM.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX

Read and enjoy, ATX information.

Are you able to get your hands on another power supply to test what happens? Like borrow one off a mate or something?

since the machine was shutting down properly before the new PSU

This tells me it might be the current PSU, which is why I suggest testing a different one.

[Troy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX

Read and enjoy, ATX information.

Are you able to get your hands on another power supply to test what happens? Like borrow one off a mate or something?

since the machine was shutting down properly before the new PSU

This tells me it might be the current PSU, which is why I suggest testing a different one.

[vinny_the_hack]

I can't get my hands on another PSU. With the previous one, everything shut down, now it doesn't. No settings were changed. No system updates were implemented. No sensitive software or hardware changes occurred. I just looked and the power supply is of type ATX.

[vinny_the_hack]

I just got off the phone with the manufacturer (Dynex). The person had no idea at all. She did confirm to me, though, that it should work like my old one did and suggested I return it to the store at which I bought it. I'm not thrilled with the idea of disconnecting all the cables, opening up everything, disconecting all the ribbon cables, unscrewing the PSU and after visiting the store reversing all that. Especially, when I have a strong feeling that the issue will not be resolved. This doesn't strike me as a problem with the PSU, but maybe a setting that even though I didn't change, somehow must have been changed.

I decided to look in my BIOS for this "advanced power" setting I had read about. I looked through everything carefully three times and didn't see anything remotely resembling such a setting. I did, however, see something that looked a bit odd, but almost certainly unrelated to this issue.

It had my primary master and primary slave disks correct, but it also listed a secondary master disk. I don't have a secondary master disk. Its description might possibly match the original primary master which fizzled and I replaced. Who knows if this may be causing my other issue of having a very long boot time (about 1.5 minutes, I think ). I left the BIOS as it was.

I'm thinking of going to the store where I bought the PSU and just run this by them to see if they have ever heard of such a thing.

Edited by vinny_the_hack, 30 July 2007 - 02:52 PM.

[Troy]

Well I've never heard of Dynex as a PSU manufacturer, so is it a generic brand? I found a Dynex website, but I don't know if it was the same one (I assume it was) but they didn't have any PSU's listed under their components section... If it is a faulty one, I strongly recommend replacing it with a quality brand PSU.

As for your BIOS, you can try resetting it if you like. There's a battery on the motherboard, about the size of a small coin. Disconnect your power cables first (from the tower), then - taking static electricity precautions - remove the battery and leave it out for 5+ minutes. When you put the battery back in, cables back in and turn your computer on, you may be presented with an error. This is fine, and you will probably have to re-set the date and time in BIOS. Select "Load Optimal Values" (or something to that effect) in the BIOS then press F10 and confirm yes. The computer should restart as normal. You should also be able to enter the BIOS again and check everything out.

If that doesn't clear out the "Secondary Master Disk" that doesn't exist, you could try looking for a BIOS update and flashing it, then setting it up by selecting "Load Optimal Values" again.

[vinny_the_hack]

Yeah, that's their site. I also had trouble finding the PSU, but did eventually...

http://www.dynexprod...wer-supply.aspx

If this PSU is not a quality one, there's no way I would buy one. I paid almost $80 for this one. Besides, they told me it should work as I expected it to.

For now, I think I'll leave the BIOS alone. I no longer suffer through long boot sequences. I let the machine go into hibernation mode and even though I have to manually turn off the power, at least it comes up fast...and with open windows/app's intact. Why would anyone not use hibernaton if they didn't need to reboot for a specific reason such as implementing new hardware/software?

Edited by vinny_the_hack, 30 July 2007 - 06:53 PM.

[vinny_the_hack]

I decided to live (a little) dangerously and removed the (seemingly) extraneous disk entry in the BIOS. It had no (obvious) effect on either the shutdown process or the boot-up process.

Edited by vinny_the_hack, 30 July 2007 - 07:17 PM.