Strange HDD behaviour after system has been asleep..

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Hi folks..

Despite being the ultimate Vista sceptic, i'm giving it another go at work because SP1 is just around the corner. I'm running it on my work box (Core 2 Duo E6600, 3GB RAM, 7600GS) and it seems to be behaving mostly ok so far (though have already had one unrecoverable freeze up.. sigh). Anyway - i've woken my machine from sleep this morning and it came back up quickly EXCEPT that my 2nd / data hdd wakes up if I access it then switches off again 30 seconds later! Has anyone come across this sort problem before? Is there a known patch or anything for it?

I'm using most recent drivers for everything, and applied the Intel motherboard INF update from their website as well so everything should be fully patched.

Cheers.

[Guest xiphi]

Try adjusting your power settings by typing "Power Options" in the Start Menu.

[vertigosity]

Ah-hah! I'm not insane! Somebody else has this problem too!

I'd moved my secondary HDs to USB cases so they didn't get murdered...

I haven't been able to track it down to any one component. At least in my case, it doesn't seem to be related to going into or coming out of any sleep state, as I never use any of them except for hibernation occasionally, so it's mostly clean boots from normal power-off. It doesn't seem to happen on a fresh install, but that might be a false assumption since it doesn't stay fresh for long. The HD inactivity timeout setting in the power control panel doesn't have any effect, at least not between 0, 20 (the default), and 9999999 (the highest I could set it). I have a very similar machine to yours (at least, driver-wise): an Intel G31-chipset C2Q 6600, with 2GB RAM, and an 8800GT, but I had the exact same symptoms on my old machine, which was an nForce2-chipset AthXP 3200+, also with 2GB of RAM, and a 7800GS. I was planning on cobbling together a Vista-capable machine from spare parts this weekend to try and see if it happens on a clean install, and if not, what component seems to cause it. Sorry I don't have anything useful to add at present, but I'll let you know if I turn anything up.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Try adjusting your power settings by typing "Power Options" in the Start Menu.

I'm not a computer newbie mate :) I checked the power settings. The drive functions as normal prior to the system going into sleep mode, and when I bring it back out, the drive goes to sleep after being accessed after only 15 or so seconds. I tweaked the power settings thinking that changing them whilst the system was on would somehow reset it, but it didn't seem to make a difference and still spun down.

Ah-hah! I'm not insane! Somebody else has this problem too!

Ah - well i'm glad i'm not alone on this one.

At least in my case, it doesn't seem to be related to going into or coming out of any sleep state

Hm - other way round for me. The drive remains active throughout the day no problems. Its only after the machine slept last night and I came back in this morning that I noticed this behaviour.. i've rebooted now (applied various updates to see if it'd help) and it hasn't done it since rebooting but I can't help but think i'll be seeing the same behaviour again once I leave my machine to go into sleep mode.

[Guest xiphi]

I'm not a computer newbie mate

You didn't specify whether you looked within the Power Options, so I assumed you didn't look there. Just trying to help out by making sure all of the bases have been covered.

Since I haven't experienced this issue, I only have 3 suggestions for now: check your bios settings, poke around in the device manager, or obtain SP1 somehow.

If I happen to stumble upon a fix elsewhere, I'll be sure to report it here.

[Raa]

You didn't specify whether you looked within the Power Options, so I assumed you didn't look there. Just trying to help out by making sure all of the bases have been covered.

I'd have to agree here, that bordered on being impolite, but hey, I can't whinge :p

Anyway, I'd suggest you to do the SP1 update (obtain however you like) and i'd be confident it'd help your issue.

This problem HAS been mentioned before, I remember someone posting a thread about last year, can't remember who though.

Good luck though. Xp ftw, it seems.

[vertigosity]

I'd have to agree here, that bordered on being impolite, but hey, I can't whinge :p

Anyway, I'd suggest you to do the SP1 update (obtain however you like) and i'd be confident it'd help your issue.

This problem HAS been mentioned before, I remember someone posting a thread about last year, can't remember who though.

Good luck though. Xp ftw, it seems.

Found that thread, and a few more:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=618465

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=615704

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=611399

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=580727

^ I guess I'd just picked terminally useless search terms when Googling, in the past... or maybe limiting my search to just NW would have been more fruitful.

• I don't think it's related to SATA/PATA - I've seen this with both a Maxtor 250GB PATA, and a WD 500GB PATA on both the nF2 and G31 machines, and with a 200GB Hitachi SATA I borrowed from another machine on the G31 (the nF2 machine doesn't have a SATA controller).
  
• SP1 doesn't have any effect for me - and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing this back in the Beta 1+2 days, but didn't stick with it long enough to confirm anything other than "Nope, I'm not ready for Vista yet."
  
• I'm almost positive it has to be related to some piece of software or combination thereof, as I have friends who have Vista and multiple hard drives who don't have this issue.
  
