[louuu]

hi again ron. im having one other new problem and im not sure if asking you here is the right place to ask. my computer is running fine with no issues. the only problem im having is when i shut down the computer (either by hitting start/shutdown or by pressing the power button to initiate shutdown) the computer shuts down and then 3 seconds later it starts up by itself as if i pressed the power button to start it although i havent pressed it?? in other words i cant turn my computer off.

the only successful way i can shut down is to shut down the normal way and then when the computer restarts by itself i hit f2 to bring up the bios screen. while in the bios screen i hit the power button and then the computer shuts off and stays off. this is the only way im able to shutdown.

ive tried to research this online and i tried the following which were all successful for 1 or 2 reboots where the computer stayed off, but by the 3rd reboot the problem was back and the computer was restarting itself again after i shut it down:
started windows with last good configuration, reset the cmos battery on the motherboard and also tried to unplug everything from the computer and hold the power button in for 20 seconds.

any help you could give me would be appreciated or if this is the wrong place to ask for this type of help please direct me to the correct place. thank you.

Edited by louuu, 05 December 2011 - 08:56 AM.

[Advertisements]

I found one post where a guy with a Dell fixed the same problem with by updating his BIOS so I'd try the newest BIOS from Dell for your PC. Speccy says you have A04 BIOS and I know the A05 is out so there should be at least one newer version. Problem right now is the Dell support driver page seems to be broken - at least I can't get to it this morning.

[RKinner]

I found one post where a guy with a Dell fixed the same problem with by updating his BIOS so I'd try the newest BIOS from Dell for your PC. Speccy says you have A04 BIOS and I know the A05 is out so there should be at least one newer version. Problem right now is the Dell support driver page seems to be broken - at least I can't get to it this morning.

[louuu]

i went ahead and updated the bios successfully from a04 to a06. i rebooted and then after reboot i tried to shut down but the problem is still there and the computer shut down and then restarted by itself 3 seconds later. i also spoke to a dell tech who said he wants to send someone to replace my motherboard. i personally dont think its a motherboard issue because my computer is running perfectly with no problems, except it wont shut off.

ron, is there any tests or logs or anything else i can do/send you to try and resolve this. i would hate for dell to replace the motherboard and that doesnt solve the problem. thank you.

[RKinner]

Check in the BIOS setup and see if there are any power options you can set but this does sound like a hardware issue. As this is a desktop, changing out the 3 v battery might be a good thing to try before you change out the mobo. They are usually about $5 at most drugstores so easy to find.

Another thing you might try it to use a bootable CD like you created for the malware problem. Boot into it then shut it down and see if it stays off.

[louuu]

i check the bios power settings and everything is ok there. i could try changing the 3v battery but for now since i dont have one im going to assume since its a new dell that battery is ok. so i created a bootup disc using the gparted live iso you had me download earlier and booted up off of it. i went to the end where the options were to reboot or shut down. i chose shutdown and the computer did shut down and didnt start up again by itself. so shutting down this way was successful.

but after i got back into windows and tried to shut down it did start up again by itself when shutting down in he normal windows environment. does using the start up disc and the shut down working properly tell you anything? does that mean its not a motherboard/hardware issue and is there something else we can try now that we know this?

thank you.

[RKinner]

That does seem to imply that windows is doing something wrong.

I have seen this happen if something caused a BSOD during the shutdown. IF Automatic restart is checked in Control Panel, System, Advanced, Startup and Recovery => Settings, (Look under System Failure) then it will restart so uncheck it. Also while you are there make sure Write an Event to the System Log is checked so there will be a record and that Write Debugging Information says Small Memory Dump (128 KB) Apply OK.

[louuu]

ron, i forgot to mention that after you helped me resolve all my virus issues, i went inside the computer case and swapped out the hard drives for bigger drives. i used acronis disk cloning to recopy the drives. when i tried to boot up windows it wouldnt boot up with error bootmgr is missing coming on my screen.

i researched that error online using my tablet (since my computer wasnt working) and it said to fix this i had to insert my orig win7 disk and then use repair my computer/system reovery options repair/ startup repair and that fixed my problem and windows started again. but i think ever since then is when this problem began with my computer not shutting down and restarting by itself. so i think this is all somehow related and by me fixing the bootmgr is missing problem caused this new problem.

so just now i did the steps you told me go do in your last message with the only difference being the Write Debugging Information option Small Memory Dump option was 256 KB, the 128 kb option wasnt there probably because my hard drive is now 2tb, not 1tb. then i tried to shutdown the computer a few times, but unfortunately its still not working and its still restarting by itself.

i also noticed that in the box that says startup system default operating system, it says "windows 7 home premium (recovered)". im wondering if all of this new info im giving you means anything to you or if where it says "recovered" means anything. the "recovered" is probably there because of how i fixed the bootmgr is missing error i described above.

one more thing, i tried to boot up in safe mode and when i shut down he problem still happened.

im hoping this gives you more info and helps you figure out how we can fix this problem of windowns not shutting down. if theres any logs or anything you want me to run or do just let me know. thank you ron.

ps - since youre helping me again with this new issue i will gladly make a 2nd donation to the charity you had me donate to before when we're done.

