Windows 7 issues with shutting down and NIC
Have a PC that I built 2-3 years ago. Before I installed Windows 7 I ran the compatibility checker and it reported absolutely no problems. Wiped XP and did a clean install of Windows 7 Pro. Absolutely no issues during the install. Checked Device manager after the install and every device was correctly identified by Windows. Loaded up AV program and took Windows updates. No issues. reboot several times without issue. No problems putting it on the home network or accessing the Internet.
My kid got done with it at the end of the day and went to shut it down by clicking on shutdown button. Screen goes black and PC noises seem to abate somewhat, but fans and lights stay on. Eventually he pressed and held power button and it shut completely down. Appears to go into sleep, but that is just my take based on the visuals I see.
Next day tried to power back up. Lights come on, fans and HD spin up, but never posts and nothing on screen. Did some basic troubleshooting and reset CMOS; still nothing. Finally started unplugging cables from the back and after pulling all the external peripherals except for USB keyboard, PC will now post and will go into Windows. Rebooted into BIOS and reset settings to proper values and plugged in all external devices and PC still boots and goes to Windows 7 just fine.
Still will not shut down properly. Rechecked power settings in Windows and they are OK. But now the NIC (built-in) is not working properly. NIC is enabled, but will not pull IP from router. Reset network devices; still nothing. Attempted to assign IP address statically, works, but while doing this Network windows seems slow to process info. And after static IP is entered, still no connectivity. Network center is reporting an unidentified network.
Went to Motherboard site to look for updated drivers for chip-set and NIC, but according to the web site, Windows 7 has what I need and there are no new drivers.
At this point, NIC does not get usable IP so can't connect to anything and shutdown is an issue/ Any thoughts?
My kid got done with it at the end of the day and went to shut it down by clicking on shutdown button. Screen goes black and PC noises seem to abate somewhat, but fans and lights stay on. Eventually he pressed and held power button and it shut completely down. Appears to go into sleep, but that is just my take based on the visuals I see.
Next day tried to power back up. Lights come on, fans and HD spin up, but never posts and nothing on screen. Did some basic troubleshooting and reset CMOS; still nothing. Finally started unplugging cables from the back and after pulling all the external peripherals except for USB keyboard, PC will now post and will go into Windows. Rebooted into BIOS and reset settings to proper values and plugged in all external devices and PC still boots and goes to Windows 7 just fine.
Still will not shut down properly. Rechecked power settings in Windows and they are OK. But now the NIC (built-in) is not working properly. NIC is enabled, but will not pull IP from router. Reset network devices; still nothing. Attempted to assign IP address statically, works, but while doing this Network windows seems slow to process info. And after static IP is entered, still no connectivity. Network center is reporting an unidentified network.
Went to Motherboard site to look for updated drivers for chip-set and NIC, but according to the web site, Windows 7 has what I need and there are no new drivers.
At this point, NIC does not get usable IP so can't connect to anything and shutdown is an issue/ Any thoughts?
Dk_guru
have you checked for any physical damage on the MOBO: popped caps, burnt marks, run a ram consistency tester and make sure you have the latest BIOS version. Check your system temps (is it AMD or INTEL based?)
ASKER
Mobo looks OK.
Did not do RAM check, but since I was able to get things back up again, in general, doubt that it's RAM. However, will run memtest against it tonight.
Do not have latest BIOS, but new BIOS fixes do not seem to have anything to do with the issues I have. Still, something to look at doing it nothing else solves issues. And doesn't explain why NIC worked initially.
CPU is Core2 Duo and I did check temps and they are all OK.
Did not do RAM check, but since I was able to get things back up again, in general, doubt that it's RAM. However, will run memtest against it tonight.
Do not have latest BIOS, but new BIOS fixes do not seem to have anything to do with the issues I have. Still, something to look at doing it nothing else solves issues. And doesn't explain why NIC worked initially.
CPU is Core2 Duo and I did check temps and they are all OK.
can you check what your kid did on the system?? any new apps installed, or perhaps use the System Restore function to roll-back the system to a day before he used it.
i get into the habit of creating a manual restore point once I get a system build done, fully patched, driver up to date and defragged, but before i load all the apps on.
also on the NIC front, i would disable the IPv6 option, also remove the device from device manager, and then restart and allow the OS to re-detect. might be worth pursuing the latest NIC chipset drivers from the manufacturer, same for any motherboard drivers/apps.
i get into the habit of creating a manual restore point once I get a system build done, fully patched, driver up to date and defragged, but before i load all the apps on.
also on the NIC front, i would disable the IPv6 option, also remove the device from device manager, and then restart and allow the OS to re-detect. might be worth pursuing the latest NIC chipset drivers from the manufacturer, same for any motherboard drivers/apps.
ASKER
As far as I know all he did was install some game from CD, but I'll check.
I did disable IPV6. I'll try removing and letting Windows re-find. I'm also thinking about seeing if they have Vista drivers for the built-in stuff and trying those.
