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Why doesn't my PC restart properly?

I am a technical support specialist at HP. one of our customer's has an HP pavilion PC. The OS is Win XP Home edition and there was some problem with internet connectivity and HP and Charter troubleshot the problem and now, he is able to connect to the internet.

After this issue has been resolved, the PC stopped shutting down and restarting when the corresponding option was chosen at the turn off options. changed all the power options to none. did a chkdsk /r command and after the restart, the PC started to shutdown, but this time it would not restart when that option is chosen.so, half the problem has been solved. now to solve the other half ( the PC does not restart when that option is chosen )

I need your assistance. I was going through several technical ports and got almost no steps to solve the problem. found out from Microsoft knowledge article 831431 that ccApp, the startup item for Nortan, may cause the issue and disabling that might solve. not very confident that this will work. solution to the problem will be awaited for. thanks from HP.


Dave's Answer:

[Well, it's nice to know that even professional tech support people turn to Ask Dave Taylor when they're stumped! Rather than guess, though, I simply asked PC expert Jim Boyce, for some help on this one, and here's his response...]

Windows not shutting down or not restarting could be tied to several factors. For example, the presence of Roxio Easy CD Creator or Direct CD can cause this problem. Installing the updated version of the driver for Easy CD Creator from roxio.com can fix this problem.

See the Microsoft knowledge base article q311806 for more details.

Another possible cause is that Windows XP was installed with the wrong power management hardware abstraction layer (HAL). Verify that power management is enabled in the BIOS. Open the Power Options applet from the Control Panel, click the APM tab, and turn on Enable Advanced Power Management support. If you don't see this option, the system is likely configured with the ACPI HAL and your problem lies elsewhere.

You can also reinstall Windows XP and manually select the ACPI HAL during installation to overcome potential power management issues with hardware (such as video cards) that does not support APM.

Here is a Microsoft link with more information: q810903.

That'll be $249.00 for the incident resolution.


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Categorized: Windows PC Help   (Article 4260, Written by )
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Reader Comments To Date: 38

Joel Pearson said, on November 7, 2005 12:45 AM:

I don't think that the second response to the question is a possibility. Ie. Bios APM problem. Because that only affects shutting down, not restarting.
Which is what the question is about, not a shutdown only problem per se.
The 2nd linked microsoft acticle, is titled:
"It is Now Safe to Turn Off Your Computer" error message when you try to shut down your computer.
Just reading the title alone pretty much says it doesn't apply to this problem.

Unless of course the guy asking the question forgot to tell you that he was seeing that "It's now safe to turn off your computer" error.

However getting them to reinstall windows will probably fix the problem anyway, hehe.
But possibly not the best solution...

Fred Fisher said, on November 15, 2005 2:33 PM:

Hello

Since you have found the Microsoft article concerning Norton & it seems to fit the discription of your problem. I would suggest 1st you uninstall Norton Anti Virus & or Security Suite, then delete any files or folders you find on your disk(s) named Norton of Symantec & reinstall it. CCApp is a function or Norton AV & I have not found a way to stop this for diagnostic purposes. Norton sometimes seems to go corrupt after a time on some machines so CCApp could be causing this problem. A reinstall should fix it if it is Norton.


SlappyDaClown ( Fred Fisher )

darran said, on November 24, 2005 2:02 PM:

when i try to reboot my computer it shuts down ok but then it doesn't restart of its own accord .i have to do it manually .
any help would be great.

John said, on December 8, 2005 7:43 AM:

Hi,

I have a similar problem to Darran. I have a PC with 3 OSs (viz. MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000 Server and MS WIndows 98), each installed on a different partition. Now, my PC shuts down fine from any of the OSs. But, when I try to restart, the shutdown procedure starts, I see the "Windows is shutting down screen" and then my screen display freezes. The strange thing is that the power LEDs on the CPU go off, but there is a display on the screen. I cannot restart the computer now using the Power On button on the CPU. The only way is to cut the power to the CPU, or to use the 'Reset' button on the CPU. This problem occurs on all the 3 OSs. Can you help me resolve this issue??

