pc shuts down, fans stay on

[jd8180]

so I just built myself a new pc because it was time to upgrade. everything seems to be working smoothly except for one thing -- my pc won't shut off completely. I can restart the computer just fine, but when I hit shut down, it goes through its normal "windows is shutting down screen" and it seems like everything does shut down correctly. I can hear the hard drive turn off, the monitor loses signal, and the mouse and keyboard shuts off, but all the fans inside are still running.

at this point, if i push the power button the computer boots up as if it was shut down like it should. when the computer is "shut down" the power LED on the case is off, but the hdd LED is on with a solid light. if i click the mouse, the red light on the bottom turns on until i let go of the click.

i have 64-bit vista, but i don't think it's a driver issue because i reformatted the pc and even before installing a single driver it still happens. i'm not too familiar with working in the bios, but in the power settings all the "wake to xxxxx" settings are disabled.

I'm not entirely sure if this is a motherboard problem or a power supply problem, but my first guess would be the motherboard. I have the ASUS P5Q.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

That's a new one on me but, my first thought is a short/grounding issue. Try taking the board out of the case and putting it on a non conductive surface to check if this still happens. If not, perhaps your stand offs are not installed correctly or wiring may be the culprit. Are your fans daisy chained or does each have a separate header?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Did you buy an Enermax Infinity PSU???

 

[jd8180]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Did you buy an Enermax Infinity PSU???

no, i got a cooler master real power pro 650w PSU.

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
That's a new one on me but, my first thought is a short/grounding issue. Try taking the board out of the case and putting it on a non conductive surface to check if this still happens. If not, perhaps your stand offs are not installed correctly or wiring may be the culprit. Are your fans daisy chained or does each have a separate header?

the CPU fan and the 120mm fan in the back are both connected via the mother board, while the fan in the front is connected via the PSU. the fact that all three fans are on during this weird mishap leads me to believe that this is either a setting that is off that i don't know about, or just a defected mother board. correct me if i'm wrong please (i just don't want to disconnect everything to test it if it is not really a feasible idea).

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

My infinity keeps all the fans running till the cpu reaches a cool temp, it is a feature that Enermax put on that PSU line. It usually will keep the fans running anywhere between 5 seconds to 2 minutes.

 

[jd8180]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
My infinity keeps all the fans running till the cpu reaches a cool temp, it is a feature that Enermax put on that PSU line. It usually will keep the fans running anywhere between 5 seconds to 2 minutes.

I was googling around last night and read about this feature on certain PSU's. So I went ahead and shut down the PC and just left it there for over half an hour and all the fans were still running.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

could either be a bad mobo or PSU

 

[jd8180]

ugh, it sounds like a defected product, but i wish i just knew which one it was exactly. i don't want to RMA both if it's just one of the products (yet I don't want to RMA just the mobo, get the new one and find out that it's the PSU causing the problem). is there any other possible way to test them somehow or something?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

only if you had an extra psu you could trouble shoot it with, other than that, the odds are against you

 

[jd8180]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
only if you had an extra psu you could trouble shoot it with, other than that, the odds are against you

thank you for the help, i will see if anyone i know happens to have an extra PSU laying around that I can borrow to test it out.

 

[Big Lar]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
That's a new one on me but, my first thought is a short/grounding issue. Try taking the board out of the case and putting it on a non conductive surface to check if this still happens. If not, perhaps your stand offs are not installed correctly or wiring may be the culprit. Are your fans daisy chained or does each have a separate header?

^^ What Magnus said there hit the nail on the head for sure. If it works outside the case on cardboard, at least it would rule out a direct short.

Larry

 

[RallyMaster]

Are you sure you didn't put the computer on standby? I put my computer on standby yesterday and it turned off everything except my fans.

 

[jd8180]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster
Are you sure you didn't put the computer on standby? I put my computer on standby yesterday and it turned off everything except my fans.

No, I have Vista's start menu on "classic." So when I hit shut down I have the list of ways to shut down, and I choose shut down from there. I know there is a common mistake where Vista defaulted the red shut down button in the start menu to make the computer go on stand by, but I am definitely making it shut down.

Originally posted by: Big Lar
^^ What Magnus said there hit the nail on the head for sure. If it works outside the case on cardboard, at least it would rule out a direct short.

Larry

So I should unscrew the motherboard from the case and place it on a piece of cardboard and try it there? Just double checking before I do it, because god knows if I do something wrong knowing my luck I'll break something even more.

 

[FireTech]

I have this happen with my existing rig for no rhyme or reason and simply switching off the PSU solves it until it crops up again many months later.
Unfortunately your situation sounds more complicated.

 

[jd8180]

Originally posted by: FireTech
I have this happen with my existing rig for no rhyme or reason and simply switching off the PSU solves it until it crops up again many months later.
Unfortunately your situation sounds more complicated.

it seems like once everything shuts down and the fans are on it's safe to just switch it off from the back. i don't get any errors of windows saying it shut down improperly or anything when i do so. flipping the switch off obviously turns the fans off, and when i switch it back on, the fans stay off. it's once the computer is on and shuts down that it happens.

tomorrow i am first going to double check that i plugged in the power button on the case correctly to the motherboard. if that doesn't do anything, i will try the grounding issue. (if someone can please confirm to my last post that what i am supposed to do is just run the motherboard on a piece of cardboard outside of the case?)

 

[jd8180]

so i went ahead and reseated all the PSU plugs, i reseated the little plugs from the case (the power button, LED's, etc), and even ripped out the mobo and placed it on a sheet of cardboard and ran it from there. still the same friggin problem!

taking it to work tomorrow to see if the IT dept can figure it out, and if maybe they have a spare PSU to test with that. if the same problem persists at that point, i'm just going to go ahead and RMA the mobo.

one thing i did notice as i was unplugging/plugging everything... the motherboard has 2 plugs that you are supposed to plug in from the PSU, the big long one (sorry i don't know the correct names for these), and the four pinned one. on my motherboard the four pinned one actually has space for 8, but my PSU doesn't have anything that would fit in there so I just have the regular four pinned plug in there. could that be an issue?

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: jd8180
one thing i did notice as i was unplugging/plugging everything... the motherboard has 2 plugs that you are supposed to plug in from the PSU, the big long one (sorry i don't know the correct names for these), and the four pinned one. on my motherboard the four pinned one actually has space for 8, but my PSU doesn't have anything that would fit in there so I just have the regular four pinned plug in there. could that be an issue?

2PIN? Hmmm... I wonder if that is for if your PSU has a thermally controlled fan, it would plug into the motherboard...

The 8pin on the motherboard would be an EPS12V connector, your psu has an ATX12V connector, which is perfectly fine; as long at they are plugged into the right 4 Pin's on the EPS12V connector.

 

[jd8180]

Just in case anyone is interested, I ended up returning the mobo and exchanging it for a new one. Same model and now everything seems to be working great. I guess it was just a defect with that particular motherboard. Thanks to everyone for the help.