I'm trying to shut down my system like I've always done on all my Windows PC's - Right click windows logo at bottom right of screen then select 'Shut down' in the dialog menu. Also I get the same result via pressing the power button. The display shows the word 'Shutting Down with the little circle image going round and round momentarily, then the display goes dark. Monitor/TV then displays 'no signal'. But the CPU and case fans stay running, the drives stay active (including USB external drive), and the power LED stays illuminated. It won't wake via mouse, keyboard, power button etc. It will stay in this state indefinitely until I depress the power button for a few seconds forcing shutdown. It will then shut down. But upon restart it will sometimes remember, and automatically re-open the tabs/windows that were running before shutdown - like it had been in sleep or hibernate mode rather than been shutdown.
Things I've tried:
1 - Shutdown settings in 'Control Panel > Power Options > System settings > change settings that are currently unavailable: All 4 boxes beside 'Turn on fast startup (recommended)', 'Sleep', 'Hibernate' and 'Lock' are unchecked.
2 - Using command prompt > entered 'powercfg -h off'.
3 - In registry > merged command 'Default_not_require_Fast_Startup.reg'.
4 - In Power options > advanced settings:
*Turn off hard disk after 3600 minutes
*Sleep after = never
*Allow Hybrid sleep = Off
*Hibernate after = Never
*Allow wake timers = Disable
*Power button action = Shut down
*Sleep button action = Do nothing
*PCI Express > link state power management = Off
5 - In BIOS > advanced settings, Quick Start is disabled
This PC has been doing this every since I installed this new-to-me (bought from Ebay) motherboard. It makes no difference what the BIOS is set to (Load fail safe defaults, Load optimized defaults, etc). I've used 2 other SSD's and 1 other HDD with the same results.
System specs are:
Antec Atlas ATX case
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R mboard
Core2 Quad Extreme QX6850 CPU
Antec 550 watt PSU
Windows HM X64
Crucial 4GB DDR2
GeForce 8400 GS GPU
PNY CS900 2.5" SSD 480GB
WD Black Performance HDD 1TB
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What to do now?
Thanks for any help!