Thanks and regards,

John

Bob Lowenhaupt said, on December 15, 2005 10:08 PM:

Dave,
I've had the same problem for a while.I do not have roxio on my pc so reloading xp worked up until the last microsoft updates for xp2.
When you mentioned power management and the fix wasn't there for me I remembered a recommendation from hp. This just worked for me and it was in power management.I switched the power scheme setting from energy star to home/office desk. Thank you very much for jogging my memory.It restarts like it should. It also shuts down normally.
yours
bob

Erik Scanlan said, on March 2, 2006 1:14 AM:

I am having a problem with trying to restart my computers. I have (2) computers that are both at CO-LO's and accessed remotely. They both have problems off and on with the restart feature. Sometimes when I choose to restart them they dont restart and sometimes they do. Then I have to call a guy at the co-lo and waste his time to have him go push the power button. It is quite frustrating. They are both fresh installs and brand new computers running XP Pro. Any ideas guys? I mean this really sucks and im about ready to just go to windows 2000 since it seems to handle simple tasks like restarting properly when asked too.

Patrick Giroux said, on July 5, 2006 10:40 AM:

after updating Zone Alarm Pro, my computer will not restart. Help please......

james said, on October 10, 2006 4:21 PM:

I HAVE A GATEWAY SELECT PC RUNNING AMD 850 MHZ.I DID A FRESH INSTALL OF WIN2000 PRO AND ALL WAS WELL TILL I TRIED TO RESTART SYSTEM. WOULD GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS BUT NOT START UP. I HAVE TO TURN IT OFF AND BACK ON, UNINSTALLED 2000 AND PUT 98SE IN STILL WONT RESTART.

sujit menon said, on February 6, 2007 12:32 AM:

Hi,

I have recently upgraded my PC to 280Ghz Intel processor with Sata Drive and 2 CD ROM accessories on the motherboard. I tried to use the CD ROM drive by inserting a CD and viewing the contents. but immediately the PC got restarted and the computer has shutdown.

When I start the PC, the monitor display doenot show any contents and the PC makes a small beep and regular intervals.

Please help...

romeo said, on March 7, 2007 1:01 PM:

i have one pocket pc hp ipaq h1900 but i can't arrive to find somme programs i want a many programs

help please

Teresa said, on March 9, 2007 8:42 AM:

I have an HP desktop computer- with a new hard drive installed about a month ago... All of a sudden i can turn it on! when i try to turn on the computer the operating system dosen't start at all. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated! Thanks

rose said, on April 5, 2007 7:00 AM:

i have a problem of my pc when i try to work in the night , it's stop alone. but when i try to push any key it's start. what is the problem can you help me to solved ?

thank you.
rose

vochuoi said, on May 9, 2007 12:21 AM:

Hi everybody,
can you help me, my problems is: i don't shutdown my computer, when i turn off computer, then it restart now.i must shutdown by hand.

RickMccluskey said, on August 3, 2007 2:48 PM:

a web site took over my home page .I can change back to yahoo but if i reboot or restart this porn site comes back on as my home page

Rick McCluskey said, on August 6, 2007 7:16 PM:

A web site has taken over my home page. I can set it to yahoo or whatever and when I restart the computer or shut it down , when it comes back on this website opens up as my home page please someone hep me

Rajan said, on November 17, 2007 9:17 PM:

Hi,

I am not able to reinstal Easy Media Creator 8. After going thru 90% of the first CD it asks for the second and if I insert the second one (Content), it stiill asks for the disk.

Please help

Rajan

Albert said, on November 24, 2007 6:47 PM:

Iam having a problem with my Windows XP Home Edition.It started to shut down while playing games and trying to download stuff.It would shut down and would come up the blue screen saying the pc shut down to protect it something like that and i would have to turn it off then restart it and sometimes it restarts and restarts so i have to let it rest while off then it restarts to my desktop.Any Ideas?

shay said, on December 6, 2007 10:24 PM:

Hi, Dave i was wondering if you could help me with a few problems 1 of them occur a few times in the comments on this page but the response you gave the HP tech was no relevance to my problems so i was wondering if you could help.

