Vista - Vista Latop restarts after powerdown...I've tried everything!

Hey all. I got this problem about a month and a half ago that's been driving me insane. I'm usually able to fix pc problems or at least isolate the source pretty easily, but this one has had me on edge for too long now.

Specs: Asus G1S gaming laptop, 3gb ram, running windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, AMI bios

Useful background info: I lost internet service for a bit and left my computer in hibernate or sleep mode for about 10 or so days. Once I turned it back on, I suffered an unprotected power surge. The values on BIOS were reset (date and time were lost) but I'm not sure if it was a result of the power surge or the extended sleep.

PROBLEM: Laptop restarts/reboots after I shut it down. Everything powers down as it is supposed to and all the lights shut off, but within 3-5 second it starts up again. This ONLY occurs with AC power plugged in. When it is on battery alone, it shuts down fine (though sometimes I have failed boots from sleep mode when on battery alone). Also, sometimes the laptop will turn on after I plug in the AC with no prompt from myself.

Attempted Solutions:

1. BIOS Config - I tried checking my bios for any possible Wake-On LAN but this did not fix the problem and neither did I've also tried flashing the BIOS with a new version, but that did not work either. I've tried a more advanced method by getting a ROM of the bios file and checking it out with AMIBCP (proprietary program for AMI bios configuration) and I have found no hidden options that would cause a wake on AC power.

2. OS config - I turned off the restart after crash option in Windows. I've messed around with Power Management settings (but not yet specifically with specific devices). I've checked the event viewer and have found nothing reminiscent of BSODs though a couple or errors and warning spring up.

3. External Hardware - I tried another power supply with a lower voltage and problem was not fixed.

So I'm kind of at my wit's end with this. I saw one more possible solution today (checking out what exactly is causing my computer to wake, though the issue seems clearly to be AC/power related). I will also try reinstalling Vista (which I really did not want to do) or installing Windows 7 Beta to see if a fresh OS will fix things.

Any ideas on how I might fix this problem, or at least find out more about what the issue is? Anyway to test a motherboard to see if the power surged messed it up permanently? Sigh, this is quite annoying. I'll try and report back later and see if the fresh OS install cures things.

Usually A/C power surges don't make it through a laptop's external A/C power
supply. Your symptoms sound like the surge did in this case. I would suspect
that the laptop has internal damage. Without the schematics, and a knowledge
of what external stuff was connected to the laptop at the time of the surge,
I'd be wild A@# guessing.



"myDingling" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:3201ee29ab09d4b8de24762737998cd5@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

myDingling wrote:You said you looked at the power options. Are the "on battery" and "on
ac" options the same?

Does it react the same if the power cord is connected even it not
plugged in? If it starts up by just plugging in the AC power, I
wouldn't think it was a Vista problem. I don't suppose you have another
ac power adapter you could try?

Clark

If OP checks
Event Viewer,
Windows Logs
System
and looks for Source of 'Power-Troubleshooter' he may find the reason for
the startup.

Michael


"Clark" <no-spam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O9L32CLeJHA.2132@xxxxxx

Thanks you all for the responsed.

So I installed Windows 7 hoping this might have remedied the problem and...it didnt! So it's likely not an OS issue and has to do with the hardware/bios.

To Clark: I have not tried plugging in AC that's not plugged into outlet, but I will try that tonight. Also, I did try another power adpater, and I got the same issues.

To Michael: I will look up the event viewer log tonight and report back what I find.


At this point I've resolved to work around the issue. Making sure I unplug when I shutdown, etc. It's annoying but because everything else works fine, I feel kind of petty for trying to fix this. At least my Xbox 360 and HDTV didn't eat it as well with the power surge...

One thing that I have found on my laptop (it is XP not Vista).
In general things work better for me if I do not change configuration AFTER
I have shutdown to sleep or hibernate. That is shutting down, then
unplugging from the AC, then turning back on with the AC still unplugged
sometimes has undesired results. The same with removing wireless card or USB
GPS unit. Everything seems to work much better if I turn it back on with the
same power/hardware configuration that I shut it down with.

