Does anyone for the love of god know why whenever I restart my PC it either:

1. Shuts down completely (all power including the fans etc. Then restarts

or

2. Shutsdown but never restarts

I've tried figuring this out and even bought a new PSU because I thought it might be that, turns out it does the same exact thing as the last one. I ran a full diagnostic on the HD, reformatted it, ran a check on the RAM, unplugged everything and put it back together. Stillt he same result....

I'm at a total loss here, don't PSU's normally just reset without shurring all the way down? How would they recieve the ON signal if everything were powered down? This makes no sense to me. Normally the restart option use to make a PC reset but not power off!

I don't get it, and then I had this error awhile ago but only a particular port, it was "A Disk Read Error Occurred. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" the problem was doing that brought me back to the same prompt.

So I'm like ok, fine, I tried changing the SATA cable and no effect, same error. Then I changed the port and it seems fine for now. The thing is the DVD drive is on the port it was using and is fine, also it would work sometimes and seem ok.

But the weird thing is, this PC is new, the old PC did the same thing. It would not restart properly either. It powered completely down, then it MIGHT restart itself later. This was an entirely different mobo!

I'm just lost, this confuses me to no end. I can't afford anymore money on this so please any ideas? I reflashed the BIOS but even so it is still screwy.

Grrrrrr I don't think it's the mobo since the other mobo did the same thing, maybe the HD? But then it tested completely fine. It could be the RAM but I'm not even sure if PSU's power down like this now, maybe things change? Still the RAM tests fine!

There's nothing left to try!

When you shut down the computer or restart are you using a Software reboot for a restart or the actual power button.

Most systems are rigged to shutdown completely when the button is pressed for 5 seconds. Any drive errors have likely been caused by improper shutdowns and can easily be fixed by a Scandisk.

To be perfectly honest though this is probably the best you are going to get as an answer without information in regards to what system/motherboard you are currently using.

you should also try updating your drivers.

is the CPU getting hot? graphics card?
I have seen situations where a graphics card overheating would make a PC restart, and a CPU overheating would make it shut down.

to be more clear, is the thing just crashing? or is it when you try to restart that it does not come back?

It's not that hard to understand

Whenever I goto restart it via the windows vista restart button instead of restarting the PSU totally shuts down, then after a few seconds it MIGHT come back on, usually it just stays off though. I then need to use the power button to turn it back on.

This is crazy =P

The previous systems I've had never acted like this, they all would restart with the PSU still running, they didn't just shut it off. It has to be the shittest feeling, working this hard and accomplishing nothing

The previous systems I've had never acted like this, they all would restart with the PSU still running, they didn't just shut it off. It has to be the shittest feeling, working this hard and accomplishing nothing

Well it's difficult to make a suggestion, however for one I wouldn't let it get to you, after all the last time you did that you scrap a comp. I'm sure it's a problem that can be resolved eventually but it will require you to perceive. Unfortunately that is the price of the hardware learning curve.

The sort of things I'd look at and try to establish as to whether it's a factor would be:

Is the jumper used for a BIOS reset in the right location
Are you restarting or actually clicking into Standby [sleep] mode?
Could it be due to a power surge caused by the power down, so that there isn't enough power to restart? [Surge protection would be useful for a test]


Obviously it's not everything I would try but it's difficult to run a diagnostics on a system that you haven't got your paws on.

I just tore that PC apart trying to figure this out. So far I've no idea, maybe DVI based systems totally power off? I don't know.

I mean I unplugged every damn thing, it makes no difference. As soon as I restart it either completely powers down, then magically waits for an on signal?! and restarts, or it just stays shutdown.

How the hell can this be?!! I tried resetting without the HD, still same problem, I mean this really makes no sense!

I took the RAM out, tried doing different configs with it, but hell is RAM in charge of the shutdown sequence? It's all the same RAM anyway so I've no idea, but damned if this thing doesn't completely shutoff on restart and wait for an on signal which is sometimes will receive or not. It's completely lunytunes.

Does anyone for the love of god know why whenever I restart my PC it either:

1. Shuts down completely (all power including the fans etc. Then restarts

or

2. Shutsdown but never restarts

I've tried figuring this out and even bought a new PSU because I thought it might be that, turns out it does the same exact thing as the last one. I ran a full diagnostic on the HD, reformatted it, ran a check on the RAM, unplugged everything and put it back together. Stillt he same result....

I'm at a total loss here, don't PSU's normally just reset without shurring all the way down? How would they recieve the ON signal if everything were powered down? This makes no sense to me. Normally the restart option use to make a PC reset but not power off!

I don't get it, and then I had this error awhile ago but only a particular port, it was "A Disk Read Error Occurred. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" the problem was doing that brought me back to the same prompt.

So I'm like ok, fine, I tried changing the SATA cable and no effect, same error. Then I changed the port and it seems fine for now. The thing is the DVD drive is on the port it was using and is fine, also it would work sometimes and seem ok.

But the weird thing is, this PC is new, the old PC did the same thing. It would not restart properly either. It powered completely down, then it MIGHT restart itself later. This was an entirely different mobo!

I'm just lost, this confuses me to no end. I can't afford anymore money on this so please any ideas? I reflashed the BIOS but even so it is still screwy.

Grrrrrr I don't think it's the mobo since the other mobo did the same thing, maybe the HD? But then it tested completely fine. It could be the RAM but I'm not even sure if PSU's power down like this now, maybe things change? Still the RAM tests fine!

There's nothing left to try!
You have to reset your motherboard jumpers. What kind of mobo do you have?
Your disk read error is a result of your hard drive configuration in your Bios. There is some security feature that might need to be shut off in Bios.

What are the specs on your PC?
PSU
Mobo
Processor
RAM
Hard Drive - Is your hard drive working properly?
Any drives or cards

Well if your old PC did the same thing then I'd look at a hard drive problem (or by extension a Windows setting problem) or possibly bad BIOS settings. Did you reformat the primary hard drive with Windows on it?

1) Run scandisk on the primary HD and look for any power saving or reboot settings in the BIOS and play around with them.

2) Check the power options in the Windows control panel.

3) Make sure all drivers are up to date and update the BIOS firmware (be careful with this doing it wrong isn't good).