machine goes into HARD sleep and won't re-start

My new computer will not restart after a power off. I shut down windows2KPro & leave the power cord in & the power switch ON on the case. When I go to restart by pressing the on/off switch on the front case, there is NO action. I have turn the power switch on the back of the case 'off', and remove the power cord from the case & leave it about 1 hour. The replugging will let it work. As it's hard off now I can't include any of the power settings. I'd like to be able to leave it on for some days, & re-boot W2K occasionally as I do on this current amchine.

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Hi pilotgal8,

First thing I would try is changing the battery.

"NO action "....there are no lights flash, even the fans won't spin?
Maybe a loose connection somewhere (or a problem in the power supply??).

Works fine when it's going, no restarts?

Matt

 

Whent he machine goes into a hard 'sleep' there is a red glow on the front of the system case, so ther is power to the machines. I managed to establish a network with it after waiting 48 hrs for it to 'cool' down. Then when I turned it on it worked for 5 days.

I now return from work to see the pfaint blue glow, meaning it's on & powered up. not asleep. I can access it form the network, but the monitor is black, so the video is somehow 'sleeping'.


Even when I had the origianl problem, I would power off the machine on the front case & the case would 'glow' indicatin ghtere was still ambiant power to the case & lights on the MOBO, but no action to actually start the machine.

Sure would appreciate some help here please.

 

Some things i think of are that the power management settings are not working properly. Try changing Power Management settings in Windows and in the BIOS settings.

There could be problems with video drivers.

If someone else can't spot the problem you should consider returning it (I take it you bought it as a unit) and ask for it to be fixed under warranty. (Other possibilities...it may need a BIOS upgrade or your motherboard and video may not be compatible).

Matt

 

Are you actually running thru the start button, shutdown? Some systems have a sleep feature when you press the power button once, and turn off it you keep holding it in, I believe.

 

Thanks for your suggestions, BUT power options are set to HOME/office scheme Monitor off = 20 min hardisk off = never syst standby = never power button = power off sleep button = standby hibernate = not enabled NO ups hooked up. I have no SLEEP button on the keyboard so no idea what will happen.

When I have turned the computer off by doing a windows shutdown, the computer turns off, no sound of spinning disk, but a faint red 'glow' shows there is still power to the case.

It is from this mode that I can not get it to 'wake-up'.

I push the power 'on' button on the front of the case & no action. If I toggle the power off on the back of the case to 'off' & remove the power cable & leave it for awhile, then there are no lights on the case. If I re-connect the power cable & turn the power switch ON on the back of the machine I get NO action.

I have to leave it unplugged from the wall for > 24 hrs to get it to turn back on.

I have run the complete test suite on PCPITSTOP.com as advised by the tech support rep & NOTHING is alerted.


Any help would be appreciated.

 

Could the power button on the front of the case be getting "jammed "? Watch it carefully when you use it. Does it feel right?

This happened to mine and caused strange problems.

Matt

 

Credit again to mattman - You certainly could have a bad momentary contact switch. You can disconnect the switches two headers from the motherboard and plug the reset switch headers onto the power switch pins. Then try powering on/off with your reset button (also a momentary contact switch). You can also use a ***** driver to bridge the power switch pins on the MoBo with no switch attached. While its rare for these switches to go bad, it does happen.



edit: ***** rhymes with shrew

 

Rockster, only because I seem to get every problem imaginable !



Matt

 

Hi Pilotgal8.

The power supply contains capacitors that retain power after the unit is unplugged. Having to unplug the power supply for a length time is to allow these capacitors to discharge. This is releasing the condition that won't allow the power supply to operate properly. This could be caused by a number of things.

The power supply may be bad. Try another power supply. No need to mount it in the case or remove the one there, just unplug the one there and hook up the other one. There are ground pins on all the plugs that will ground the power supply chassis.

The motherboard may be bad.

There may be settings in the BIOS for what action to take when the computer is shut down. Check your BIOS under the power settings to see if there is anything there controlling this.

There may be a short. The most common problem here is the screws that hold the motherboard to the backplane shorts out either under the ***** head or, if you're using metal posts under the motherboard, the top of the metal posts may be shorting the power out.

When you turn your computer off it does not turn off the power supply. The power supply is always on on ATX systems. The off-on power switch isn't connected to the house power. It's connected through the motherboard to a relay in the power supply. If there is a short on the motherboard mounting it may be rendering the on-off relay in the power supply useless. Even with the main house plug removed the capacitors will still power it for a time. Removing the main house power plug allows the capacitors to drain, releasing the relay, allowing the computer to start normally.

I would also disconnect everything you can(except the motherboard), power wise, floppy, hard disk, cd, anything with a power supply plug plugged in. Turn the computer on, wait a little and turn it off with the power switch (you might have to hold it in over 5 seconds). Then try turning it back on. If it won't work then look for the short on the motherboard. The computer doesn't have to boot up to check it this way, just power up.

You can verify the power switch on the front of the case is ok by plugging the reset switch into the power plug on the motherboard and using the reset switch instead of the power switch. That will eliminate the power switch as the cause.

Rockster2U mentioned that also.

Measure the voltage coming from the power supply. You might find the +5 or +12 fairly low. That would indicate a short.

If the faint red glow isn't an LED on the motherboard that's normal then it also indicates a short somewhere that's lighting up the front panel LED.

Hope this helps. Narrowing it down is the key.

Please post back.

Giles

The asterisks above replaced the word s c r e w automatically but didn't catch
s c r e w s. Neat-o. Good program.