Michael


"myDingling" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:9dd2f17134e694a2f7f497432e873b95@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Clark wrote:If another power supply does the same thing, I would be concerned it
might be a motherboard or bios problem. You might check the bios and
reset it to the defaults (reflashing may not have reset to defaults) and
possibly even using whatever mode your system might have to clear the
bios. You might also try taking the battery out just to see what
happens when you plug in the power..

You might want to go to a hardware forum for help, Asus probably has one.

Clark

On Jan 20, 2:04*pm, myDingling <gu...@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:Your post does not suggest a surge existed. That conclusion was
wild speculation and contradicted by details in your post. If a surge
existed, then you also are listing other now damaged appliances.

Those many actions performed with no reason for doing so may have
exponentially complicated the problem. 'Try this and try that' is
wild speculation (shotgunning) that typically creates even more
problems.

Stop trying to fix thing. First get facts. For example, a first
fact is information from the event (system) logs and Device Manager.
Well, instead, you destroyed any useful information by loading Windows
7 - when that was a least likely solution. But again, this is why
shotgunning only makes solutions difficult.

Fortunately, you did not reload perfectly good BIOS. But then you
had zero reasons to suspect a BIOS problem. Again, fixing things that
were not even broken. In this case, reloading the BIOS might have
permanently destroyed hardware.

Swapping a power supply would do nothing. It is a laptop. Any a
power supply problem causes it to automatically switch to batteries.
But again, what was battery power level?

Better computer manufacturers provide comprehensive computer
diagnostics so that a problem is broken down into parts. Analyze those
parts one at a time. Comprehensive diagnostics execute with no
Windows. See how it is done? Testing hardware without Windows breaks
a problem into parts.

Worse, you loaded Windows in a machine with unknown hardware. Now
you may have a defective Windows installation in addition to a
hardware defect. If so, the problem is further complicated.

Does that laptop come with comprehensive diagnostics? If not, it
better have cost significantly less money. If not, download
diagnostics for each relevant component and execute them one at a
time. List of suspects is actually shorter.

Let's go back to your original problem. BIOS setting changed. So
what was the battery state and what is the CMOS battery voltage?
Swapping a battery means the problem gets even more complex. With
CMOS battery still in place, measure its voltage with a multimeter.
Again, before fixing anything, first know what is and is not
defective. Post those numbers so that the better informed can suggest
further facts - no more 'it could be this or could be that' wild
speculation. Those numbers report all kinds of facts you never even
realized.

How much labor have you performed? Well, how long is the list of
things you know are definitively good? Still zero items? IOW you
still have accomplished zero. Just another reason why shotgunning and
wild speculation leave you confused. We don't even know the CMOS
battery voltage.

A critical unknown fact. Did you sleep it or hibernate it for 10
days. What was the battery state (power levels) when you rebooted?
Important facts probably now completely lost since you reloaded
Windows. Relevance not explained assumiing you know the difference
between sleep and hibernate.

Go back from the beginning. Above are some basic facts you should
already have such as Device manager, event logs, battery power level,
and comprehensive hardware diagnostic reports. Are BIOS settings for
hardware wakeup still turned off? Are you sleeping the machine or
hibernating it?

I dual booted windows 7 so the vista logs are not lost. I sleeped it and not hibernated when it was down for the 10days i originally posted about. I wouldn't know where to begin finding out the CMOS battery voltage, any help with that would be appreciated.

Other things I've noticed: If I hold down the power button and do a hard power off, even if AC is plugged in, it will not power back on. Not sure what that means exactly, but I'm sure it's important...

On Jan 22, 12:30*am, myDingling <gu...@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:If you sleeped it, then it was running on batteries for maybe ten
day. Then had to reboot itself to save those batteries. Sleep is for
a power down only for today. If the power down is more than a day,
then hibernate or shutdown - not sleep.

In sleep mode, the computer is still (partially) powered and
running.