Odd system problem - need help diagnosing

P

PARANOiA

Veteran
In order tomake a dull issue less boring, I'll write this post as if I were Pheonix Wright.

The background:
I should preface this with the note that I've only seen these issues since installing Windows 7 - but I'm not sure if it's a software or hardware issue given the system impact I'm seeing. I've only been on Windows 7 for a couple of days, and quite like it. I'd like to understand why this is happening.

The events as they occurred:
I came home last night and found that my PC was off. I always leave my PC on, and let it sleep automatically when I'm not there. So I turn on my PC and I'm greeted by my BIOS's splash screen - which is odd because I disabled the full-screen splash in favour of the system postings as the system boots. I then get a message saying "Press F1 to enter setup. Press F2 to load system defaults." And it wouldn't boot into Windows. I'm running on a P5QC by the way.

Because I have a Bluetooth keyboard the bastard had lost sync (eventually chasing up a different USB keyboard), so after much fiddling around I finally managed to get into my bios. Lo and behold! All of my BIOS settings were reset. After returning all my settings to normal I rebooted and the normal BIOS posting proceeded as normal.

Then I got an error from Windows 7 saying the PC couldn't awake from hibernation due to an error, and I should press "Enter". OK, so I did, and I get back into my PC as normal, and everything's working. I used it for a long time last night so I assume it wasn't something driven by an application.

The motive (why it happened?):
Initially I thought it may be related to hibernation within Windows 7 - by default it used dual-mode in terms of switching from sleeping to hibernation. Maybe it didn't like something about my system... so I disabled hibernation and let my PC sleep as per normal. I then went to bed thinking I'd been a quite the detective.

I woke up this morning and my PC was off (not asleep) and again all of my BIOS settings had been reset.

It then struck me that Windows couldn't possibly cause a BIOS failure/reset, could it? Why is my PC getting stuck whenever I walk away from it for an extended period?

The judge's verdict:
Why is this happening? Has anyone heard of this sort of problem before?
 
Sounds like an S3 power-event problem. One of two solutions: update your firmware to potentially allow better support, or the OS is having trouble issuing a suspend to your hardware and is killing it instead (similar things can happen in Vista with older hardware.)
 
I encountered a similar problem with auto selection of power state as set in the BIOS. Under S3, Win7 enters sleep & hibernation states under the default power profile. Wakeup fails with mine, but BIOS values are unaffected. It does require PSU to be turned off & back on for soft power to work properly. Win7 then boots fine & resumes without error from hibernation with all previously running apps fully restored. I don't normally allow hibernation, so I've turned it off.
 
Well I've updated settings as per the link I posted earlier, and manually sleeping doesn't cause any problems, but I'm yet to try an automated sleep. Fingers crossed this resolves the problem.
 
Aaaand no go :/ automatic sleep had the same issue my BIOS settings were reset again.

Davros: do you know if I should be able to manually sleep with a low battery, but not automatically sleep? The only question I've got with the battery situation is the mobo is less than a month old.

Cheers
 
It's highly unlikely to be a low battery with a month-old motherboard, I finally replaced the battery in my Socket 5 system -- that's a 12 year old system board using a Pentium original 166. Even that system would give you a BIOS warning that your battery was starting to get low; I'm quite confident that newer systems still have that ancient piece of voltage-testing equipment installed as well.

Sounds like whatever sleep method that Win7 uses, it just isn't compatible with your current firmware. Like any beta release, there are bugs -- report it as such and, maybe like Vista, they'll give you a free copy of the retail version when the beta is over with.
 
The P5Q motherboards can do this if they think the BIOS/BIOS settings are corrupt, or if the system has crashed due to incorrect BIOS settings (like too much FSB or too little RAM power), if the BIOS/clock battery has been removed, if the BIOS has been reset with the manual jumper, or if the PSU has been powered down (ie switched off/unplugged).

It's basically a way to force the user to confirm and reset the BIOS settings if there's been some kind of unexpected and severe interruption to the system, or you've just plain been silly with your overclocking efforts.

Having said that, it doesn't always get it right, so I think it's likely that your PC was powered down or was put to sleep by Windows 7, and the motherboard has interpreted this has some kind of power failure and shown you the BIOS reset screen.

IIRC, there was a recent new BIOS for the P5Q Deluxe that including something to do with fixing an incorrectly remembered setting for fans due to S3 sleep, so maybe there is a new BIOS (or one coming up) for your motherboard that might fix the issue?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
stevem said:
I encountered a similar problem with auto selection of power state as set in the BIOS. Under S3, Win7 enters sleep & hibernation states under the default power profile. Wakeup fails with mine, but BIOS values are unaffected. It does require PSU to be turned off & back on for soft power to work properly. Win7 then boots fine & resumes without error from hibernation with all previously running apps fully restored. I don't normally allow hibernation, so I've turned it off.
Click to expand...

Windows Vista basically does that on my dekstop already. That is why I was grumpy at ASUS and their mobo I have.
Albuquerque said:
It's highly unlikely to be a low battery with a month-old motherboard, I finally replaced the battery in my Socket 5 system -- that's a 12 year old system board using a Pentium original 166. Even that system would give you a BIOS warning that your battery was starting to get low; I'm quite confident that newer systems still have that ancient piece of voltage-testing equipment installed as well.
Click to expand...
Strange I had mobos with dead batteries before and none ever said the battery was getting low. Was it (the warning) buried in the BIOS or on the post screen?
 
During the post screen -- "CMOS battery low" is what mine says. There has been voltage detection on CMOS batteries for probably five years (or more) longer than there has been voltage detection on any other voltage-regulated component on motherboards.

I've touched 386 systems in the far-distant past with CMOS battery low warning messages on bootup; it's been around that long.
 
Albuquerque said:
During the post screen -- "CMOS battery low" is what mine says. There has been voltage detection on CMOS batteries for probably five years (or more) longer than there has been voltage detection on any other voltage-regulated component on motherboards.

I've touched 386 systems in the far-distant past with CMOS battery low warning messages on bootup; it's been around that long.
Click to expand...
true, but I had seen 0 MBs under 3-4 years with such warning tho I'm sure at least 2-3 had low batery

As for the problem - I think Bouncing Zabaglione Bros. is right.
BIOS incorectly thinks that due to overclock something failed and resets. Seen this happen - once it was for acidently pressing reset.
 
Oh yeah, I don't think the battery has any bearing on the original problem -- I think it's a combination of Win7's method of invoking sleep and some firmware incompatibility with said sleep command.

Overclock is certainly a good place to start looking, but even then it would likely be a firmware issue. I know my system stays overclocked all the time, and yet I use sleep quite often in Vista. I believe the OP even alluded to this, so it sounds like something specific to Win7 to me...
 
Albuquerque said:
Oh yeah, I don't think the battery has any bearing on the original problem -- I think it's a combination of Win7's method of invoking sleep and some firmware incompatibility with said sleep command.

Overclock is certainly a good place to start looking, but even then it would likely be a firmware issue. I know my system stays overclocked all the time, and yet I use sleep quite often in Vista. I believe the OP even alluded to this, so it sounds like something specific to Win7 to me...
Click to expand...
That sounds like the core of the problem to me. I don't overclock - the only thing I did change from automatic settings was the timings on my RAM, which were at different timings in BIOS than to spec/by SPD. I've left these as default now since I got sick of adjusting after four or five BIOS resets. :cry:

Sounds like ASUS has a general problem on their mobos with this, though it's a bit of a head-scratcher that I wasn't impacted by Vista's sleep like some others here. I'll have a hunt around and look for firmware updates or a workaround. Cheers all.
 
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