Resolved Not waking from sleep, power-on false starts

When the computer is on, everything seems to be working normally, except the taskbar clock keeps getting reset to the year 2000.

Sometimes, when waking from sleep, the computer and monitor both turn on, but the monitor only displays a blank, dark-blue screen (not like the BSOD). I press and hold the power button to turn it off. When I turn it back on, it starts up for about five seconds (fans and LEDs come on) then turns off then back on for five seconds then back and forth like that indefinitely until I flip the power switch on the power supply. I let the whole system sit for five minutes, turn it back on and it boots normally, and everything's fine.

It's been doing the false-start thing since I put the system together last November, but only after I press and hold the power button after a total system hang. I haven't cared very much since there have only been five or six system hangs the entire year. The refusing to wake from sleep part is new, however, and it's done that several times in the last week.

Also, my dad reports that sometimes he'll leave the computer for a few minutes, come back and find the mouse cursor frozen, but I've never witnessed that. Then he turns it off and is treated to the same false-start behavior.


The case isn't dusty, and Speedfan shows temps around 33C.


Core 2 Quad Q9550
Gigabyte ep45-ud3p
8gb OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400
Corsair vx 450w
Nvidia GeForce 9400 GT
ASUS VW246H connected by DVI
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

I put the new battery in and told the BIOS to "load fail-safe defaults." I'll have to wait a few days to see if the problems continue.

Any ideas why the battery would fail after less than a year? The computer never sits unused for more than a day.

 

Any number of reasons. As Arie said, it could have been on the shelf for a long time. A faulty motherboard may have a partial short causing it to drain. Or, you could have had a bad battery. It happens.

 

Today it did the refusal to wake from sleep thing again. When the screen is just dark blue, the hard drive LED shows no activity at all.

I pressed reset (which I didn't try before because the button is so small you have to press it with your fingernail) and it goes through the BIOS boot and then right back to the dark blue screen. Press and hold power and after only one power-on false start -- that's progress! -- it boots normally into Windows. The system clock has kept the correct date and time.

The graphics card has two DVI ports, so I'm going to put the monitor on the other one to see if that makes a difference.

What's next for diagnosis? Could it be a hard drive failure? This would be a good time for one, since I was hoping to get an SSD this month anyway, now that Newegg has prices I like.

 

Hmm, I am starting to suspect this is a graphics issue where the card is not switching to the correct resolution, then hangs. Switching DVI ports is not likely to help as it will probably just display nothing on the second port, unless you have dual-monitor mode enabled. But even then, the initial boot process is only displayed on the "primary" monitor port.

When it does boot properly, if you go through the Start menu and select Restart, does it reboot with no problems? That is, does this stuck at a blue screen problem only occur after the computer and monitor have gone to sleep?

And when waking up, I assume you are pressing a key, or wiggling the mouse or pressing a mouse button. When you do that, does the computer always respond by at least starting to wake up?

 

Resolution is is 1920 x 1080. I did switch DVI ports and it displays everything normally, including the BIOS boot.

"When it does boot properly, if you go through the Start menu and select Restart, does it reboot with no problems?" I tried that just now, and yes, it boots fine.

"That is, does this stuck at a blue screen problem only occur after the computer and monitor have gone to sleep?" It happens when both computer and monitor are asleep (though not every time). If just the monitor is in standby, it comes awake readily at the wiggle of the mouse.

"And when waking up, I assume you are pressing a key, or wiggling the mouse or pressing a mouse button. When you do that, does the computer always respond by at least starting to wake up? " You can wake it with either the power button or the mouse button. This system has never been wakeable by mouse wiggle or keyboard press. And yes, it always responds to the mouse button press.

On a failed wake from sleep, the monitor displays the Asus logo as usual, a box in the corner recognizes the DVI connection as usual, then the blank blue screen. I just noticed that this dark blue screen is the same as the one you see for a split second when booting, after "Starting Windows" but before the Windows 7 flower-and-vine splash screen. It's also what you see for about one second when switching between users.

 

Okay, then dual monitor mode is enabled and that's fine.

I think I would try another monitor. That blue screen you see is when the monitor resolution is set (or reset). It it does it with another monitor, then you know for sure it is a problem with your computer or graphics solution.

Also, while Corsair makes great PSUs, and 450W is enough for your hardware, this could be a power problem. I would make sure all connections are tight and secure, or try another PSU.

That fact it works some times "suggests" it is not a settings problem, but rather a hardware problem. Intermittent problems are the hardest to troubleshoot - if it happened every time, I would think it was a USB setting.

 

I downloaded the newest drivers from Nvidia, and have gone two weeks without any further problems, so maybe the blue screen was due to the graphics card not switching resolutions as Bill suggests.

I don't have a spare PSU to test, so I'm just going to call this thread "1 issue out of 2 resolved. "

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.