Windows 7 won't shutdown or restart - possibly related to AMD gfx card

[wildpygmy]

My computer has recently started to have an issue where when I try to shutdown from the start menu, it goes through the shutdown process but will no longer actually power off (the screen just goes to sleep and the computer stays on). Restarting doesn't work either, windows shuts down but then I am just stuck on a black screen. Sometimes (weirdly), when the computer is in it's partially shutdown but not powered off state, hitting the reset button will actually power the computer off as opposed to reseting it...

I am pretty sure this is related to my AMD 7950 graphics card. I noticed the issue when I was in the process of updating the drivers and bios (using several bios's I found on techpowerup.com).

The computer powers off properly when I remove the graphics card and use the on-board intel graphics, or if I keep the graphics card in and try to shutdown from safe mode.

Some things I have tried to fix this issue so far which have all been unsucessful:

• Restored to original graphics card drivers, and also tried several different older versions of drivers, all properly unistalled and cleaned using the program "Disply Driver Remover"
• Restored the original video card BIOS...I think. I foolishly didn't back up my original bios because the card has a physical switch that lets you go between 2 different bios (in case of a failure). I did back up the BIOS from the alternate switch, and used that rom file to restore to the BIOS with the switch in both positions. However, I can't be 100% the alternate bios was exactly the same by default as the one I tried to upgrade intially.
• I have done a fresh "repair install" of windows 7 following directions I found on several sites including this one where you choose the "Upgrade Windows" option from the Windows 7 setup menu. I have not completely wiped my drive and reinstalled from scratch.
• I have reset my motherboard CMOS using a button for that pupose on my motherboard.

If anyone has an idea of what else I could try, I'm all ears. Obviously simply not using the graphics card isn't really an option because I'd like to be able to play some games

 

[xips]

Had a W2003 system with Intel MB and a radeon vid card that did the same thing. Never found a real solution. The only work around I found was create a boot password in BIOS and instead of shutting down, did a restart and at boot login deenergize the box's power supply switch. I swore off those video cards after no factory drivers would recognize the card.