All,

I just built a new pc. Everything is working fine, EXCEPT, I have to pull the power cord out of the power supply for 5 - 10 seconds in order for the pc to turn on after shutting it down.
If you hit the reset button, it shuts off, but when it starts up again, it just hangs there...it won't boot, but it's on. Only when you pull the power cord for a few seconds with it start up correctly. I have tried 2 brand new power supplies, different manufacturers...same problem. Both are atx 300w...mb is atx also.
Any ideas???

Thanks,
SteveM

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

ATX power supplies are still trickling power into the machine even when it is turned off. It is not clear from you post what you are seeing that tells you it is not turned off, but I would guess if it isn't, it is probably due to a short. I would do a careful visual inspection of your install to make sure you don't have any obvious metal to metal touching in the wrong place. Pay particular attention to the screws/standoffs holding the motherboard in place. If you don't find the problem that way, I would try the board out of the case to see if the problem goes away. No matter what, I would be careful about booting until you find it since if it is a short, it could damage your system.

Good luck.....

Stevem,
Could you list out what you have for a system for us? And tell us how long you've had it built before the problem started? Things come to mind like a virus but it may be a problem with the mobo also among possible other things. There's also some older shutdown issues with Windows.

Bud,
Now that I know it's your little dog that's named Bud I'll look at him instead of the Bassett when I'm talkin' to you :) I assumed it was the other way round because I have a friend that had a hound mongrel that he had named Bud. Anyway, now that the names are straight... :rolleyes:

There should be NO power to the 12, 5 and 3.3 volt legs on a pc it is rather essentially off. The power on circuit (on mobo) is connected to a 'potentially' live line (positive and negative leads on PSU) waiting for something to short them together from the mobo (the power switch through mobo). So there is no current going through the board but an 'aware' circuit waiting for a signal. The only power available on the board when pc is off should be the onboard battery alone.

This is why I suspect something else and coupled to the fact that more than 1 PSU has been tried. Taking the mobo out of the case would be a good idea and looking online for a possible BIOS issue on the particular motherboard also.

Originally posted by stevem
If you hit the reset button, it shuts off

You may want to double-check all wiring attachments to the motherboard because that shoudn't happen.

All,

This is a new Case and power supply. I just swapped all the internals into this new case.
It's an older mb...an Abit KT7, running an AMD Athlon. The only thing different is the case, and the supply. (I have tried 3 new ps)

Now that I have installed XP (late lastnight) the system is resetting when selecting Windows "Restart". When I select "ShutDown", the system shuts down. When you press the power button, the computer turns on, everything is running, however it doesn't boot. Turn the power supply off, remove the plug, put it back, turn it on...it boots.

SteveM

I'd be checking the leads from your case Power and Reset buttons to the Motherboard header...

My eyes are good, but I use a magnifying glass when I'm attaching those little buggers...

I'd suggest taking a close look at the manual picture to verify correct placement.;)

I think it was Budfred and I who both had to move one of the wires in the case connector to match the pin position on the (ECS K7S5a) Motherboard header. Point being, as sled said, give those connections a close look over! :)

All,

Just one more bit of info...

THe motherboard is mounted on a series of "bumps"...little hills coming up from the motherboard try. However, the last vertical row of mounting holes has 3 spacers because the "hills" did not extend past the middle row of vertical screws.
I wonder if I where to place a plastic spacer somewhere on the board....
Don't have one though as none came with the case.

SteveM

You wouldn't want your "hills"...I think the technical term is "stand-offs" coming into contact with your board...especially if they are metal, at any point other than where the screws actually attach to the stand-offs.

You could be shorting your Motherboard to the case if you place stand-offs any other place.

I would try the motherboard outside of the case on a wooden table or nonconductive surface first to see if it is a possible short situation.

The newer cases usually come with extra stand-offs, or the placement holes or stand-off holds can be adjusted to match your boards mounting holes. You'd want to move the existing stand-offs to line up...they don't need to stay in the positions they shipped the case with.

