Why does my computer restart immediately after I shut it down?

Question

After I shut down my computer it automatically starts up again. I've tried re-installing Windows 7 64-bit, resetting my BIOS, installing the newest drivers and also changing the boot and recovery settings.

The motherboard I have is a MSI P67A-GD65 (B3), and the processor is a Intel Core i7-2600K.

How can I shut down my computer and have it stay off? Also, what is causing it to immediately boot back up?

Solution 1

Have you ensured that the "Restore on AC Powerloss" state is not set to "Power on"?
Change it to "Power Off".

If that doesn't fix it, unplug the wires going to the case buttons/LEDs; perhaps they are shorting out somewhere. (I've been in that boat before.)

Solution 2

I have the same motherboard and similar CPU (Core i7 2600, not the K version) and the same issue. The computer does not stay shutdown; it boots itself back up regardless of what I tried.

The only way to keep it shutdown is to flip the switch on the back of the PSU. Even then many times it immediately boots itself back up when I flip the switch back to on. I've disabled Wake-on-LAN (WoL) settings and everything that has been suggested here as well. I even tried with no Internet connection at all, AND even tried with a brand new PSU (the first one was new, but I thought it was faulty). Nothing solved the issue. I've learned to just live with it, and I have to flip the switch on the PSU after shutdown.

After reading about this specific board online in many threads similar to this, with virtually the same problem, I am thinking that this model of MSI motherboard is just poorly made and prone to this issue. I will never buy an MSI motherboard again, nothing else we can do.

I am also studying for A+ and went through my entire textbook about what could be the issue, tried everything, to no avail. Sometimes you just get a lemon...

Buyers beware, stay far away from the MSI P67 series motherboards.

I just wanted to add also that there are no other issues with the board, other than its failure to stay shutdown. It runs fine, and I've been using it for over a year now, doing intense gaming, streaming on Twitch.tv, benchmarks, editing, etc., with no issues. All the benchmark scores seem to be in line with similar systems, so as far as performance there is no effect from the "turns itself back on" issue.

Solution 3

Perhaps LAN data traffic is waking up and restarting your computer. I encountered this issue once and had to disable Wake up on LAN event in customer's motherboard BIOS. Perhaps this option is enabled by default, so resetting the BIOS did nothing to solve the issue.

In your specific case, you should enter UEFI BIOS and go to Settings -> Advanced. Next go to Wake Up Event Setup. Inside you should find an option that will allow you to disable wake up event on LAN. Restart Windows, shut down the computer and see if it works.

Of course, if your computer is not connected to any network, than this is not causing computer restart. Let us know if it worked for you.

Comments

[Youri]

Thanks for the responses so far! I have tried all the things you suggested (AC Powerloss on off, wake up events on disabledc, stop devices from waking up your computer, unplugging al the USB devices and unplug the case buttons/LEDS) but it won't work and my computer keeps starting up again. Any more suggestions I can try?

[Nikola Malešević]

I cannot comment directly to your question, so I'll leave the comment here. Perhaps this answer on another topic might help you: superuser.com/a/44695/58145

[Synetech]

> First Boot after that was lengthy because Windows 7 was finding/fixing numerous problems What probably happened was that you installed some of the cards in different slots than they were originally installed in, so when you booted, Windows detected “new” hardware and (re-)installed drivers for the cards in the new slots. The same thing happens each time that you plug a flash-drive into a USB port that it has never been in before.