PC will not boot from Shut Down (only from Restart)

[BabyFaceLee]

I don't know what I've done but my PC will not now boot after it's been shut down. It starts the boot process but takes ages to get to the point where I need to enter a BIOS password but the keyboard isn't recognised so nothing happens. If I then press the Restart button then the PC boots fine and I can type the password and it then goes on to start up Windows XP.

A quick run down of some things that might be pertinent.

I have 2 external (USB) hard drives which I use for backup purposes
One of them powers down when the computer is off, the other is on all the time.
My BIOS is set to ignore all boot media except the hard drive.
I use a zero RAID array on my main hard drive.

Any ideas guys?

 

[BabyFaceLee]

Resolved

Just thought I should post to say I've discovered what my boot problem was.

In the BIOS the OnChip Audio Controller had been set to Disabled rather than Auto. I must have done this when trying to resolve a different issue (although I don't remember!) but anyway, it now boots from Shut Down and Restart so all is well.

 

[Rik]

If you are gonna have external hard drives running continuously, make sure they are adequately cooled as they can get rather hot!!!!!!!

 

[BabyFaceLee]

Thanks for the heads-up Rik. The larger of the two drives shuts down automatically when the computer is off but the other one doesn't so I guess I should get into the habit of turning it off.

 

[Rik]

That's ok, had a friend fry a 200gig hdd in an external box even after i warned him several times!!! It can be an expensive lesson for some people to learn!!!