GA-X58A-UD3R - Random failure to wake from sleep after BIOS Update to FG1

[jwhiter]

Because my PC was behaving strangely when waking from sleep (sometimes failing to load network drivers on wake up, sometimes just waking to a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top right, sometimes waking normally) I recently updated BIOS from FF to FG1. I used @BIOS as recommended and the update seemed to go smoothly. Unfortunately the problem remains though, although it presents slightly differently now. Now the computer always wakes to the log on screen as you would expect, and it appears to allow a normal log on. But sometimes when when one attempts after log on to open any program the whole computer freezes before going to a screen that says "Preparing Security Options". It hangs there for about 5 minutes and then goes to a screen carrying a lot of text beginning with "A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer." There is some advice about disabling Memory options in BIOS and finally there is a set of long strings which I think, although I'm not sure, is different each time. One recent set said "Technical information: ***STOP. 0x000000F4, 0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFA80065C1950, 0XFFFFFA8006FC13C0, 0XFFFFF80002FE5F40. Collecting data for Crash Dump. Initialising disc for Crash Dump" although I wouldn't sware to the accuracy of those numbers. This screen hangs until the computer is shut down from the power button. When it is powered up again it gets through POST to "Resuming Windows" OK but then goes to the black screen with the flashing cursor. I shut it down again via the power button and this time it gives the option to Delete Restoration Data, which I do, and then boots successfully. This is happening about twice a day. I have not looked at BIOS memory options because I don't know where to find them.  I am Running Win 7 Ultimate SP1 and my operating system is on an OCZ Aglity2 which has the latest firmware. Does anyone have any advice?

[Diablito]

You can get passed the blinking cursor by either disabling USB3 or updating your driver/firmware for the USB3 chip.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,3866.msg52045.html#msg52045

However, this board will refuse to wake up from hybrid sleep. I can't get passed that issue. It wakes up if I let it sleep less than 3 hours anything passed that and the rate of wake up failure increases. At 12 hours it almost never wakes up properly.

Got it from CyberPower and they won't do anything about it. It will be the last time purchase anything from them.

[Aussie Allan]

 Not a guarantee but a UPS can fix this issue on a lot of boards .... black out are easy to see, brown out can be undetectable, .....in there low power states (PCs)........can be very sensitive to minor power fluctuations

  Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

Where was iot recommended that you should use @BIOS for updating your BIOS files ? Apart from one circumstance we always recommend quite the opposite. QFlash or even FLASHSPI are much better options.

[Diablito]

So I gave what you said a thought because I have another PC (home theater PC also with a different gigabyte motherboard) in a different room (living room) and it has NEVER given me any S3 resume issues. It works flawlessly.

So just to discard any electric issues in the room where I have my work PC (my home office) I disconnected it and placed it in the living room for a week. I setup a scheduled task to wake up and e-mail me every two hours.  I had no issues for a week. The darn PC didn't miss sending a single e-mail or waking up a single time. I even changed it to 3 & 4 hour intervals and it still worked.

Then, I moved it back to my home office. Left the task running and the PC won't wake up more than twice. It never makes it to the third e-mail. Every morning I find the case with the motherboard LEDs and case lights ON but nothing on the screen and unresponsive.

So I went out and bought a UPS as you suggested. No difference. The PC still will not wake up more than two times with the scheduled task. What can be causing this issue?? It's so annoying and frustrating.

 Not a guarantee but a UPS can fix this issue on a lot of boards .... black out are easy to see, brown out can be undetectable, .....in there low power states (PCs)........can be very sensitive to minor power fluctuations

  Aussie Allan

[Aussie Allan]

   Besides the UPS (which is a excellent addition to any PC...... period) does the theatre setup run through a quality filter board?...... as well as the Ethernet cable ?

  The home theatre would be another place as it work so well.......troll through the BIOS (Home theatre) and see if there's any critical differences re Power settings

  I don't know the distance from the two setup locations but........20M Ethernet cables on flee bay are stupid cheap ( I paid about £4 even for rip off UK)

  With this you could emphaticly rule out Data connection.......

  I also went back and found some interesting hits....this being one....http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330100 ..... might be worth copy/paste the BSOD code you generated earlier , grab a coffee and start reading...... I saw 3 completely different reads that possibly could be related!

  Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

I notice that you didn't mention what UPS you had purchased to help fix the problem. There are several different types (styles) of UPS and the different way in which they work. The best is like I use a line interactive type. Some are more passive, as I say there are various varieties.

[Diablito]

OK. A few answers...

