System does not wake up from S3(STR) after replacing graphics card

hirak99 · 12 Sep 2010

Hi,
I replaced the graphics card from NVidia 8600 GTS (256mb) to MSI R5770 Hawk. Since the replacement, Windows sleeps normally, but won't wake up. When I press the power button to wake up, after a while keyboard Num lock turns on, and system freezes with no display and no hard disk activity. This used to work well with the 8600 GTS.

Everything else works great - system seems to be quite stable otherwise under load (i.e. while playing games).

Any idea or suggestions on what could be wrong?

The rest of my system is as follows:
CPU: Athlon X2 4000+
PSU: Coolermaster eXtreme 390W
Motherboard: GA-M61SME-S2

Thanks

usasma · 12 Sep 2010

Are there any memory dumps in the C:\Windows\Minidump folder?
If so, that may indicate that the system is crashing rather than just not waking up.

I had a similar problem with an Asus P6T Deluxe board that I couldn't fix. Finally got an Asus P6T Deluxe v2 board and it works fine.

Here's a link to your mobo's download page: Search - GIGABYTE

So, a few questions:
Do you have the latest BIOS installed? If not, what version do you have installed? The latest is version F10A from 2008.

Have you updated your video drivers from the ATI website or the MSI site? If not from the ATI website, please download and install the latest drivers from the ATI website. DO NOT install the Catalyst Control Center (and if you have it installed, please uninstall it) - there is an option to download the Driver-Only, please use that (as the Catalyst Control Center has had some issues with Win7 in the past). To be sure, please uninstall the current ATI stuff before installing the freshly downloaded drivers.

Have you updated your chipset drivers from the nVidia website? From what I can see, there's not a "certified" Win7 set of drivers for your mobo. BUT, if you select the Vista 64 bit version you'll see that it's also Win7 64 bit certified: NVIDIA DRIVERS 15.49 WHQL
This also contains the storage drivers - which are another component that has impact on the sleep/hibernate functioning.

hirak99 · 13 Sep 2010

Thanks for your reply, I think then there's no way but to change to a newer motherboard!

1. No new files on minidump

2. NVidia drivers, BIOS version, ATI drivers all uptodate. I had an NVidia card before this, I removed the display drivers with normal uninstallation and then with 'DriverSweeper'.

3. I have tested the same with Ubuntu and exactly the same wakeup problem is happening there too. This makes me conclude it is a problem with the motherboard... perhaps it is too old to know about the existence of this card... I think I will just have to upgrade the MB.

4. For now I have put back the old card, and again system can safely wake up from sleep. This new card was way too bottlenecked anyway to give any substantial gain due to my old processor+motherboard.