Question The PC That Refuses to Shutdown

[HoneydewDrop]

My computer will not turn off. I woke up to it like this in the morning, it's constantly restarting into BIOS by itself even after the power button is held down. It only finally stops after pulling the plug on it.

I've had this issue before and I'm able to remain in BIOS indefinitely, some of the parts are pretty old but I've always been able to circumvent the issue and get it to boot into Windows by opening it up and dusting it out--but to no avail this time. Furthermore, I'm noticing my SDD, the bootdrive, isn't showing up and instead has seemingly been replaced by my optical disc drive. With this in mind, I thought the SATA port was faulty (hoping it wasn't the SSD itself.) and tried hooking up to a different one, that didn't work either. There are also some wires knocking about but nothing I found touching other electronics. Regardless, I don't think they suddenly moved during my slumber.

As of now I'm at a loss on what to do next, mind you I'm not very tech literate. And accordingly I'd love some feedback on how to resolve this and pinpoint the problem so I can get it fixed.

Thanks!

 

[Nighthawk117]

It sounds like you might have something fairly fundamental wrong. Your boot order would typically only change if the drive has been disconnected or not detected. Could be an issue with the drive itself or the board, the latter being more likely.

As for the strange behaviour you speak of in regard to your PC not shutting down. I can only speak from my own experience, but in the past I've gone to shutdown in Windows and the PC would actually restart instead. I've also had issues where the PC would randomly turn itself on. In my case disabling Windows Fast Startup resolved the issue.

What SSD do you have, and do you have another SATA cable to hand. I've also found sporadically dodgy behaviour with a funny SATA cable.

 

[HoneydewDrop]

It sounds like you might have something fairly fundamental wrong. Your boot order would typically only change if the drive has been disconnected or not detected. Could be an issue with the drive itself or the board, the latter being more likely.

As for the strange behaviour you speak of in regard to your PC not shutting down. I can only speak from my own experience, but in the past I've gone to shutdown in Windows and the PC would actually restart instead. I've also had issues where the PC would randomly turn itself on. In my case disabling Windows Fast Startup resolved the issue.

What SSD do you have, and do you have another SATA cable to hand. I've also found sporadically dodgy behaviour with a funny SATA cable.

The one I have is called Kingston HyperX 120GB Serial ATA-600. I might have another SATA cable laying around, do you recommend I try changing it?

 

[Nighthawk117]

It probably won't be your issue but if you can I would try it to rule it out, as I say I did have an issue a little while ago with a drive and to my surprise found the SATA cable was the culprit.

 

[MangoYango]

Regarding your shutdown issue: locate the reset button header on your motherboard and remove it, then see if allows you to shut it down.

 

[Bob.B]

My computer will not turn off. I woke up to it like this in the morning, it's constantly restarting into BIOS by itself even after the power button is held down. It only finally stops after pulling the plug on it.

I've had this issue before and I'm able to remain in BIOS indefinitely, some of the parts are pretty old but I've always been able to circumvent the issue and get it to boot into Windows by opening it up and dusting it out--but to no avail this time. Furthermore, I'm noticing my SDD, the bootdrive, isn't showing up and instead has seemingly been replaced by my optical disc drive. With this in mind, I thought the SATA port was faulty (hoping it wasn't the SSD itself.) and tried hooking up to a different one, that didn't work either. There are also some wires knocking about but nothing I found touching other electronics. Regardless, I don't think they suddenly moved during my slumber.

As of now I'm at a loss on what to do next, mind you I'm not very tech literate. And accordingly I'd love some feedback on how to resolve this and pinpoint the problem so I can get it fixed.

Thanks!

Cheap test.
Power down and remove the bios bat.
Get the number off it an set it aside.
Go to the store and buy a new bat.
Install the new bat and power up.

 

[HoneydewDrop]

Cheap test.
Power down and remove the bios bat.
Get the number off it an set it aside.
Go to the store and buy a new bat.
Install the new bat and power up.

I will try that because it hasn't been changed in a couple of years. But would that explain my SSD not showing in BIOS anymore? Thanks, Bob

 

[Nighthawk117]

I will try that because it hasn't been changed in a couple of years. But would that explain my SSD not showing in BIOS anymore? Thanks, Bob

In my view no, that's a different issue.

 

[Bob.B]

I will try that because it hasn't been changed in a couple of years. But would that explain my SSD not showing in BIOS anymore? Thanks, Bob

I would not think so but...but...but.

 

[Truck Driver]

My computer will not turn off. I woke up to it like this in the morning, it's constantly restarting into BIOS by itself even after the power button is held down. It only finally stops after pulling the plug on it.

I've had this issue before and I'm able to remain in BIOS indefinitely, some of the parts are pretty old but I've always been able to circumvent the issue and get it to boot into Windows by opening it up and dusting it out--but to no avail this time. Furthermore, I'm noticing my SDD, the bootdrive, isn't showing up and instead has seemingly been replaced by my optical disc drive. With this in mind, I thought the SATA port was faulty (hoping it wasn't the SSD itself.) and tried hooking up to a different one, that didn't work either. There are also some wires knocking about but nothing I found touching other electronics. Regardless, I don't think they suddenly moved during my slumber.

