GA-H97M-D3H shutdown only once on two attempts

[Salopet]

Hi all,
this is my first post sorry in advance for my poor english.

Here's my build:
GA-H97M-D3H (rev 1.1) f8b BIOS - Intel Pentium G3258 - Sapphire ATI HD6450 - 2x8GB G.Skill 1600mhz - HD 500GB - Corsair RMX550 PSU - OS: WinXP SP3.

I had no problems with this system until i have installed a "prehistoric" Itex ADSL PCI NIC card. With this device inserted, the computer only shutdown once on two attempts.

This is what happens when the system has booted normally:
1. when i click the shutdown button in Windows the computer turns off (fans and fan lights stop running) but after 3 or 4 seconds it boots up;
2. after that reboot, when i click the shutdown button in windows, it shutdown normally;
3. pushed the power button on the case > boot complete, when i try to shutdown, it boots up again;
4. on next reboot it shutdown correctly.

So 1st time pc reboots, 2nd time it shutdown, 3rd time it reboots, 4th it shutdown and this behaviour continues, reboots and shutdown alternatively. Really too strange, never heard about it before. The only way to shutdown all the time is by removing the pci card. But i need it

When inserted in another motherboard (GA-P31-DS3L) i solved by disabling "PME Event Wake Up" in the bios. Disabling same feature in my GA-H97M-D3H doesn't help. With another similar pci card (with a different chipset) the system shutdown correctly everytime but the adsl line disconnects hitself continuosly, so a problem also this time.

I tried almost everything: cmos cleared and new battery, bios reflashed, disabled/enabled all features in bios (WOL, resume by alarm, power on mouse and keyboard, ERP, Platform Power Management, AC back, cpu boost and so on), downgraded pci driver, tried on another pci slot, with others two different power supply, booted on safe, on win7, on linux live, changed "PowerdownAfterShutdown" value in the registry, same behaviour in all cases. In the advanced configuration of the pci device there aren't magic packets and Wake on Lan options to uncheck and removing the cable line from it doesn't help.

Any suggestion to solve a mistery?


P.S.: please no advice about using others network devices or about unsupported SO or a lot of ram when only about 3.5GB is recognized and similar opinions, thanks 

[shadowsports]

Gosh. Good work with all of the troubleshooting and testing thus far.  You hit on the most important areas.

BIOS settings
Device Properties
Power settings
Disconnecting eth cable
Testing in another PC
Testing with other PSU
Testing with different OS

All giving the same results.

Other items you might check

If overclocking the CPU, test with that disabled
 
Ensure Fast / Ultra Fast Boot are disabled

NetWork Stack > Disabled

ErP (enabled) should kill all possible "power Up" or "listening" devices from initiating system start.  And you've tried different drivers which would be the second place I'd look if I couldn't force the device to "stop".

Afraid that's all I have at the moment...  You may want to shop for alternatives or consider another way to deliver network connectivity and/or internet to the system.   

 

[Salopet]

Thank you for the reply Shadowsports. I appreciate your suggestions even if I had already tried them ...no way to solve 

After a month of trying, i can only think that the culprit is the bios, maybe the "main_bios/backup_bios" corrupted in my mobo or something like that.

[shadowsports]

Thank you for the reply Shadowsports. I appreciate your suggestions even if I had already tried them ...no way to solve 

After a month of trying, i can only think that the culprit is the bios, maybe the "main_bios/backup_bios" corrupted in my mobo or something like that.

If removing the card stops the behavior...  you have the cause.  I'd look at an alternative.

[Salopet]

If removing the card stops the behavior...  you have the cause.  I'd look at an alternative.

If depending by pci card only, the problem would be there all the time with reboots only and the system never shut off. On a cold boot, instead, reboots and shutdowns are not random but exactly in order just like that: reboot - shutdown - reboot - shutdown - reboot - shutdown ....strange behaviour, never seen an issue too precise.
I'm still thinking about something that occur during the POST pre-boot . 

As said above, the same pci device inserted on another motherboard works perfectly and the system shutdown correctly everytime by disabling a simple feature in the bios.

[shadowsports]

Since you are sitting in front of the machine, I trust that you would have the best understanding of the problem. Hope you can figure it out.

[Salopet]

Bought another mobo (Asus this time) and problem immediately disappeared by disabling "Wake On Lan" in the bios. Same procedure in my GA-H97M-D3H never worked. So the shutdown issue was only Gigabyte-mobo related ...bye bye Gigabyte.