David,

   The main difference with AT and ATX power supplies is the way that
they connect to the motherboard. You are correct in thinking that you
should be looking in the BIOS. I'm sure that if you went from WinMe to
XP Pro that there were some BIOS changes made, since XP Pro is not a PNP
OS and Me is.

   Depending on your BIOS version, it will vary, but look for something
in effect to "Advanced Power Management" in the BIOS. This feature needs
to be TURNED ON in the BIOS for the "It is now safe..." message to not
show up.

   Hope this helps!
     Tom




Trimurti wrote:
>
> Hello There,
>
> I have come across two systems.  One has an older Epox Socket 7 mainboard
> with an AMD 500MHz CPU, 256MHz RAM, and so forth.  The other system has an
> ECS K7S5A ??  mainboard with an 850MHz Duron and 320MB RAM.
>
> The Socket 7 system was working perfectly, other than the CD-Rom drive went
> bad.  They replaced it and also did a clean install of Win XP Pro, instead
> of Win Me like they used to have.
>
> The other system was a clean install of Win XP.
>
> Each of these have ATX power supplies, so, theoretically when you click on
> Start, ShutDown....they should shut off.
>
> Well, that's the problem, they don't.  They rattle around, dance and sing,
> then display the message  "It is now safe to turn off your computer"
> just like systems used to do with AT power supplies and thus causing the
> need to hold in the power button for 5 seconds.
>
> Could somebody please offer a tip?  Connectors on the mainboards each seem
> ok.  I suppose I should be looking for a solution in the BIOS?  If that is
> the case, then why did each system work fine with other operating systems
> installed?  (the ECS had win98SE )
>
> Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks for your time.
>
> David A. Abbe
> [log in to unmask]

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