Edited by louuu, 05 December 2011 - 01:35 PM.

[RKinner]

I think it is obvious that you had a bad clone of your hard drive. I think what you need to do (assuming you still have the old one) is reinstall the old drive. Then wipe the new drive then try it again perhaps with a different program this time. Hopefully one that you run while booted from a cd. (Don't bother trying it with Western Digital program as it won't work or at least the last two times I tried it it was broken. Kept complaining about its license not being found when it was right there in the same directory.)

[louuu]

unfortunately i no longer have that hard drive. it was wiped clean and then reformatted and sold. im hoping there is something i can do to resolve this. in the meantime should i cancel the dell motherboard replacement? it seems thats not my issue.

also, the way ive been shutting down my computer at night is i have to shut it down normally and when it restarts by itself i hit f2 to go into the bios screen. once in the bios screen i hit the power button and it shuts down and stays shut down. thats the only way i can turn it off.

im afraid that the only solution may be to reset this machine to factory default (when i cloned the drive i also cloned the partition that has the factory default image), but then that would entail days of work to reinstall all my programs and 3 years worth of data/pics/video. i really dont want go do it this way.

any suggestions? by the way, besides this shutdown issue everything else is working perfectly. do you think if i re-install windows using the method that saves my files/folders/programs could fix this? also, anything regarding where it says windows recovered from my prior message?

thank you.

Edited by louuu, 05 December 2011 - 03:50 PM.

[RKinner]

Start, All Programs, Accessories then right click on Command Prompt and Run As Admin. Type with an Enter after each line.


powercfg -energy

(SPACE before -)

It will take a minute or two then it will tell you where the report is.

Most likely it will be:

C:\Users\Luis\energy-report.html

Zip up the file and Attach it to your next reply. (Or rename it to .txt) If you want to read it yourself just copy the whole line, open a browser and paste the line in and hit Enter.

[louuu]

thank you so much for your help. heres the file you requested.

Attached Files

•  energy-report.zip   2.93KB   170 downloads

[RKinner]

Don't know if this is your problem or not but:

Platform Timer Resolution:Platform Timer Resolution
The default platform timer resolution is 15.6ms (15625000ns) and should be used whenever the system is idle. If the timer resolution is increased, processor power management technologies may not be effective. The timer resolution may be increased due to multimedia playback or graphical animations.
Current Timer Resolution (100ns units) 100000
Maximum Timer Period (100ns units) 156001
Platform Timer Resolution:Outstanding Timer Request
A program or service has requested a timer resolution smaller than the platform maximum timer resolution.
Requested Period 100000
Requesting Process ID 3208
Requesting Process Path \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\MSIAfterburner.exe

Might just means it is burning too much electricity.

Have you tried to see if it can go to sleep?

I've got to run into town for a few hours. Talk to you later.

Can you run Speccy again:

Get the free version of Speccy (You may still have it in which case you don't need to download it again.):

http://www.filehippo...download_speccy (Look in the upper right for the Download
Latest Version button) Download, Save and Install it. Run Speccy. When it finishes (the little icon in the bottom left will stop moving), File, Save as Text File, (to your desktop) note the name it gives. OK. Open the file in notepad and delete the line that gives the serial number of your Operating System. (It will be near the top about 10 lines down.) Attach the file to your next post.

[louuu]

before i proceed to reply to your message, i wanted your opinion as to whether or not i should allow dell to replace my motherboard. theyre scheduled to do it tomorrow and if you feel theres zero chance thats going to help, ill cancel it. but if we cant resolve this today, is there any chance replacing the motherboard could help?

now to reply to your message: the mis afterburner program that you said could be burning too much electricity is a very small imprint program that simply puts 2 icons in my taskbar that shows me the fan speed and temp of my video card. ive never had any issue with electricity or wattage as my entire system pulls very little wattage.

i changed the settings on my computer to allow sleep and yes, the system went into sleep mode with no problem and came out of sleep mode when i wanted it to. after this i again disabled sleep as i dont ever use it.

ive also attached the speccy file you requested. thank you and ill wait for your reply.

Attached Files

•  speccy file.txt   59.02KB   254 downloads

Edited by louuu, 05 December 2011 - 05:50 PM.

[RKinner]

I can't see that the mobo is sick. I think Dell is just being stupid.

If you can live without the MSI Afterburner program, please uninstall it and run the powercfg -energy thing again.

While I was in town I got invited to supper tonight so will be gone for another couple of hours.

I think I would use Sleep mode until you figure out why it starts on its own.

[RKinner]

I suppose a Repair install might be the best way to go. You could do that tonight and if it worked then tell Dell to go away.