PC Wakes immediately after Sleep(S3), but doesn't respond after wake

/scannow recognized some corrupt files but I already knew that from a previous checkup, before the current problems. Still, do you think restoring or repairing windows could be the solution?

Also, I've checked the BIOS and even loaded the fail-safe defaults but nothing changes.

But if it is a windows issue, shouldn't system restore always be able to resolve it?

automagical said:

/scannow recognized some corrupt files but I already knew that from a previous checkup, before the current problems. Still, do you think restoring or repairing windows could be the solution?


Also, I've checked the BIOS and even loaded the fail-safe defaults but nothing changes.


But if it is a windows issue, shouldn't system restore always be able to resolve it?

Maybe one of those corrupt files has something to do with it.

System Restore only takes you to the condition the system was in at the date/time the restore point was created. If it was broken at that time it'll be broken when restored.

You might try this instead: Repair Install

At least it'll fix those corrupt files.

I'll look for my install disc then.

However, I'm not certain that windows is still the problem. There's a ~5 second or so delay between the system powering down and automatically restarting. During this delay, I find that if I turn off the PSU, the system will still attempt to turn on; all fans and lights will activate for a brief moment. This is highly curious. I think this could be a fault of either the PSU or motherboard. Another thing I noticed was that the case speaker does not beep (normally indicating a successful POST, or potentially an error) at all when the system self-restarts. It's as if I'm running a headless system with power supplied to all devices without any result. The motherboard doesn't seem to recognize the boot sequence. This makes me lean closer to the faulty PSU theory. I'll be receiving a new one on Tuesday, so I guess I'll find out then. I apologize for posting hardware issues in a software forum, but I really could use some help in determining the source of the problem.

Can you get into the BIOS?

Did you try running the RAM tests?

RAM tests were clean, I let memtest run for about 10 hours without issues. I can normally get into BIOS, its just that when I try to make the system sleep, it restarts but won't post at all.

It does seem likely that it could be hardware. Until you get your new PSU, you might want to check a few things in your BIOS. Appears you have a pretty versatile motherboard.

I glanced at the manual for your board. It looks like you have the ability to check out quite a few system voltages. There are also controls/options that affect booting and POST:

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1366 - GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0)

In your OP you state that you see the green LEDs for your memory and that you indicate that it's normal. But I found the following in the manual:

DDR Voltage
Off: Normal condition
L1: Level 1 (Slight, green)
L2: Level 2 (Moderate, yellow)
L3: Level 3 (High, red)

Not exactly sure what they mean by "slight" (green). Based on the other conditions stated I'm guessing it means "slightly above normal". They do state that at normal conditions the LEDs should be off.

If you are overclocking you probably should stop until this is resolved. It looks like you can save booting profiles and take your pick of which one it'll use. What I would do is save the current profile and restore the default to see if it solves the issue. If I wasn't sure how well that profile saving feature worked (and I'm not sure) I would take note of the non-default settings or take pictures of each screen before reverting to default settings.

Thanks for the reply. That's correct, I am using 1.64V for my memory as per manufacturer spec, even though Intel spec says 1.5V. That causes one of the 5 RAM LEDs to light green (this is all under normal operation.) However, when the system self-restarts, all the LEDs are lit, either orange or green. This persists even when I load Fail-Safe defaults, which pulls all voltages, settings and frequencies back within spec. For all I know, however, the lighting of the LEDs could just be a part of the normal startup sequence. Besides, a memory error should be represented by beeps from the case speaker.

Another point that may be worth a mention is that after the system restore, I noticed that my system clock had been reset. This is a sign of a depleted CMOS battery, right? I've also heard that a discharged battery can be the culprit of many other strange symptoms. I'll give it a try.

automagical said:

Thanks for the reply. That's correct, I am using 1.64V for my memory as per manufacturer spec, even though Intel spec says 1.5V. That causes one of the 5 RAM LEDs to light green (this is all under normal operation.) However, when the system self-restarts, all the LEDs are lit, either orange or green. This persists even when I load Fail-Safe defaults, which pulls all voltages, settings and frequencies back within spec. For all I know, however, the lighting of the LEDs could just be a part of the normal startup sequence. Besides, a memory error should be represented by beeps from the case speaker.

Yeah, you would at least have to have made some previous observations of those LEDs during boot to have learned what was normal.

automagical said:

Another point that may be worth a mention is that after the system restore, I noticed that my system clock had been reset. This is a sign of a depleted CMOS battery, right? I've also heard that a discharged battery can be the culprit of many other strange symptoms. I'll give it a try.

A weak/dead CMOS battery can definitely cause some odd issues. Those little batteries seem to be so much more critical these days as compared to years ago.

Thanks for the help everyone. It turns out that it was just the CMOS battery, and replacing it fixed everything. I hope this helps someone else in the future.