System Dead after Standby, no POST on reboot

[John Blaustein]

Hi,

My system is an ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe with an Antec power supply.
P4, 3.0 Ghz. 2GB Mushkin RAM. Windows XP Home. I built this system in
June 2004 and it's worked perfectly ever since. Until now...

All of a sudden, when I enter Standby for a long period of time, the PC
won't wake up. Or, I should say it only partially wakes up. The hard
drives start to spin, but there is no video. The keyboard is unresponsive.
CTRL+ALT+DEL does nothing. The reset button does nothing. I have to turn
off the power and when I reboot, nothing happens. I have to remove the
battery, unplug the power and short the CLR BIOS pins to clear the BIOS. I
then reboot, reset my BIOS settings and all is well... until the next time.

If I enter Standby for only a few minutes, then the system will wake up. If
I turn the system off, I can restart without problems, even if the system
sits overnight with no power.

I replaced the battery and was hoping that would fix this, but it didn't.
I've inspected the MB for bad capacitors, but I see none.

I have the latest ASUS BIOS -- other than a newer beta BIOS.

Until just the other day, Standby worked without difficulty. I should
mention that I have all XP patches and updates applied. Could a recent
Windows Update cause this?

I'll be most grateful for any help here.

Thanks very much.

John

 

[Dudley Henriques]

I have an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe from Hypersonic that has run for 3 years in
and out of standby with no issues until recently when I began getting the
same issue as you have with the exception that the reset button would
function and reboot the system. My system has all service packs and updates
current as well.
I had recently switched from a PS/2 mouse and keyboard to USB for both.
Also, I had updated my video driver to the latest Nvidia reference driver. I
have no idea if these things were related, but I solved the issue by
formatting and reinstalling XP, and replacing the keyboard and mouse back to
the old PS/2 set that were attached before.
It could have been an update and it could have been several other things. I
don't really know;;; but its fixed anyway )
Hope this helps a bit
Dudley Henriques

 

[John Blaustein]

Dudley,

Interesting. Thanks for your reply.

What's odd here is that I've replaced nothing -- same keyboard, same mouse,
same video cards and drivers. (Dual video cards, dual monitors.) Nothing
new in the Startup folder. One new piece of software -- image editing that
loads nothing at startup -- but otherwise not even any new drivers. The
only thing new is whatever Windows Update does.

Hmmm??

I can live without using Standby, but I always hate to leave these PC
mysteries unsolved. It's good to know that reformatting and reinstall XP
did the trick for you, but I don't have the energy for that right now --
particularly since everything (other than Standby) is working so well.

I'll keep at it and see if I come up with something. As I type this... I
remember that I've recently started using some extra external USB HDs. I
can't say for sure if this problem started before or after attaching those
drives and a powered USB hub. I will do a test this evening when I shut
down. I will unplug the USB hub (external drives), reboot and let the
system go into Standby -- which it is set to do after two hours. I'll see
what happens in the morning and will report back.

John

 

[Dudley Henriques]

I forgot to tell you that I updated the BIOS using ASUS' utility that allows
it from a windows format. Went smoothly. That could very well have been what
fixed the issue. If it helps, I downloaded and updated to version 1016.
Somebody suggested to me during all this that the USB controllers went down
after a certain amount of time in standby. I don't remember what it was they
suggested I change in the BIOS to prevent that from happening, but I'm sure
someone might chime in here and explain that . Obviously I didn't change
that specific item, but perhaps I should have.
I think it had something to do with Legacy but I'm not certain. I didn't
want to change the Bios settings without being sure.
Dudley

 

[John Blaustein]

Dudley,

I have the latest BIOS for my MB (P4P800-E Deluxe). I've had it for a
while, so I don't think that's it in my case.

I don't understand the workings of all this, but I can imagine that my
relatively new external powered USB hub could be the culprit. I've seen the
setting for legacy USB in the BIOS setup screens, but I've not paid much
attention to that. I'll look in the manual again. I'm not certain what
Legacy means, or which devices are Legacy and which aren't. (I've gotten
very good at making BIOS setting changes since all this started -- every
time this happens, I have to clear the BIOS and start all over.)

My system is sitting in Standby now... with the USB hub unplugged. (I'm on
another PC.) We'll see what happens.

Thanks again for your messages, info and suggestions.

John

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Good luck with it.
Dudley Henriques

Dudley,

I have the latest BIOS for my MB (P4P800-E Deluxe). I've had it for a
while, so I don't think that's it in my case.

I don't understand the workings of all this, but I can imagine that my
relatively new external powered USB hub could be the culprit. I've seen
the setting for legacy USB in the BIOS setup screens, but I've not paid
much attention to that. I'll look in the manual again. I'm not certain
what Legacy means, or which devices are Legacy and which aren't. (I've
gotten very good at making BIOS setting changes since all this started --
every time this happens, I have to clear the BIOS and start all over.)

My system is sitting in Standby now... with the USB hub unplugged. (I'm
on another PC.) We'll see what happens.

Thanks again for your messages, info and suggestions.

John

 

[John Blaustein]

Dudley,

I have found the source of the problem, but I'm not sure why it is causing
the problem.

I unplugged my external USB hub -- this is where I attach three external
hard drives. I rebooted and then Start>Turn Off Computer>Standby. The
computer sat all night in that condition. When I pressed the Space Bar this
morning, the computer woke up and all is well! Clearly, the external USB
hub is the culprit, but I'm not sure why.

The external USB hub is attached to the USB header that was included with
the motherboard. The USB header is attached to the USB_78 connector on the
MB. The USB hub has its own power supply which I've left powered-on when
the PC went into Standby mode. I'm thinking that either the hub itself is
causing this problem, or having the hub powered-on by its own power supply
is the cause. With three external HDs plugged into this external hub, I
don't know if the hub power supply is needed. (The three HDs are all AC
powered -- connected to AC via their own adapters.)

I will do some more testing, but I feel much better now knowing the problem
isn't motherboard-related.

I'll post back if I find out anything more.

John

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Sounds like you might have it headed in the right direction. I'm fairly
convinced its USB and power connected but my knowledge of how it all
interfaces isn't good enough to follow all the way through to the answer.
If and when you nail it down, I'm sure it will be helpful to everyone if you
post your findings.
Dudley

 

[John Blaustein]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

It seems my problem was caused by the AC power adapter plugged into the
external USB hub. At the end of the day yesterday, I unplugged the AC
adapter from the hub and then put the system into Standby. The fans stopped
turning. The system woke up from Standby this morning with no problem.
(Also, the hub was plugged into the USB1 port and not the USB_78 via the
header, but I don't think is an issue.)

So, Standby works fine (even overnight) with the hub connected as long as I
do not use the AC adapter with the hub. Since my external HDDs are all AC
powered, I don't need to power the hub.

All is well.

John