Shut down lockups; press power twice to boot

[Puddintane]

I hope someone here can help. I have a 4-year-old eMachine T6216 that I'm trying to extend the life of a bit longer. It almost always has, since it was new, had occasional trouble shutting down. After using the normal start button process, I'd often have hold down the power button to force it to shut down. A few months ago I started having constant BSODs that seem to be caused by a NV4_disp.dll file stuck in an infinite loop. And when this issue developed, it started having constant shut down/power up problems. I have to force it to shut off by holding the power button. When I try to power it back on, the fans run at high speed but it won't even post. I then have to force it off, and then the next time it will reboot (sometimes to another BSOD, and others actually to Windows). I couldn't figure out the NV4_disp problem, so I reinstalled Windows (XP Home SP3) via system restore and tried to install several newer and older versions of the Nvidia drivers. That didn't fix the problem either.

So I wiped XP and tried to install a release candidate of Win7 that I was using on another now-unused machine. That seems to work, but I'm still having the constant shut down/power up problems. The mobo has onboard Nvidia video (Geforce 6150LE). So I ordered a PCIe vid card to see if that would fix the BSOD problem. But the card is another Nvidia card, so I ordered an ATI card to try instead. It should be here tomorrow. Also, somewhere along the line while fiddling with the partitions, something in the system restore partition got screwed up, so I can't get the XP Home restore util to work. I'll probably end up using a version of XP Pro that I had on the defunct computer that was dual-booted with the Win7RC.

So before I even try installing the video card (since that might not be the main issue), here's the problem I'm hoping to get help with: every time I shut down using the start button, it will work correctly. But it always takes two tries to power up again (once without a post followed by a forced shut down, and then it will reboot on the second try). And also, whenever it tries to shut itself down, as when software installations try to restart to finish the installation, it always locks up on shut down. And then I have to go through the two-step power on process. I'm wondering whether it might be a power supply problem or maybe even a mobo on the fritz.

It's a stock computer except for some extra RAM. The pertinent specs are:
T6216 w/ Athlon™ 64 3200+ Processor
3MB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 6150LE onboard video

There is one curious thing that I never really paid attention to before. The first thing you see when it's booting is the version number of the Nvidia display BIOS. It says it's an engineering release not for production use. Maybe that explains it!

Sorry for the lengthy explanation, but more is usually better than less here. I hope someone can help. Thanks in advance.

[MaDef]

There is one curious thing that I never really paid attention to before. The first thing you see when it's booting is the version number of the Nvidia display BIOS. It says it's an engineering release not for production use. Maybe that explains it!

Thats probably due to it being proprietary hardware designed for gateway.

Also, somewhere along the line while fiddling with the partitions, something in the system restore partition got screwed up, so I can't get the XP Home restore util to work

are you getting an error message?

One of the first things you should probably do is, grab a copy of memtest86 and run it to test the memory. since part of the problem seems to be the video, and video shares the system memory. If the memory tests ok. you'll need to test the psu. Thats generally done one of 2 ways. Either swap it out with one you know is good (easiest), or use a multimeter while the system is on and under load. You should also run "chdsk /r" on your drive. and maybe the disk manufacturer's utilities to rule out a failing drive.

[Puddintane]

Originally Posted by MaDef

One of the first things you should probably do is, grab a copy of memtest86 and run it to test the memory. since part of the problem seems to be the video, and video shares the system memory. If the memory tests ok. you'll need to test the psu. Thats generally done one of 2 ways. Either swap it out with one you know is good (easiest), or use a multimeter while the system is on and under load. You should also run "chdsk /r" on your drive. and maybe the disk manufacturer's utilities to rule out a failing drive.

Two of the three didn't fix the problem. I put in a new psu and ran Memtest86 (v. 4) for eight hours with no errors. It still shuts down okay when using the start button method. But whenever I select restart, or when it tries to do it from within software or an install process, or even when exiting from the BIOS, it locks up on shut down. Then I have to force it to shut down by pressing and holding the power button. And the subsequent first attempt to power up goes nowhere--just high fan speed and no post followed by another forced shutdown, and then the power up works properly.

[MaDef]

Psu seems ok, memory seems ok.

Locking up when exiting the bios suggests an issue on the motherboard or in the bios itself. There is a bios update, along with driver updates on the emachine website
e-machine updates

[Puddintane]

Originally Posted by MaDef

Psu seems ok, memory seems ok.

Locking up when exiting the bios suggests an issue on the motherboard or in the bios itself. There is a bios update, along with driver updates on the emachine website
e-machine updates

I ran chkdsk/f/r too. No big errors there. I guess I'll try to flash the bios. It's destined for the recycler as it is. So it can't really get any worse.

[Puddintane]

Originally Posted by Puddintane

I guess I'll try to flash the bios. It's destined for the recycler as it is. So it can't really get any worse.

Well, I flashed it and got nothing. No post, nothing. I guess it's a goner now. Thanks for the suggestions, though. I appreciate it.

[MaDef]

Well, I flashed it and got nothing. No post, nothing. I guess it's a goner now.

Sorry to hear it, I'm assuming you followed the correct procedure for flashing your bios? I'm not sure if that e-machine has a bios recovery feature or not. However you can replace the motherboard for less than 50$ U.S.

[Puddintane]

Originally Posted by MaDef

Sorry to hear it, I'm assuming you followed the correct procedure for flashing your bios? I'm not sure if that e-machine has a bios recovery feature or not. However you can replace the motherboard for less than 50$ U.S.

I followed the instructions per the text file that accompanied the download: burned the image to a CD, booted to it, it ran through its processes--apparently okay, but on restart it was dead.