Stuck At Shutdown - OEM initialization before microcode loading

I just received my motherboard back from RMA TODAY. It was RMA for failing to post and a computer technician determining it was a problem on the South Bridge.

First boot-up had various issues with BSOD booting up normally (Page Fault Found In A Non Paged Area) but booted up fine in safe mode. I made a clean install and that issue went away. I proceeded to install the drivers and some games.

All seems to be going pretty well - except for this one issue. If I do a restart from windows, it works fine, but if I choose 'shut down' from windows, I will get the normal blue "shutting down" screen, but then it will take me to a black screen as normal, but the system never actually shuts down. It just stays at the black screen with the fans still running, solid power LED still on.

The debug LED is 05 which equates to OEM initialization before microcode loading

i5-2500k
Maximus Gene-Z IV
8 GB DDR3 RAM
1 TB SATA3 HD
DVD-ROM
MSI 7950

Most updated BIOS.

I had this same issue a few days before my motherboard went dead and had to be RMA.