Hello,

I’m having an issue with shutting down my system.

When I shut it down (either through the WebUI or by pressing the power button), it appears to stop normally (disks spin down, the server becomes unreachable, and video output is disabled) but the system never fully powers off. (the power LED stays on and the fans keep spinning)

I then have to hold the power button to force shutdown, however this does not trigger an unclean shutdown when starting the system again.

The problem only occurs if the system has been running for a few hours. (10+)

Here are some notes:

• Booting in safe mode made no difference.

• No VMs are running, I have some Docker containers, but stopping them did not resolve the issue.

• I have the following plugins installed:

  • AppData Backup

  • Community Applications

  • Fix Common Problems (reports no issues)

  • Recycle Bin

  • Tailscale

  • Tips and Tweaks

System Info

• OS: Unraid 7.1.4 (Basic)

• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700k

• iGPU: Intel HD Graphics 630

• MOBO: ASUS Z270E Strix

• RAM: 2× HyperX 16GB DDR4 @ 2133 MHz

• Cache: Samsung 750 EVO 250GB

• Array: 3× WD80EMZZ 8TB (1 parity)

• Flash: SanDisk Cruzer Force 32GB

I previously ran Unraid on this exact MB/CPU/RAM combo (back on 6.x or maybe even 5.x) without this issue.

Up until about a month ago, my NAS used the same setup except for the motherboard and CPU (ASUS Sabertooth X99 + Intel i7-6800k). The shutdown problem started around the same time I swapped them.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to revert to the old hardware for further testing on it.

I’ve attached syslogs from recent shutdown attempts for reference.

As you can see from the titles, only the shutdown with 1 hour of uptime was successful.

I have found this other forum thread and the author said that it was due to the ethernet configuration.

One thing that could be interesting is that on the previous MOBO I had 2 NICs (1 Intel and 1 Realtek, each 1GBps), while this only has one.

At this point, I’m running out of ideas, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tom

05-failure-5days-webui-shutdown.txt 04-failure-safe-mode.txt 03-success-1hour.txt 01-failure-long.txt 02-failure-10hours.txt vault-diagnostics-20250906-1837.zip

Do you have an attached monitor and keyboard?

38 minutes ago, trurl said:

Do you have an attached monitor and keyboard?

I tested it without any keyboard or mouse attached.
The system is in my living room near the television, and it failed to power off both when connected and when disconnected.

The only things connected to it at the moment are a BluRay reader/writer (that is currently not in use) and the ethernet cable.

Edited September 6, 2025Sep 6 by sonodima

Does it happen without starting the array?

3 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Does it happen without starting the array?

I have yet to check that

I have disabled auto-start and rebooted it right now
I'll follow up in 10+ hours 🍀

Okay, apparently it fails to power off even with the array stopped...

You can try booting with a different flash drive using a stock install, no key needed, then retest to confirm if it's not a config issue.

I've had the same problem for years at this point. Started maybe somewhere in the 6.10 era but I never really looked into it.

It might be worth running the Extended SMART test. The diagnostics shows that it looks like it is only the Short SMART test that has been successful.

What would SMART have to do with a system that reaches "power down" state but just halts without actually powering down?

Edited September 8, 2025Sep 8 by Kilrah

2 hours ago, JorgeB said:

You can try booting with a different flash drive using a stock install, no key needed, then retest to confirm if it's not a config issue.

I will try that now! Should I configure the drives or keep it idle without a mounted array?

51 minutes ago, itimpi said:

It might be worth running the Extended SMART test. The diagnostics shows that it looks like it is only the Short SMART test that has been successful.

Hmm, would it matter even if I encountered the same issue with the array stopped? Anyway I'll add it to the things I will try

16 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

I've had the same problem for years at this point. Started maybe somewhere in the 6.10 era but I never really looked into it.

That is unfortunate, what hardware are you running Unraid on?
I wish I could keep it running 24/7, but unfortunately, the high price of electricity in my country would quickly add up.

8 minutes ago, sonodima said:

I will try that now! Should I configure the drives or keep it idle without a mounted array?

Since you confirmed it still happens without starting the array I don't think you need to assign the devices.

I have no idea if this is related but I have a suggestion. Bear with me for a second because it's relevent.

I recently switched my gaming pc over from windows to arch linux. Everything went smooth and was working great except for one thing, shutting down my PC would go like 99% of the way off except not quite. The fans went dead, leds turned off, but the PC would not respond to button presses to start back up nor would shorting the pins on the board itself.

What I discovered in my case is that I had the "Wake by PCIe" setting enabled in the BIOS to allow my pc to respond to Wake-On-Lan magic packet. Well apparently for reasons only known to the linux kernel (6.16 in my case) it does not like this setting enabled. What I noticed is that my ethernet lights would remain lit up and flashing like data was still flowing to an otherwise "powered off" system.

Long story short, reset your BIOS back to factory defaults and try booting and shutting down the system.

Edited September 8, 2025Sep 8 by MowMdown

43 minutes ago, MowMdown said:

I have no idea if this is related but I have a suggestion. Bear with me for a second because it's relevent.

I recently switched my gaming pc over from windows to arch linux. Everything went smooth and was working great except for one thing, shutting down my PC would go like 99% of the way off except not quite. The fans went dead, leds turned off, but the PC would not respond to button presses to start back up nor would shorting the pins on the board itself.

What I discovered in my case is that I had the "Wake by PCIe" setting enabled in the BIOS to allow my pc to respond to Wake-On-Lan magic packet. Well apparently for reasons only known to the linux kernel (6.16 in my case) it does not like this setting enabled.

Long story short, reset your BIOS back to factory defaults and try booting and shutting down the system.

That is interesting, I don't recall manually enabling WoL in the BIOS, but a factory reset is worth a shot.
I'll try that after I finish testing it with the vanilla install.

Okay, even the vanilla Unraid install (without even activating the demo license) has the same issue.
I reset the BIOS (even though Wake by PCIe was disabled) and I'm testing it again just to be 100% sure.