As of now I'm at a loss on what to do next, mind you I'm not very tech literate. And accordingly I'd love some feedback on how to resolve this and pinpoint the problem so I can get it fixed.

Thanks!

Sounds like it's being powered by the Energizer Ghost bunny..

 

[HoneydewDrop]

I've changed the SATA cable. This has, somehow, stopped the issue of restarting. But, the SSD is still not showing up in BIOS and I can't get into Windows. Furthermore, I've noticed that one of the chasi fans is showing as red, it's turning slowly it seems. Help? 😭

 

[Nighthawk117]

I've changed the SATA cable. This has, somehow, stopped the issue of restarting. But, the SSD is still not showing up in BIOS and I can't get into Windows. Furthermore, I've noticed that one of the chasi fans is showing as red, it's turning slowly it seems. Help? 😭

For some reason its not detecting the SSD, how many SATA devices do you have plugged in?
Is the SATA connection lose in any way?
Are you using any PCI-E expansion cards?
Also what motherboard do you have?

 

[HoneydewDrop]

For some reason its not detecting the SSD, how many SATA devices do you have plugged in?
Is the SATA connection lose in any way?
Are you using any PCI-E expansion cards?
Also what motherboard do you have?

3 including the undetected SSD. No expansion cards. The ports seem firmly attached, I also tried a different port. One end of the SATA cable clicked nicely into the motherboard but I heard no click when going into the SSD, I'm unsure if it's supposed to--but it still went in fully without a hitch.

As for the motherboard, it's an ASUS Z97-P.

 

[Nighthawk117]

3 including the undetected SSD. No expansion cards. The ports seem firmly attached, I also tried a different port. One end of the SATA cable clicked nicely into the motherboard but I heard no click when going into the SSD, I'm unsure if it's supposed to--but it still went in fully without a hitch.

As for the motherboard, it's an ASUS Z97-P.

As long as its all the way in on the SSD then it should be fine. I know it sounds stupid, but as a troubleshooting step I would try unplugging the optical drive and plugging in the SSD in the exact same port, in fact you could simply take the end of the SATA cable plugged into the optical drive and plug it into the SSD. That would rule out any SATA cable problems as you know this one works. I did this on a Haswell system recently to troubleshoot a drive not showing up, in my case it turned out to be a board issue.

 

[HoneydewDrop]

As long as its all the way in on the SSD then it should be fine. I know it sounds stupid, but as a troubleshooting step I would try unplugging the optical drive and plugging in the SSD in the exact same port, in fact you could simply take the end of the SATA cable plugged into the optical drive and plug it into the SSD. That would rule out any SATA cable problems as you know this one works. I did this on a Haswell system recently to troubleshoot a drive not showing up, in my case it turned out to be a board issue.

Unfortunately, that didn't do the trick either. Expectedly, only the HDD shows up now. Do you think it could be the SSD itself or the board, is there any way to troubleshoot either?

 

[Nighthawk117]

Difficult to say at this point, the fact it doesn't work in the same port as your optical drive suggests to me the board is probably ok. There's not an issue with the SATA power connector to the SSD is there? Another thing to check would be the SATA configuration in the bios, is it set to AHCI? What version of Windows are you using?

 

[Bob.B]

Unfortunately, that didn't do the trick either. Expectedly, only the HDD shows up now. Do you think it could be the SSD itself or the board, is there any way to troubleshoot either?

Try this.
Unplug the data and power cable from the hdd.
Plug both of those into the ssd.
Power up.
Does the bios see the ssd?

 

[HoneydewDrop]

Try this.
Unplug the data and power cable from the hdd.
Plug both of those into the ssd.
Power up.
Does the bios see the ssd?

I just tried this along with having disconnected my CD drive, there is now no boot drive showing at all in BIOS. Does this rule out it being a power connector issue then? Since it was just working with the HDD?

 

[Nighthawk117]

I just tried this along with having disconnected my CD drive, there is now no boot drive showing at all in BIOS. Does this rule out it being a power connector issue then? Since it was just working with the HDD?

I would say so yes, I would check the SATA configuration.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Also do you have another system available to check the SSD?

 

[HoneydewDrop]

I would say so yes, I would check the SATA configuration.

It's definitely set to ACHI.
And I unfortunately do not have another system in which I could check the SSD

 

[Nighthawk117]

Is it Windows 10 you are using?

 

[HoneydewDrop]

Is it Windows 10 you are using?

Yes, sorry I accidentally omitted that in my reply

 

[Bob.B]

I just tried this along with having disconnected my CD drive, there is now no boot drive showing at all in BIOS. Does this rule out it being a power connector issue then? Since it was just working with the HDD?

What that says is the sata port on the mobo and the sata cable and the power cable that work fine on the hdd do not work with the ssd.

This is looking like a ssd problem.
You need another pc to test the ssd.
Maybe bring it to a service counter for testing if no other pc available.
Another option is to get a usb>sata cable and see what that shows.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Yes it is looking like an SSD problem sadly. I use one of these to connect 2.5" drives via USB:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B011M8YACM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So if you have a laptop you could try that to confirm if it's the SSD.