Technical > Computer Hardware Help > Computer Not Turning Off

Computer Not Turning Off

First impression leads me to suspect a fault with your MoBo.
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reply to jmatherly4219
could be a grounding problem.
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reply to jmatherly4219
There might be two separate issues.

With the computer restarting after giving it AC power, this could be as simple as a BIOS setting for what to do after power loss. Check if it's set for "last state" or "turn on". The setting you probably want is "stay off". When you turn it off at the power supply, the computer interprets this as a power loss situation.

With the problem of not being able to shut down all the way, this is sometimes driver-related but I suspect not, since a hard shut down with the button still has it restarting. Things it might be...

Power button. For eg, I've seen some HPs that develop problems where the outer button puts too much pressure at rest on the actual button behind. To test this, remove the front panel and press the little button directly.

Motherboard, as mentioned. I don't know why it happens but can look for obvious things like bulging/leaky capacitors.

Power supply. Do you have a spare to test with?
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reply to jmatherly4219
I have had this problem before and just kept shutting it down hard with the power button because I couldn't figure it out. After a week or two of this happening, I ended up with a "win/config/sys file is bad or corrupt" error that prevented me from even booting into Windows. I ended up having to pull the drive and do a manual restore point from my other machine (it was actually easier and faster than messing with restore disks). After I did the restore, the problem went away. I have no idea why, but obviously it appeared to be a Windows issue and was apparently trying to tell me something.

Anyway, my point is you may want to do a system restore to a version from a week or two ago or whenever you are certain you were not having this problem. Go far enough back that you get past when you were having the problem, but no so far that you may have to redo a bunch of your desktop settings that have changed in that time.

This is just a personal experience, I am not a Windows expert. This suggestion is something that is relatively quick and painless to try to see if it will fix your problem.

reply to jmatherly4219
Ive checked the bios settings and everything is fine. Physically I can't hold down the power button to shut it down it won't let me do that anymore, holding the button down on the computer only resets it, to even turn it off i have to turn off the switch on the back of the power supply, as soon as i turn the switch on (on the back of the power supply) the computer automatically turns on. Windows never says that it was shut down incorrectly or goes into the hard drive to check for errors, it just boots up. Ive also checked there are not any wires touching the mobo or any screws loose that have fallen out of the mobo. I think the mobo is about to go...

Motherbaord is a ASUS M2N68-AM PLUS, i've checked if this was a known issue with this board. Also, my board's BIOS is flashed with the latest version.

reply to jmatherly4219
Contact Asus Technical Support and explain the problem to them. The issue is almost certainly with the motherboard, but could also be with the PSU (hard to say, but I'm inclined to think motherboard). Holding down the power button for 3+ seconds should, per ATX specification, should result in the power being shut off. Contacting Asus is your only choice of action here, aside from replacing motherboard + PSU and seeing if the issue goes away.
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reply to jmatherly4219
I had a problem with an XP machine a few years back. Ended up being the Nero software I had hanging up and not allowing the computer to shut down.

IIRC, I figured it out by running the mcconfig utility, disabling everything in start up and finding out the computer shut down normally. From that point, I had to enable half the things, reboot and see if it hung up. Process of elimination, it turned out to be Nero.

Moral of the story is you may have a piece of software causing your issue, not hardware. Disable everything in startup and see if it shuts down. If it does, you've got a software issue. If not, then you may still have a software issue but it could be hardware as well.

Politely: please re-read what the OP has said. A software issue could explain why Windows 7 "doesn't shut down + power off completely", but a software issue *DOES NOT* explain why holding down the power button for 3 seconds results in the machine not powering off. Quote:

Why not eliminate the switch as a possible problem?
Disconnect the power switch 2-pin connector from the mobo, then shut down the computer from Windows and see if it reboots or not.

reply to jmatherly4219
As of today Jan. 28th the problem is corrected. PSU was the issue, replaced with a new one and shuts down now. Thanks for everyone's advice.