A confusing/challenging issue - PC will not sleep, monitor will not power s

[zeke009]

System specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 w/ Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro

Mobo: Gigabyte GZ-X79-UD3

RAM: Mushkin DDR3 PC3-10700 (XMP @ 1600)

Gfx: ASUS GeForce GTX680

SSD: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB (SATA III)

HDD: WD Black 500GB (SATA II)

DVD: Some Lite-On DVD-RW & some Lite-On Blu-Ray

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 & Windows 8 Pro x64

The original issue:

My PC can go to sleep, but when it wakes I get a series of short beeps that I lose count of around the 20 mark. The system power cycles itself and repeats. I have to flip the switch on the PSU to turn it off for a few minutes before it will start properly.

The latest issue:

With all power saving options disabled the system will periodically lock up on the screensaver. While annoying, that isn't the worst of it. When my PC locks on the screensaver it kills the internet for the entire house. If I turn off my locked up PC, then the internet comes back and is available to any device in the house.

I have tried all sorts of BIOS versions for my PC. Now I am using the F9 version from 2/22/2012, I had tried them all up to the latest beta F12p BIOS.

I've swapped my graphics card out for a wonderful Zotac GeForce 210, tested the memory for 24 hours (all clean). I have been having this problem for some time now, so I've reimaged with Windows 7 and Windows 8 a few times already.

I have disabled UPnP on my router (NetGear WNDR3700 v2) just in case that is what was causing my PC to kill the internet for the house when it locked up. This did not have any impact, but I had to try.

This worked last summer without incident. I have no idea what changed. I rarely update drivers outside of the Nvidia ones or what is delivered with Windows Update. But it has spanned multiple OS installs and 2 OS versions (Win7 & Win8).

I've been in contact with Gigabyte and they recommend an RMA. I'm leery of that after seeing the experiences of others who received a motherboard in worse condition than the one they sent in, let alone the downtime associated with this as they do not cross-ship. I am seriously considering buying an ASUS Sabertooth X79 board and walking away from Gigabyte and potential frustration from a lengthy RMA event.

Does anyone have any ideas I can try before replacing the motherboard?

[Detection]

Correct power saving settings enabled in the BIOS?

I remember similar issues being caused by hardware such as network adapters, the setting that allows the PC to put the device to sleep

[zeke009]

Thank you, Detection. I have to admit, with all the tinkering I haven't the slightest idea of what state that setting is in right now. I'll check when I get home.

[zeke009]

Sadly, toggling power options on the NIC had no affect. My system still will not go to sleep and the monitor will not power off unless I tap the button.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Did you try what Detection sasid about setting the right sleep save settings? I think you need it to be set to AS3 or something... (forget what it is, haven't messed with it lately)

[alphamale]

you may want to focus your trouble shooting around the nic. for it to kill the internet to the whole house something's not right. if it were me that would cause me to take action like unplugging that box and take it somewhere else like someones else's house and see if plugging it in their network causes the same issue (new cable). then you can go home and trouble the real problem if its not the box.

modem, router, cable on and on

good luck

[zeke009]

Did you try what Detection sasid about setting the right sleep save settings? I think you need it to be set to AS3 or something... (forget what it is, haven't messed with it lately)

UEFI is set to S3 with other Wake Up options disabled, I have turned the setting down to S1 for a while with no change.

you may want to focus your trouble shooting around the nic. for it to kill the internet to the whole house something's not right. if it were me that would cause me to take action like unplugging that box and take it somewhere else like someones else's house and see if plugging it in their network causes the same issue (new cable). then you can go home and trouble the real problem if its not the box.

modem, router, cable on and on

good luck

Thanks to the EggXpert review program, I've had a new router and switch enter the home lately that did not have any impact on the issue (good or bad).

I do have a PCIe NIC in the closet 'o stuff, I'll have to dig that out and give it shot.

[zeke009]

PCie card is installed (Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter), I'll see how this goes over the next few days.

[zeke009]

Well, 2 days with the PCie NIC and no lockups or loss of internet to the house.

I decided to turn on sleep today and I was greeted with the 20+ rapid beeps and power cycling of the PC again.

The original issue:

My PC can go to sleep, but when it wakes I get a series of short beeps that I lose count of around the 20 mark. The system power cycles itself and repeats. I have to flip the switch on the PSU to turn it off for a few minutes before it will start properly.

I can't seem to find what these codes mean for a UEFI BIOS. Does anyone know of a reliable site that explains what the beep codes are for the AMI UEFI BIOS? I must have used the wrong search terms as I've found nothing yet that covers a long string of short beeps followed by a power cycle and then it repeats.

I thought it was memory related, so I've toggled between XMP settings and default over the last few months. The only difference was slower RAM timings.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Have you tried running Memtest86+? It may be a problem with your RAM. Like it doesn't fully back it up.

[zeke009]

Have you tried running Memtest86+? It may be a problem with your RAM. Like it doesn't fully back it up.

I have (I neglected to list it above) and everything came back clean, no errors were seen.

[zeke009]

The holiday giveaway reminded me that I never responded to this with the solution. It turns out it was the fancy Razer driver package that syncs settings to the cloud. Once I rolled that back to a previous, non-cloud based version my PC sleeps and wakes without issue. I'm running version 1.18 now and ignoring all the driver update alerts.