• Disabling drive powerdown is kinda sloppy, since it (probably) breaks suspend support, and if it's a BIOS option, might not be available to anybody else who experiences the problem. Universality!
  
• XP FTW, indeed. I donated my license to my mother (who was still running win98), though, so no more of that for me :/
  

Edited February 27, 2008 by vertigosity

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

xiphi - no, you're absolutely right. My reply wasn't intended to sound that 'short' - it was just early and I hadn't had any coffee. Please accept an apology from me.

I've fully updated and rebooted my machine this morning again and come back to it this afternoon (was out of the office all day) and the problem persists! Something to read up about...

The main reason I put Vista on my PC was to give it a chance, and also in time for SP1 so I could see what changes it bought about. I'll be sure to check those other posts when I get few minutes.. just leaving work now and got a busy evening so hopefully sometime before I go to bed.

Thanks for the replys, guys.

[jjrambo]

Power options never worked for me in Vista, and i never really used it. I only turn off monitor after 15 minutes and that's about all. When i go to sleep i shut down computer.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

XP FTW, indeed. I donated my license to my mother (who was still running win98), though, so no more of that for me

You know the interesting thing here is that i'm trying Vista again because i've been particularly scathing of it on here in recent months. I've "discovered" Mac ownership and my attitudes and opinions on here have reflected that but i've been set upon REGULARLY by those who tell me i'm a fanboy and that Vista is a wonderful product. So this is me stepping back and giving it another fair chance. I simply went into this as someone who likes XP - but wants a bit more eye candy and is fortunate enough to have the choice of OS's thanks to a generous enterprise licensing scheme.

Taking all that into consideration, it's fair to say that it's rather something of a let down that i'm running into a problem like this on day one. And it's not like I can be told i've got crappy or out of date hardware, or i'm not using the most recent drivers, or i've not fully patched the product because i'm using a cracked copy.

I'll keep at it though and i'll wait for SP1 - I owe Microsoft at least that much!

And interestingly my problem mirrors a lot of those other threads you posted vertigosity in that its only my second drive that goes to sleep all the time - the main / boot drive does not. Though I suppose its quite possible that there is enough read / write demands going to the boot drive regularly enough that it doesn't get to the state where it feels it can go into standby.

[vertigosity]

You know the interesting thing here is that i'm trying Vista again because i've been particularly scathing of it on here in recent months. I've "discovered" Mac ownership and my attitudes and opinions on here have reflected that but i've been set upon REGULARLY by those who tell me i'm a fanboy and that Vista is a wonderful product. So this is me stepping back and giving it another fair chance. I simply went into this as someone who likes XP - but wants a bit more eye candy and is fortunate enough to have the choice of OS's thanks to a generous enterprise licensing scheme.

Taking all that into consideration, it's fair to say that it's rather something of a let down that i'm running into a problem like this on day one. And it's not like I can be told i've got crappy or out of date hardware, or i'm not using the most recent drivers, or i've not fully patched the product because i'm using a cracked copy.

I'll keep at it though and i'll wait for SP1 - I owe Microsoft at least that much!

Yeah, I'm not a Vista fanboy (although I guess anybody experiencing the problem of topic and keeps using it anyways has to be a little biased) by any means; although I like the eye-candy and the shell+kernel improvements, I don't have Vista tweaked to perfection as I did with XP and probably wouldn't have jumped if I hadn't wanted to play with resource hacking it, and my mom hadn't desperately needed an OS upgrade. Heck, I'm one of those "problem users" who removes components just because I didn't want them, or prefer a third-party concept... as users, we don't owe MS anything, except that if we find a better solution, we are obligated to use it instead ;)

FWIW, I seem to not be having random HD power cycling using WinVI 64-bit SP1, although that doesn't count as a diagnosis or a real solution.

Edited February 28, 2008 by vertigosity

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Right. I found there was a very recent BIOS update from Intel (my motherboard is a genuine Intel one) which I applied. I forced my PC into the sleep / standby and when I woke it back up, the drive didn't keep shutting off.. hopefully the BIOS update will have done it!

I'll leave the PC on tonight in standby and see what happens tomorrow morning.

As an addendum, the other beef I had with Vista was the disk thrash and total lack of responsiveness after booting / logging in thanks to SuperFetch - I decided to experiment (taking onboard arguments both for and against leaving it enabled) and for me, I much prefer the experience with it turned off. It flies through startup and onto the desktop with none of the normal lethargy i'd experienced in the past. I don't notice any real application launch slowdown without it so going to stick with it for now!

I'm slowly.. slowly.. starting to warm to the idea of using Vista more regularly.

[vertigosity]

Yeah, I ruined the experiment on my G31/Q6600 machine, a new BIOS revision only weeks old seems to have fixed it. I'll probably still try and narrow it down with some hardcore testing this weekend if I get the chance, but at least as far as my and Chicane's boxes go... thread closed :p