Anybody know what might be causing this?

[polaris93]

Lately my computer has developed an odd syndrome: When I go to power it off, it goes all the way to just before actually turning off, but then it sits there, the little green "I'm working, dammit!" light above the power-on/off indicator, which is also the power button, occasionally flickering, and doesn't turn off until I hold down the power

Comments

[mauser]

How are you shutting it down? If you're using a keyboard key, could that be putting it in sleep mode, rather than powering it off?

[polaris93]

No. My platform is Windows XP, and to shut down the computer, I go to Start/Turn off computer/Turn off computer -- i.e., I click on the Start menu, then on the red Turn Off Computer button on the lower right of the menu, and then on the central red Turn Off Computer button on the panel that comes up. The panel has two other options: an orange Log Off button and a low-power mode. Lately I've been very careful to make sure that I only click on the Turn Off Computer buttons rather than any of the others (in case I had gotten careless before and accidentally hit the wrong button).

Before I restored my system, I had an even more curious problem a few times when turning off my computer: it would reboot rather than turning off. This happened even when I was extremely careful to do everything right to turn it off. Now, rather than rebooting, it goes into that zombie state of not on/not off, with the little green light occasionally flickering, but not either turning completely off or rebooting. And I have no idea what to do about it.

[brezhnev]

You might want to re-flash the BIOS on it. The manufacturer (of either the system or the motherboard) should have a copy on their download site.

As for the reboot business, I have that too. I just use a power strip to keep it off.

[polaris93]

I'll confer with my literary partner about how to do that -- he got his degree in electronic engineering, actually, and he does most of the work on his own computers and other electronics. I'll have him walk me through it, to avoid doing something permanent and expensive to my computer. Thanks. :-)