1) i built my pc from scratch and installed Linux OS to begin with and had a restarting problem so thinking that it might be the OS i installed my XP disk but i still had the same problem.

To describe whats happening is the power button works fine so that's ok, but once i install something it asked for me to reboot but once i reboot i have the same affect that i would get if i pressed the reset button the (POST) screen just hangs for example it will reboot alright but then it takes 10 seconds to show my hard drive then another 10 seconds to show my DED drive then it will show the windows loading bar but the loading bar is moving very slow.

that's my first problem hope that's enough information i dunno if i was very descriptive.

2) My second problem is that i have a very noisy computer. I checked to see what was making the noise has i have 3 fans 1 standard on the power supply, one on the CPU and one that's connected to my case (with a blue LED). To check to see what was making the noise i found that if i unplugged the fan on my case (with the LED)the noise would stop all together but on the safe side i told my BIOS to cut system off if it reached to 75'C so it loaded up fine but soon has i started a game the computer shut off immediately so if its the quality of my fan could you recommend the best priced fan.
Oh also if i take the side panel off the systems noise drops a lot but it still makes annoying load fan noise.

so i dunno if these are separate problems or there might be a link but i really would like some help on this one because I'm absolutely baffled on this one lol because if checked the BIOS updated everything and had no look at all

regards Shay

ps - i think these two problems i have might be a great help to others also because i have read many sites with people needing help on these but no ones answering them or have no idea :D

chandrakant said, on April 3, 2008 5:20 PM:

how to solve the pc restart problem then working in windows 200 professtional

Mo said, on June 10, 2008 3:24 AM:

Hii i have a Windows xp professional

I have problems with CCapp.exe its preventen me from Shutting down the pc.an error message appears and is loading to close the pc down with an option saying End now. what can i do?Also do one of you people know what this is svchost.exe?
I know that i may have viruses or spyware on my pc if this may help you

Thank you

Samuel said, on July 24, 2008 7:10 AM:

Hi, I use windows XP professional.

I did an intallation of this windows and it worked perfectly. However, my pc displays blue stop error screen. I do restart using the safe mode and all the other options but the problem still repeating.

Can you please help me find a solution to this?

Thanks

Sam said, on November 9, 2008 3:43 AM:

Well sadly I just can't figure this out, I basically rebuilt my PC again and it's doing the exact same thing as last time. When I select restart it shutsdown but then never restarts. I've tried everything, changing mobo, running tests, etc. It passes all except it has this freakin issue that sux. It's about time to save and buy a dell. I can't believe how much I've wasted on this, and to top it off it seems like the bios is screwy because I got an error on SATA PORT 1 that said "An read error has occured press ctrl alt del" bla bla but the thing works on any other port I use. I feel miserable.

Keith Leitch said, on December 2, 2008 2:49 AM:

I have an XP-based computer that won't restart unless I intervene manually. The intervention is in the form of pressing F8 to load the boot menu. However, all I have to do then is to select "Start Windows Normally", and it completes the startup process just fine. Unfortunately, it is an HTPC, and it is critical that I set it to reboot automatically on a daily basis...which, at the moment, I cannot!

Joe W said, on December 2, 2008 11:04 PM:

So any ideas on how to fi this??anyone?Ive scoured the web and all I can find is people not being able to shut down,instead of people not being aable to restart without having to manually intervene.My laptop doesnt have an APM tab on the power options screen either.im stuck!!

Joe W said, on December 2, 2008 11:42 PM:

Yay I just fixxed this so thought id post it on here.I tried all the boot file editing stuff that is posted elsewhere (no links,sorry)and one of that worked.After fiddling around the last two things I did were:
1)Control panel>power options>power schemes and changed the power scheme to portable/laptop.
2)Disconnected my external hard drive.
I think the hard dive might have been the main issue coz i plugged it back in and sure enough,the laptop wouldn't restart,but i'd do the power options thing as well.
Oh and go have a banana.They're yummy :D

Keith Leitch said, on December 5, 2008 2:14 PM:

Joe, I don't undertand your solution. Are you saying that setting a desktop to a laptop scheme solved your restarting issue? I am desperate to solve this today (and I still need to pack for my 5-week trip).