I did disable IPV6. I'll try removing and letting Windows re-find. I'm also thinking about seeing if they have Vista drivers for the built-in stuff and trying those.
vista drivers will work at a push, but to get maximum performance, use the native and latest Win 7 drivers for your OS (32bit or 64bit)
you could also use this command to 'reset' the NIC:
netsh int ip reset c:\ reset.log
you could also use this command to 'reset' the NIC:
netsh int ip reset c:\ reset.log
ASKER
I'm starting to think P/S. Tonight fired up PC and it did the same thing as yesterday. So I shut it down and remove external connections like I did yesterday and this time it didn't work. So I shut down PC, removed all cables, opened box, reseated RAM and vide card and checked P/S connections. Put it all back together, installed cables, flipped "breaker" on P/S and turned it on and it fired right up. I got into Windows and NIC was functioning normally. I shut it down and it went completely down. But when I turned it on again, the problem returned. So since it seemed like a power issue, I reached around and turned off breaker. Turned it back on and when I powered it back up, it came right back up. I attempted to shut it down again and once again it did not shut down properly. So I flipped breaker off and on and pressed power button and it fired right up. Currently I'm running memtest, which is not showing any errors.
Tomorrow I'm going to borrow a known working P/S and see if that fixes it.
Tomorrow I'm going to borrow a known working P/S and see if that fixes it.
could be a PSU issue, you would need to find out the load of your system in Watts, and then check your PSU power ability, or it could be a duff 5V or 12V connection.
you can use Ultimate Boot CD to create a bootable diagnostics suite to test your whole system.
you can use Ultimate Boot CD to create a bootable diagnostics suite to test your whole system.
ASKER
Well no joy replacing PSU. PC is giving exact same symptoms. UBCD also really didn't tell me anything. Ran memtest; everything there seems fine.
Our "fix" for this s to shut down Windows and when the screen goes off, to hit the PSU breaker or hold the power button in until it goes off and then hit the PSU breaker. It seems that completely removing power from the system allows it to boot up and run correctly.
Does that sound like anything specific? I'm going to go over the motherboard again and look for problems with Caps.
Our "fix" for this s to shut down Windows and when the screen goes off, to hit the PSU breaker or hold the power button in until it goes off and then hit the PSU breaker. It seems that completely removing power from the system allows it to boot up and run correctly.
Does that sound like anything specific? I'm going to go over the motherboard again and look for problems with Caps.
seems to me that breaker is basically cutting all power to the board, so on a cold start, everything is fine until you do a warm restart. i think the issue might be related to the on-board NIC. i had a similar issue with an older system a while back, and the only way to resolve, was to fit a cheap PCI gigabit Ethernet card and disable the on-board unit.
could also be a sign that the board might be on it way out, is it a Gigabyte board by any chance??? have you tried checking for updated BIOS and chipset drivers?? do you have RAM in all the slots??
i know by default when you install Win 7 manually on some systems, the use the inbuilt MS driver for the drive controllers, where you should be using the latest Intel Storage Matrix or AMD SB Chipset SATA Controller driver - which also boosts your HDD score for WIndows Experience, as i found out recently (i went from 5.7 to 7.1).
could also be a sign that the board might be on it way out, is it a Gigabyte board by any chance??? have you tried checking for updated BIOS and chipset drivers?? do you have RAM in all the slots??
i know by default when you install Win 7 manually on some systems, the use the inbuilt MS driver for the drive controllers, where you should be using the latest Intel Storage Matrix or AMD SB Chipset SATA Controller driver - which also boosts your HDD score for WIndows Experience, as i found out recently (i went from 5.7 to 7.1).
ASKER
I'm starting to think the NIC might be an issue, will test it tonight. It is a Gigabyte board. I have checked on their site and the ONLY driver for Windows 7 is one for the onboard sound card and I have upgraded to that. I thought about trying to install the drivers that came on the mobo CD, but it balked since I was running Windows 7.
I do not have the latest BIOS, so that's a possibility. No, I do not have RAM in all slots. The board has 4 slots and I have RAM in two of them
I do not have the latest BIOS, so that's a possibility. No, I do not have RAM in all slots. The board has 4 slots and I have RAM in two of them
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ASKER
I'll test the NIC tonight and we do use the on-board sound card. The video is a separate card.
ASKER
Yep, it was the NIC. As soon as I disabled it, the PC started shutting down and powering up properly. All I can think of is that something in the driver is amiss and that causes the NIC to go down in some weird state which holds while power is still supplied until I hit the breaker on the PSU. You would think that either the Windows driver would work or that Gigabyte would have an updated driver. Oh well, at least it's fixed.
its usually better to get the driver from the chipset manufacturer's site, as theirs is usually the most up to date, after several months, some motherboard suppliers don't update their driver files often, unless a serious issue is found and fixed.