Question PC not turning off so have to reseat RAM to have a fresh start up

[ExoticIsabel]

OMEN PC Specs:
AMD Ryzen 7
2x16GB RAM
2TB SSD
RTX 3080
800w PSU
Dracaena liquid cooler

Endless issues with this PC - had a new cooling system as had a broken fan. The PC no longer powers down after performing a proper shutdown, Fans are turning, lights are flashing, but nothing on the monitors. I have to pull the kettle lead to kill it. If I leave it like that overnight I can then put the power lead back in and press the power button on the case and it will start up normally. But if I put the lead back in too soon the fans fire back up and the lights come back on as if I never pulled the cable.

When this happens, I have to reseat the RAM and I can then turn it on with the power button on the case.

A long press of the power button also does nothing and doesn't shut the PC down.

Could it be the RAM (or one of the sticks)? Could it be the motherboard? Any advice would be greatly appreciated please, thank you!

 

[hedwar2011]

First and foremost, check and make sure that your power button assignment hasn't been changed to do nothing. Info on doing that can be found HERE. Yes, its for Windows 10 but the process is the same for 10 and 11.

Second, the way you describe it makes it sound like something is hanging on for dear life when you do a full shutdown. Have you tried rebooting into Safe Mode and seeing if that has any effect? What about doing a clean boot?

Was the cooling system from factory or something added later on?

 

[Misgar]

If your computer "no longer powers down after performing a proper shutdown" , that hardly constitutes proper shutdown, as indicated by continuing fan and light activity.

Try disabling Windows Fast Startup. I keep it disabled on all my machines. It messes up booting from multiple drives.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

When Windows shuts down, Fast Startup saves the state of the OS to the hibernation file. This is designed to make the computer start up faster when it is switched back on, by pulling the saved state out of hiberfi.sys. If something is interfering with the save operation, the system may hang at shutdown.

On my older (slower) computers, during shutdown with Fast Shutdown disabled. the hard disk activity light flashes for up to 10 seconds after the monitor goes dark. This is quite normal. Your system just continues to run after the monitor goes dark, indicating Windows hasn't finished saving all data to disk.

If all else fails, try a fresh install of Windows on a spare drive.

 

[ExoticIsabel]

First and foremost, check and make sure that your power button assignment hasn't been changed to do nothing. Info on doing that can be found HERE. Yes, its for Windows 10 but the process is the same for 10 and 11.

Second, the way you describe it makes it sound like something is hanging on for dear life when you do a full shutdown. Have you tried rebooting into Safe Mode and seeing if that has any effect? What about doing a clean boot?

Was the cooling system from factory or something added later on?

The power button is assigned to Sleep - not sure if you can change what the long press does? Will that always do a forced shut down?

So the liquid cooling system is new as the custom HP one failed within 14 months of having the PC from brand new. The repair shop said they can't get a like for like so went with the next best thing.

I tried safe mode and 3 times I tried shutdown it restarted instead until on the 4th attempt it shutdown. But it seems to occasionally shutdown ok when it's not been on for long. It's once I've been working on it for a couple of hours or more it seems to stay stuck in power on mode!

 

[ExoticIsabel]

If your computer "no longer powers down after performing a proper shutdown" , that hardly constitutes proper shutdown, as indicated by continuing fan and light activity.

Try disabling Windows Fast Startup. I keep it disabled on all my machines. It messes up booting from multiple drives.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

When Windows shuts down, Fast Startup saves the state of the OS to the hibernation file. This is designed to make the computer start up faster when it is switched back on, by pulling the saved state out of hiberfi.sys. If something is interfering with the save operation, the system may hang at shutdown.

On my older (slower) computers, during shutdown with Fast Shutdown disabled. the hard disk activity light flashes for up to 10 seconds after the monitor goes dark. This is quite normal. Your system just continues to run after the monitor goes dark, indicating Windows hasn't finished saving all data to disk.

If all else fails, try a fresh install of Windows on a spare drive.

What I meant by proper shutdown is closing all apps, and not taking any shortcuts, not in a technical sense. I'll give disabling Fast Startup a go

 

[hedwar2011]

The power button is assigned to Sleep - not sure if you can change what the long press does? Will that always do a forced shut down?

You should be able to change it to Power Off. That way when you press and hold it for like 4-6 seconds it will power the computer completely off.

As for Safe Mode, try going into MSConfig and set it to Clean boot and see what effect that has.

 

[ExoticIsabel]

You should be able to change it to Power Off. That way when you press and hold it for like 4-6 seconds it will power the computer completely off.

As for Safe Mode, try going into MSConfig and set it to Clean boot and see what effect that has.

Well, I don't know what happened along the way... I've waited a few days to make sure it's not a coincidence, but it seems that since booting up in Safe Mode (that's literally it, no settings changed, nothing) she seems to now be shutting down OK and running as fast as when I first bought her. Really strange - can simply booting in Safe Mode fix anything? Anyway, I will keep a close eye on her and if this problem rears its head again I will try your suggestion of Clean Boot. But thank you so much for taking the time to help with what appears to have been a really bizarre problem 👍

 

[hedwar2011]

Well, I don't know what happened along the way... I've waited a few days to make sure it's not a coincidence, but it seems that since booting up in Safe Mode (that's literally it, no settings changed, nothing) she seems to now be shutting down OK and running as fast as when I first bought her. Really strange - can simply booting in Safe Mode fix anything? Anyway, I will keep a close eye on her and if this problem rears its head again I will try your suggestion of Clean Boot. But thank you so much for taking the time to help with what appears to have been a really bizarre problem 👍

It can considering it forces the bare minimum to load. I've seen it do things like that before. If you're comfortable with it, go ahead and mark it resolved or solved so that it won't take precedence over other issues and if the issue returns you can always come back to it but hopefully it's taken care of now.