ECS K7S5A power down problem with LAN powerup enabled

Wierd... older ECS K7S5A (first version, Nov 2001 bios date) works just
perfect in every way on XP, with Athlon XP1800+. Hibernate and normal
shutdown both power down the box perfectly every time.

Now, we add a NIC card capapble of LAN power-on function, and enable
this feature in BIOS.

It works... now we can remotely power up this box from the network...
but NOW we discover that the POWER OFF function no longer works
reliably. Hibernate occurs as normal, but when it reaches the end of
the disk write in hibernate, and tries to flip off the power supply,
you hear the relay CLICK in the power supply, but it's like it gets
clicked twice or something else happens, as power remains on. This now
also happens when shutting down.

It will now VERY RARELY power down correctly; 99% of the time, it fails
by keeping power on, even though the relay very clearly clicks to power
down.

It does appear that enabling/disabling the LAN Power up function in the
bios is to blame; repeated testing of power down with it ON versus OFF
has proven beyond doubt that this one setting causes the problem.
Disabling the setting results in immediately curing the problem... in
fact in a string of 25 tests we cannot repeat the error, as long as the
function is disabled. Enable it, and the VERY NEXT TRY causes the
failure.

It really would be convenient to power up remotely, AND know that the
damned thing will power down correctly as well without having to
physically hit the back panel p/s switch.

I couldn't locate a reference to this exact problem in news archves;
lots of refs to other power mgmt issues regarding this board; I did try
disabling the APM setting in bios but to no avail.

ECS states that power up via LAN will NOT work using the onboard nic
hardware and that you must add a capable pci nic, which is why we're
using the SMC card, an EZ Card 10/100 SMC1211TX.

Ideas???

wrote:
> Wierd... older ECS K7S5A (first version, Nov 2001 bios date) works
just
> perfect in every way on XP, with Athlon XP1800+. Hibernate and
normal
> shutdown both power down the box perfectly every time.
>
> Now, we add a NIC card capapble of LAN power-on function, and enable
> this feature in BIOS.
>
> It works... now we can remotely power up this box from the network...
> but NOW we discover that the POWER OFF function no longer works
> reliably. Hibernate occurs as normal, but when it reaches the end of
> the disk write in hibernate, and tries to flip off the power supply,
> you hear the relay CLICK in the power supply, but it's like it gets
> clicked twice or something else happens, as power remains on. This
now
> also happens when shutting down.
>
> It will now VERY RARELY power down correctly; 99% of the time, it
fails
> by keeping power on, even though the relay very clearly clicks to
power
> down.
>
> It does appear that enabling/disabling the LAN Power up function in
the
> bios is to blame; repeated testing of power down with it ON versus
OFF
> has proven beyond doubt that this one setting causes the problem.
> Disabling the setting results in immediately curing the problem... in
> fact in a string of 25 tests we cannot repeat the error, as long as
the
> function is disabled. Enable it, and the VERY NEXT TRY causes the
> failure.
>
> It really would be convenient to power up remotely, AND know that the
> damned thing will power down correctly as well without having to
> physically hit the back panel p/s switch.
>
> I couldn't locate a reference to this exact problem in news archves;
> lots of refs to other power mgmt issues regarding this board; I did
try
> disabling the APM setting in bios but to no avail.
>
> ECS states that power up via LAN will NOT work using the onboard nic
> hardware and that you must add a capable pci nic, which is why we're
> using the SMC card, an EZ Card 10/100 SMC1211TX.
>
> Ideas???

I have a K7S5A Pro (rev. 5) board that wouldn't shut down properly when
a PCI modem was installed in PCI5 (the bottom PCI slot). I moved the
board to PCI3 and it worked just fine (although I did remove the card
shortly thereafter because I got a DSL line installed). Try moving the
NIC to a different slot. Also, make sure you have the WOL cable
securely connected to the WOL header on the motherboard.
Hope that helps,
-Hukuis