First, this is the UPS I bought:  http://tinyurl.com/dyjwbvl

1. On the Home theater setup, I do use a surge protector. Is that what you mean by a quality filter board? I remember it wasn't cheap. I think it's made by Monster Cable if I'm not mistaken but it's about 10 years old. I doubt it's better than an actual UPS. Can it be??

2. I've never really gone into the BIOS for the Home Theater PC. I only use it to play movies from Netflix/Hulu/Youtube some times Pandora or AVI movies. So I guess it's using defaults but I'll go and check.

3. The testing was done by both computers with WIFI usb dongles in both rooms. Didn't have a cable that would reach to the living room so I pulled out a wifi usb dongle from a laptop and installed it in the PC. As I said, I used that same dongle during both tests. One fails constantly, the other does not.

4. I read KB330100 but I don't really get a BSOD. My screen just stays blank. I have to forcebly shut off the computer completely. Wait about 5 - 10 minutes and then it will boot into "Resuming to Windows" So, it never really registers as a BSOD. Just as a loss of power.

I wonder what's causing this loss of power, or voltage fluctuation or electrical issue and why the UPS is not able to kick in?

I am also wondering if the Power Supply may be contributing to the issue. Can't find anyone saying anything good about it in the CyberPowerPC forums. This is the power supply I got from them: XtremeGear 700Watt Power Supply. But why would it work fine in the living room? It's mind-boggling.

Can either of you explain what an Active Power Factor Correction (PFC) power supply is? All I know is that it's more expensive than a normal power supply. I doubt CyberPowerPC included that on my setup since it wouldn't be cost effective for them (meaning: they're cheap as hell) but apparently the UPS I bought doesn't work with that type of power supply. It seems to be working fine with mine though. I tested it by unplugging it from the wall and the PC kept working fine.

If I'm going to try a new power supply, should I try a PFC one or a regular one? What's the advantage/disadvantage? I'd have to make the call on returning the UPS I bought though.

Thank you both for your help!

[Aussie Allan]

  I find it hard to believe ( but I do believe you) that your teco stated the UPS you have won't work with high end PSUs  ......He may be getting confused with 3 phase PFC! which would not be compatible with your UPS

  You can get/have active as well as passive PFC as well

  A really high end PSU we gladly recommend is the Corsair AX TX or HX series power supply's that all have Active PFC  as far as I know , ........and efficiencies in the 90% range ........ compatible with All UPSs

  Here's a layman's description of PFC but it's still taxing on the noodle if you struggle with Watts ,amps and Volts.........Don't worry, ....I struggle too!

  http://www.save-energy.org/power_factor_correction.htm

  The XtremeGear 700Watt Power Supply was touted in 2008 as ........"A piece of crap" back as far as 2008.....Not my words..... so you have a PSU that's 3 or 4 years old......was never rated as being very good......Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

  Aussie Allan

  

[Diablito]

Well, I was saying that based on the fact that the company makes a different line of UPSs that are "PFC compatible" The equivalent to what I bought would be:  http://tinyurl.com/7jzoubj

Now, this is funny. Just got home and took a look inside my PC and my power supply says it's model PSAZ-CP700 700 Watt Active PFC. I actually found the reference in the CyberPowerPC site. http://tinyurl.com/c6klz8b

I think I'm going to give a new UPS a shot, since XtremeGear doesn't even sell the one I have now.

Now, my UPS (and Kill-a-watt) say I'm using about 135-170watts. Do I really need a 700watt supply? How do I calculate how much power I need? I don't really use this PC for gaming, so I don't really overclock it. It's for work. Run VMWare, some development tools.  The power consumption has never reached 200watts even with 3 VMs running. And for hardware:

1 DVD recorder
2 1TB HDs in RAID 0
12GB RAM
1GB Video card

By the way, for my home theater setup I got this PSU: http://tinyurl.com/coxocwo but I definitely would like to get something better (just don't know how much power) for my workhorse.

Thanks again.

  I find it hard to believe ( but I do believe you) that your teco stated the UPS you have won't work with high end PSUs  ......He may be getting confused with 3 phase PFC! which would not be compatible with your UPS

  You can get/have active as well as passive PFC as well

  A really high end PSU we gladly recommend is the Corsair AX TX or HX series power supply's that all have Active PFC  as far as I know , ........and efficiencies in the 90% range ........ compatible with All UPSs

  Here's a layman's description of PFC but it's still taxing on the noodle if you struggle with Watts ,amps and Volts.........Don't worry, ....I struggle too!

  http://www.save-energy.org/power_factor_correction.htm

  The XtremeGear 700Watt Power Supply was touted in 2008 as ........"A piece of crap" back as far as 2008.....Not my words..... so you have a PSU that's 3 or 4 years old......was never rated as being very good......Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

  Aussie Allan

  

[Aussie Allan]

   
   Hiya Diablito ..... no simple answer as yet Huh!

