Repeating boot problem om GA-P55A-UD6

[sondrol77]

I just did a reinstall of win 7 on my home computer and started having a strange problem. I am really stuck at trouble shooting this and could use some help. The problem is as follows.

1) My computer is running perfectly and i finish for the day and leave it on for the night
2) When i get up in the morning the screen is black and the computer is unresponsive (like it is turned completely off)
3) Mother board LED shows code E1 (or EI since its hard to know if its a 1 or I)
4) I turn the computer off and back on
5) System wont boot and LED on MB is stuck on CF (more reboots will not progress, LED still on CF)
6) I clear cmos (through the button on the MB) and restart
7) A screen pops up where i can choose which configuration to boot from (choose last known working configuration)
System goes black and reboots and windows starts, but gets stuck during recovery
9) I reboot the system again and choose to delete recovery and start win normally
10) System boots ok, and works perfectly for the rest of the day
11) I leave computer on for the night, go to bed...and back to #2 above......

Summary: Checked the manual and cant find out what the E1/EI error code means, CF is listed as "Test CMOS R/W functionalitySix Modules"

Reinstall summary:

Did a fresh reinstall of win 7 64 bit on a formatted HDD. Installed drivers from the MB DVD, x-fi drivers and graphic card drivers and thats it.....

System configuration :

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD6
INTEL CORE I7-860 2.80GHZ
CORSAIR Power Supply 850W HX
CORSAIR 4GB (KIT) DDR3 1600MHz/ CL7/ DOMINATOR GT
ATI Radoen HD 5970

If anyone could tell me what the E1 code means, or a likely reason for the problem i would be very gratefull.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I would suggest clearing the CMOS again only do it thoroughly this time. Remove the power cable, press the on/off button on the case to drain any residual current left in the capacitors, remove the battery from the motherboard and then using a small screwdriver short out the contacts on the battery holder. Leave for at least ten minutes and then reassemble.

FYI the E1 code is not very helpful as it just means "Set up Page1"

You didn't do anything else when you were re-installing Windows did you?

[sondrol77]

Ill try and see if i can figure out how to manually clear cmos, never done it before.

The motherboard has two buttons though, one called clear cmos, and another for reset cmos..should i use both?

Btw! Did one more thing which i should have mentioned. I updated the bios through the @bios utility provided on the MB DVD. The update process went well though. Using version F11 now.

I left the computer alone for 1 hour now, and when i came back it was back in E1. Could it have somthing to do with energy saving settings etc?

[Dark Mantis]

Oh well that's probably where your problem stems from. Why is it people don't put the most relevent facts in the original post? I really don't know how many times we have advised members not to use @BIOS the QFlash utility is so much safer. I expect it is a badly flashed BIOS update. Try clearing the CMOS first and then if the problem persists we can try resetting the BIOS. Use both buttons to be sure.

[sondrol77]

The funny thing about this is that the computer boots perfectly most of the time. Once i have cleared the cmos and gone through the steps described below i can restart the computer as many times as i want without any issues.

The problem first starts if i let the cmoputer alone for an hour or more, then, when i get back its stuck as E1.

So i take it i should press both the reset and the clear cmos button?

Could you provide me with a link to the qflash utility+

EDIT!! Just did a test which makes me think more that this is a sleep/power save issue.

The computer was turned off, black screen, couldnt wake it by moving the mouse or hitting key board. Checked the MB (through glass) and seemed off. SO i pressed the power button and it started to boot, was at E1 for 20 s then it boot directly into windows. The programs which were running were still there (was checking the HDD with WD tool) and that was stil running.

[absic]

Could you provide me with a link to the qflash utility+

The QFlash Utility is actually part of the BIOS. To enter it you need to press either the "END" key when you first start up or the F8 key when you are at the BIOS home screen.

Hope this helps

[Lsdmeasap]

Windows 7  and Vista default settings put the system to sleep after 20 minutes, so that is probably what's causing this to start/happen while you are gone.

You can either change that to never, or test sleep manually and see if it can resume after 5 minutes, then an hour, ect and see where the issue lies.   Often if you are not 100% Tested stable the system will not resume properly after an extended sleep period.