Compaq Presario shut down problem

[allout22]

My friend gave me his Presario saying the computer would
shut down anywhere
from a few seconds to a couple of hours after start up .
My first thought was the power supply was going bad . I
replaced with a known
working power supply and the same problem occured. At that time I
thought maybe
it was the O/S so I replaced the hard drive and again the same
problem .

At that point I thought the on /off button on the front of the
computer was bad .
So upon pressing the start button and letting the computer power up
( fan starts turning) I disconnected the on/off button connector from
the motherboard . The computer
now runs fine . In windows I can restart the computer or put it in
stand by mode with the
on/off switch disconnected from the m/b . The computer simply cannot be
powered all the way down without having to reconnect the on/off button
and going through the above
procedure to get it to boot again.

My thinking perhaps incorrect is the on/off button is not a
traditional switch in the
mechanical sense . Is there some electronic board ( m/b perhaps)
controlling the switch that is bad
and how difficult is it to replace .

I hope my friend can live with the computer in it's current set up
but I doubt it.

Your help is deeply appreciated

Mason

 

[Rod Speed]

My friend gave me his Presario saying the computer would shut down
anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of hours after start up .

My first thought was the power supply was going bad . I replaced
with a known working power supply and the same problem occured.
At that time I thought maybe it was the O/S so I replaced the hard
drive and again the same problem .

At that point I thought the on /off button
on the front of the computer was bad .

So upon pressing the start button and letting the computer power up
( fan starts turning) I disconnected the on/off button connector from
the motherboard . The computer now runs fine . In windows I can
restart the computer or put it in stand by mode with the on/off switch
disconnected from the m/b . The computer simply cannot be powered
all the way down without having to reconnect the on/off button

That is odd, it should shut down without the switch connected. Likely
the action of the switch hasnt been configured properly in the OS.

and going through the above procedure to get it to boot again.

My thinking perhaps incorrect is the on/off button
is not a traditional switch in the mechanical sense .

I havent noticed one that isnt on that sort of case.

Is there some electronic board ( m/b perhaps) controlling the switch that is
bad

Looks like its just badly configured so that you cant shutdown
completely without using the switch and a bad switch.

The action of the switch is specified in both the bios and
in the OS with most systems. It may have got installed
with the wrong ACPI setting too, that may be why you
cant shut down completely without using the switch.

and how difficult is it to replace .

Quite difficult to get one that will fit mechanically quite a bit of the time.

I hope my friend can live with the computer
in it's current set up but I doubt it.

Yeah, rather an awkward config.

It may well be possible to reconfigure the action of the switch
so it can be shut down completely without using the switch but
that isnt necessarily very useful if you want to run without a switch.

It should be possible to configure it to start on power on without using
the switch, but that might not be possible, depends on motherboard bios.

 

[Kenny]

If the switch is faulty one possible solution is to swap it over the wires
with the Reset switch which most people don't use anyway.

 

[allout22]

If the switch is faulty one possible solution is to swap it over the wires
with the Reset switch which most people don't use anyway.

Thanks for your responses the computer can be shut down without
the switch
being connected . I should have written that you have to reconnect
the switch
to the motherboard to boot the machine after a shutdown which is
cumbersome .

Does me clarifying the situation give anyone a better idea of what
the solution
might be ? I will look at the reset button and see how difficult
that is to
wire up .

Thanks Mason

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for your responses the computer can be shut down
without the switch being connected . I should have written
that you have to reconnect the switch to the motherboard
to boot the machine after a shutdown which is cumbersome .

Yeah, that makes much more sense.

Does me clarifying the situation give anyone
a better idea of what the solution might be ?

Yes, I'd use the reset switch if the main power switch
isnt easy to replace because you cant find one that is
mechanically suitable from a discarded case.

If the owner doesnt like the switch change, quite a few
systems can be configured to start on power being
applied to the power supply mains input, in the bios.

I will look at the reset button and see how difficult that is to wire up .

Its normally pretty easy to change them, but I forget what the Presarios
do with how they are wired to the motherboard header for the switches.

 

[Rod Speed]

Yeah, that makes much more sense.


Yes, I'd use the reset switch if the main power switch
isnt easy to replace because you cant find one that is
mechanically suitable from a discarded case.

If the owner doesnt like the switch change, quite a few
systems can be configured to start on power being
applied to the power supply mains input, in the bios.


Its normally pretty easy to change them, but I forget what the
Presarios do with how they are wired to the motherboard header for
the switches.

You could also use hibernate instead of shutdown. Thats quite a bit
quicker to start than a normal boot and you should be able to configure
the Presario to come out of hibernation from the keyboard or mouse.

Maybe that combined with swapping the switch with
the reset switch would provide a pretty decent result.

 

[kony]

My friend gave me his Presario saying the computer would
shut down

Not to be picky or anything, but "his Presario" tells us
very little about the specific hardware.