Saifullah said, on December 18, 2008 7:05 AM:

Any body need to fast restart your computer or shutdown it happend in 2sec .any body need so
mail me i sent you.

thurein said, on April 28, 2009 2:31 AM:

hi,
i have a problem. That is when i start the PC , it is not boot and show memory error signal song. when i insert the new memory stick,also show memory error signal songs.what is this problem? What should i do?

eugene said, on June 3, 2009 4:40 AM:

why my computer is restarting manually

Patty said, on July 8, 2009 3:08 PM:

I did a win xp security update and then my systems kept licking upon...so I had to reboot then the same thing happened. This happened several times, then I restarted in safe mode with dos prompt. I was running a scan when our power went out. I then tried to reboot again and now it gets to the win xp logo screen, then restart again on its own! When I tried to do a win xp restore nothing happened, but it did take me to dos prompt....so what can I do to fix it? Did my processor or HD die or crash? Thanks for your immediate reply.

Marc said, on August 25, 2009 8:32 PM:

What do you do when your hp support script doesn't have the answer???!??! ask the webs.

Joey said, on September 3, 2009 7:07 AM:

Hello,

I've had this problem with my computer for a very long time now and decided i'd google it to see if i got any answers.

The Problem,
My computer boots perfectly fine, but when I try to restart my computer, it'll get up to the point where it scans if the HDD's are connected etc. It'll stay at this screen for a couple of mins. It wont still boot

Ken said, on October 6, 2009 5:03 PM:

Thank You. My problem was- Computer would shut down correctly when selected and would come back fine when I hit the power button. But if I selected Restart from the menu, or reboot when promted as in after an update, the computer would shut all the way down to a black screen and then lock up with the hard drive light on. Would have to hold the button to kill it and again to boot up. Changed power setting from Energy Star to Home Office and problem went away. Thanks again.

ANN said, on December 23, 2009 8:40 PM:

Sir.. I had an infected virus in the coomputer.. and i went to add and remove programs to delete the programm.but from there it was not working.so i tried to run the computer from Run Command. iT was A:/ prompt.. where i changed THE BOOT ORDER c:/ OF HARD DISK.. now when i restarted the computer nothing showed up in the screen.. its blank.. nothing...

hasitha said, on April 15, 2010 1:16 AM:

Hello,
sir, I had a problam with my computer.

I have a computer Dualcore 2.8GHZ Foxconn Motherboard with Intel processor. I have installed windows xp professional edition. but I'm going to shutdown or restart the computer it won,t restart or shutdown in the blue screen, system get the message windows is shutting down but it not shutdown or restart, in this time keyboard and mouse get stuck and never restart or shutdown. yestarday I format the full partisions of the machine. but the problam not solved. Can you please help me immediately find a solution to this?

Thanx

soukatali said, on December 3, 2010 12:15 AM:

why doesn't my computer resarts windows7 x 32 os

Sidney1 said, on March 13, 2012 11:31 PM:

PC+will+not+start+up
My computer was running normally several days ago but on entering my office one morning, I found it shut down. After several attempts at rebooting, I finally got the blue light to come on the start switch and the start sequence began normally. Every thing appeared normal but after about 20 minutes I heard a "thump" sound and the computer instantaneously shut down. I was able to get it to reboot one more time but susequent attempts didn't even light up the start switch blue light.
My PC is a HP Pavilion p6620f with Windows 7, 64-bit OS.
I sent for a new start switch and installed it successfully, got it to start and run approximately 20 minutes again, then "thump" and I can no longer reboot. The blue start-up light does not even come on when depressed.
Does anyone have an idea what my problem may be?
jamitzelfelt@hotmail.com

P.K.Mani Kandan said, on October 31, 2012 2:40 AM:

Hai Dave sir
my working pc is not resart but shutdown.
i chk the smps,cmos batteary,
than reinstall os(win xp)

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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