Windows XP Shut Down Keeps Restarting

[galbicake]

It seems like my XP is possessed and revives my PC to boot up after about 2 minutes from my shut down.

I went to ADVANCE and unchecked the restart initializer.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[SGtheArtist]

Could it be a "Wake on LAN" setting in the motherboard BIOS? This happened to me once and it was the WOL setting that was enabled so afte a shutdown the NIC would trigger the BIOS to restart.

 

[galbicake]

You know, I checked the WOL in the BIOs and it says off.

Could there be anything else?

I will double check again tonight but I am pretty sure WOL is off as well.

 

[SGtheArtist]

If their is anything in the BIOS that is "Wake On" it maybe worth disabling it to try and isolate the issue. In addition you may consider flashing the BIOS to the most recent release. Just because you changed the setting to "Disabled" doesnt necessarily mean that it is if the BIOS was written incorrectly.

Other than a Wake On feature, maybe Windows is going into Hibernate or Standby instead of shutting down, I dont know.

 

[galbicake]

You know the other weird thing is Standby just makes it shut down.

I just built this computer 7 months ago and the mobo is pretty recent.

MSI Neo 4?

I guess I'll check out their site tonight to see if there is a new driver or BIOs I should update it with...

 

[Markbnj]

Probably it is not completely shutting down, then sits there a bit, then faults and restarts itself. Go to...

Control panel -> System -> Advanced -> Startup/Shutdown Behavior and uncheck "Autorestart on error" or whatever it is called. If I am correct you will then get a blue screen dump instead of a reboot, and may be able to tell from the error message which component is at fault.

Oops, edit, saw you did that.

 

[galbicake]

Yeah I did that.

It is a not a blue error because it does the proper shut down.

 

[SGtheArtist]

Well it appears as though you have covered most all the bases. I really cant think of anything that could be causing the problem.

How do you shut down? (Start button>Shutdown)? If so then try simply pressing the power button on the front of the PC. It maybe something with Windows rather than the Mobo or hardware.

 

[galbicake]

Yes I just do the Start and Shut Down mode.

Power button would just make it shut down incorrectly if it is in a running mode wouldn't it?

Anyways, I just got a another HD to backup my files. Once I do this, I may just wipe it clean and reformat and reinstall...

 

[SGtheArtist]

Actually pressing the power button on a desktop sends WinXP in to a "quick" shutdown kind of like a forced shutdown which is not the same process executed when going Start>Shutdown.

In addition this will not harm or damage the PC.

 

[galbicake]

I have an APC UPS connected to the computer.

Do you think this might be the culprit?

 

[SGtheArtist]

My experience with UPS is that it simply supplies power and may have a USB or serial communication with the Windows OS so that it can execute an automatic shutdown incase power is lost.

I doubt this would cause the PC to restart....unless there is a "Start on power", "Wake on power" (etc.) in the mobo BIOS and the UPS is not supplying power and then when power is back the PC boots.

Say maybe the outlet where the ups is plugged in is a "light switch" switched power outlet and the light switch is OFF this means the UPS is powering the PC until the battery is drained. When you turn on the light switch it would power the UPS & it would supply power to the PC at which point the mobo BIOS would "Wake on Power" & boot.

This however would not happen if the UPS has software & communication with Windows. In addition this situation would result in short up time and random PC shut downs.

 

[galbicake]

The outlet is not affiliated with the electrical power.

My UPS would actually beep if the power was cut off.

I will try and up the BIOS I guess...

 

[SGtheArtist]

Outlet not affiliated with electrical power??

I'm thinking you ment the light switch has no affiliation with electical power of the outlet.

Good luck.