Again, please tell us as much as possible about your equipment. What case are you using? Can you post a link to the case online so we can see what you are talking about with the "hills"? What motherboard are you using? That board that Whyzman is talking about comes with an incorrect manual, so you could have your connections wrong if you are following the manual. The more details you can give us, the more likely we can help you figure this out.

Whyzman

These are not standoffs.
This motherboard tray has six hills, each with a hole in the center of it, protruding up from the tray. These hills are actually molded into the tray...you can't remove them..they are the tray. (they are ONE WITH THE TRAY!)You screw standoffs into them. In this particular case, if you where to screw standoffs into them, the motherboard would be way too high for the backplate. These hills are postioned for a babyatx mb, which is why I had to insert 3 metal standoffs for the last column of holes on this atx motherboard. I've been building computers for over 15 years and this is the first time I've seen anything like this.
Anywaym, here's the link for this particular case only it's not going to help..
http://www.evercase.com. This is the 4252 case. If you go to this page and select "Products" then "ATX Middle Tower", then "ECE4252"

This system consists of a 2-3 year Abit KT7 mb running an Athlon 1200 cpu. Audigy, 10/100 nic, Geforce2 AGP card, Adaptec SCSI adapter. Yahmaha SCSI CDRW, generic DVD, Maxtor 20GB hd.
512 PC133. The only things that are new are the Evercase and the Evercase 300w ATX PS.

This morning, after reading the posted replies, I removed the 3 metal standoffs so that the motherboard was attached with six screws into the 6 hills protruding up from the motherboard tray. I then inserted a plastic standoff to make sure the board was shorted. I inspected the case and motherboard....inspected the case wires and headers according to the manual...everything is as it should be.


SteveM

All,

Here's link to a diagram of the tray.
the "red" dots would be the "hills" or raised mounting holes (as Intel calls them)
http://www.evercase.com/pdf.doc/E4252_D850MV_pass.doc


SteveM

I assuming you meant that you inspected to make sure the board ISN'T shorted?

Did you try the minimal boot outside the case? It still seems like it could be a short from the way you describe the problem and the case. I have seen cases with hills that take the standoff screws, but they don't elevate the board to high to fit in the space (but they have also be ATX cases).

Also, have you checked the motherboard's web site to make sure the manual is correct? I didn't find out the ECS K7S5A was not supposed to be accurate until I saw reference to getting the corrected one on the forum. It was very hard to figure out the right connections without the correct manual.

Budfred,

Yes, I pulled the manual off the web site.

No, I did not try the motherboard outside the case yet. Probably have to do that next....I mean if no one has seen this before than it MUST be isolated to this particular setup.

I know it's not the power supply because I tried 3 brand new supplies, each from a different manufacturer. 2 where 300s, the other was a 250w.
In my mind, either the board has a short or something is up between the connectors and the power switch.
Still, the only difference I can see is that the power connector is labled "DC ON" instead of the usual "Power ON".

SteveM

Sorry, I forgot about the power supplies that you already tried. While that may not be enough power for a some fully configured system, the minimal boot should have been fine with that.

I agree that the connectors or a short seem to be the most likely suspects, so we will see what happens with the boot out of the box....

Maybe someone with more experience with Abit boards can tell you if there is anything tricky about the power connectors for them.

How's this for reviving an old one?

Does anyone remember the resolution to this, or did it ever surface in another thread? I've been using a K7S5A for my son's computer, and it has always had this problem.

One issue that did appear not listed in the thread, is that it will occassionally reset the CPU clock speeds back to 100/100, when it needs to be 133/133 for the 2200+ I have in the system. I've replaced the BIOS battery (reset still occurs when power is removed), and the power supply.

For fun, memory has been swapped, as has the video card. (All over the course of the years), but that one issue has always remained.

Any help would be appreciated.

Yep, this goes back a ways... :)

I don't know that we ever cured the problem...if it was, we were not appraised of said...

I'm also trying to go back in my memory regarding the motherboard in question as I also did a build using one. I "seem" to remember having to alter the case wiring harness to match the motherboard pins on the power/reset/led/ header.

My suggestion would be to start there and make sure the appropriate connectors and pins are matched...