   Here you go.....book mark this one....http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp .... this is one of the better ones out there we use and recommend.

  Power supply manufactures will generally overstate a PSUs ability (WATTS) and no one factors in age degradation.....for this I usually recommend multiplying the final figure by 1.3 ..... be critical when filling the fields and to remember the worst case scenario re upgrade in the coming year or two.

  Had a critical look at the UPS you posted......Bloody nice units for the money ..... most people take it for granted when there lights go out and the Laptop there working on is still up and running ....

  Peak load of a PSU is is always a hard one to come to terms with in the field (Home).....remember....all the components and drives have a running load but the start-up load just like a DC motor will always be higher.

  It's a really hard call until you have good,clean power going into your PC.....PC god you know  .... let me know how you get on with the calculator and everything else as well .

  Aussie Allan

   

[Dark Mantis]

The thing with buying a UPS is that you never really know if it is a good one and big enough until the power goes out and you rely on it to keep your system up and running.

I would always recommend getting a decent one like APC. These are used in industry and commerce all the time and are relied upon for mission critical servers etc.

Try and work out realistically what size you need and then get a bigger one! It will be constrained by your budget most likely as they are far from cheap. I run a APC Smart UPS 1500 for my everyday system that I am on now and it will guard my gear as well as act as a backup in the event of power failure.

[Diablito]

OK. So it's not the UPS, it's not the PSU. I've changed both with new ones and the random wake failures still persist.  The UPS works beautifully by the way. I tested by unplugging it from the wall and by cutting power from my circuit breakers. It worked fine both times.

It's gotta be either of 4 things I have not changed yet.

1. The motherboard
2. The CPU
3. The Memory
4. The Video Card

After all the testing I've done, I'm leaning towards the motherboard but it's just too much money to replace it right now (especially after replacing everything else on this PC) and calling CyberPower is useless, their support is garbage. What a disappointment this board has been!

For now, I'm going to leave it on all the time and pray it doesn't lock up.

[Aussie Allan]

  Funny thing is ..... leaving a PC on all the time is actually a pretty good thing from the perspective of hardware life ...... a stable thermal load will make your PC live and last longer.

  of the 1,2,3 and 4 in the list there is in fact a 5 and 6 ......5 being driver issue, don't know how many times I've found this to be at the root of some unexplained problems but a living hell to find .... and 6 would be the BIOS.

  Personally I have a theory that, ....unfortunately I have no way of testing ...... when a PC drops down into "Hibernate" power is still being supplied to the Memory ....... when the PC wakes ....... everything comes on at once, .... 10 odd fans, drives, cpu, gpu and what ever else you have connected to the box ...... it is possible this load drain drops the power to the volatile memory to a point that a corruption takes place ..... who knows .... maybe a tweak of load line calibration might help!

  Aussie Allan

[Diablito]

I agree with #6, it may be the BIOS but a driver I doubt it. It would probably be more reproducible. However, the failure only depends in time. The longer I let the PC sleep, the more likely it will fail to wake up.

The electric issue you're mentioning makes more sense to me. It does seem as if the PC doesn't get enough power that nanosecond to wake up properly.  I looked up Load Line Calibration and it seems to be related to the CPU more than the actual memory. Do you have any info on it? or can you point me to something I can read about it?

Thanks!

  Funny thing is ..... leaving a PC on all the time is actually a pretty good thing from the perspective of hardware life ...... a stable thermal load will make your PC live and last longer.

  of the 1,2,3 and 4 in the list there is in fact a 5 and 6 ......5 being driver issue, don't know how many times I've found this to be at the root of some unexplained problems but a living hell to find .... and 6 would be the BIOS.

  Personally I have a theory that, ....unfortunately I have no way of testing ...... when a PC drops down into "Hibernate" power is still being supplied to the Memory ....... when the PC wakes ....... everything comes on at once, .... 10 odd fans, drives, cpu, gpu and what ever else you have connected to the box ...... it is possible this load drain drops the power to the volatile memory to a point that a corruption takes place ..... who knows .... maybe a tweak of load line calibration might help!

  Aussie Allan