Computer Keeps Restarting

Hi,

My daughter's computer will not shut down. It shuts down for a short while and then, like a ghost or something, starts itself up again. This started happening, perhaps unrelated to, after I installed the latest Windows Updates in the wee hours of the morning here.

I had some trouble with the shutdown and had a thread going here:

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=14010&highlight=chameleon

Since then, though, it has been behaving itself very well. I noticed the one site someone pointed to from the old thread and I unchecked the "restart in case of system failure" just in case. This seemed to work for one shutdown only.

Antivirus right up to date, full system scan, all that stuff. Computer is running perfectly except for this unexpected glitch, just when I have to get it back to her tonight or tomorrow.

Anybody else having this problem after the latest 2 critical updates or any idea whatis happening to me here?

Thanx in advance,
Randy

Sorry for the quickie post but I'm off to work now. I'll be back here when I get home.

 

Could be that This is happening.

 

Thanx Newt!

So I go into my BIOS and look for "wake" events. (couldn't find anything about WOL)

I get to a screen for "Power Management Features "

On the bottom of the screen, you can "Set Wakeup Events "

I enter that area and disable "USB Device Poweron ", "Keyboard Poweron ", #Wakeup on PME# ", & "Wakeup on Ring" (basically anything that was enabled)

Come to think of it, the LAN cable has not been attached to this machine since I upgraded/reloaded all the MSI board goodies. I also had it apart enough for it not to boot once because of a hardware change it felt was dangerous. This board has always been weird that way and so you have to clear the board via a jumper to boot and then reset whatever you can. I was primarily concerned with CPU/RAM frequencies and so thought nothing of this "Wakeup Events" area. It was when the cable went back on that this started happening.

It has now shut down successfully twice.

I'm off to the store right now. When I get back, I will re-enable these items & do some experimenting. I will enable them and shut down without the LAN connected. Then, I will connect the LAN and see which one is the culprit. I would imagine maybe the PME# or USB device???? Beats me.

I'll post back with the final results and then I'll really want to know what gives or what gave.

Thanx again,
I'll post back later

Randy

 

Wake on PME#......that's the culprit!

Anybody want to tell me what this thing is and why it caused what it did?

Also, while we're at it, I inadvertantly may have changed the setting to something by tapping the + key before scrolling down. IPCA function: Yes or NO to this. It has something to do with whether the OS supports it or whatever. Please?????

Thanx so VERY much for the prompt and courteous help this forum has always been a source of.

Randy

EDIT
P.S. (many hours later)

I have found everything I need about PME on a Google search.

I can't find an answer to the ICPA setting.

 

Glad you got it figured out.

You are probably now the forum expert for 'wake on' matters though. I just generally knew there were some events that could take a perfectly good shut down system and start it running again.

 

Welcome back, Newt!

No...by no means an expert. I just looked into it and kind of knew that I was looking for something that "wakes" the other computer. I don't know if it's this one, which is the other one on the LAN via my hub, or the little one itself. Truly, though, I think that some research into this whole area would keep one quite fascinated.

Okay, so YES or NO to IPCA in my BIOS settings and do you have any good links that provide an understanding of what it is?????

So......in most cases it's called BIOS. In this particular case it ought to have been called CHAOS.

Wow! I assure you that it is quite creepy indeed when a PC behaves this way. If one were to go for the shutdown and it appeared to restart instead, as this one sometimes did, that's one thing. However, when you're in the other room for a minute or so later and you hear it turn on, that's quite another. It really makes you scratch your head.

Live & learn I guess.

Randy