Question Desktop PC not booting on sleep

[Defender99]

Greetings everyone,

I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions regarding an issue I'm currently having.

This issue surfaced 2 weeks ago. The PC was in sleep mode for over an hour and my girlfriend wanted to power it up by pushing the power button on the case. The fans started to roll and the PC lighted up for a split second, then it stopped. The light on the case continued blinking, indicating that the PC was still in sleep mode (apparently), but remained unresponsive when interacting with the case power button, keyboard and/or mouse. The only thing I could do is, I flipped the PSU switch off/on (waited 10 seconds in between each flip), the PC powered on and worked normally, even in time of writing this. I usually use alt+f4 to quickly access "Shut Down Windows" menu for putting the PC in sleep mode, shut down, hibernation, restart and such.

3 days ago, after working on the PC, I alt+f4 and put it to sleep mode. Came back later, interacted with the keyboard, the issue surfaced again. I repeated the same steps as above, fixed the issue temporarily, used the PC for some time, put it into sleep mode again, came back later, interacted with the keyboard, issue appeared again. This time, I didn't want to take any chances and decided to intervene and figure out what was causing this. I'm aware that the reason why this is happening is because it is preventing something bad from happening to the PC itself.

Here's some background information about the PC:

The PC was assembled in August 2018. The parts:
- GPU: ASUS GTX 1060 O6G Dual
- CPU: Intel i7-7700k, Quad-core, 4.2GHz - w/ COOLERMASTER 212X Cooler
- MBO: ASRock Z270 Pro4
- RAM: x2 Kingston HyperX Fury KIN 2666MHz 8GB (DDR4, 16GB)
- PSU: Thermaltake 730W Smart SE
- HDD: Western Digital Black SATA3 2TB
- SSD: Kingston A400 120GB (for OS)
- OS: Windows 10 Pro
- CASE: MS MONSTER

The parts were brand new when they were purchased. The PC served me well over the years, was never prone to overclocking (not much interest in that) and was maintained very well, even today. Careful dust cleaning every 2-3 months, thermal paste on the CPU changed once every 12-16 months. I never forced the PC to run on high temperatures when playing videogames, so I took good care of it and often monitored the temperatures using programs such as HW Monitor, CPUID, MSI Afterburner, CrystalDiskInfo. Every year or so, I would take all the parts out and strip the case to the very skeleton and clean the dust off. Fast forward to November 2022, the PC was then upgraded with a new GPU, more RAM, 2 SSD's and a new case (to fit the GPU). Recently started using 3 monitors.

Current PC:
- GPU: MSI Nvidia RTX 3070 Gaming Z Trio ( 8GB VRAM ) - 3 DP's, 1 HDMI outputs
- CPU: Intel i7-7700k, Quad-core, 4.2GHz - w/ COOLERMASTER 212X Cooler
- MBO: ASRock Z270 Pro4
- RAM: x2 Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 16GB 3200MHz (DDR4, 32GB)
- PSU: Thermaltake 730W Smart SE
- HDD: Western Digital Black SATA3 2TB
- SSD: Kingston A400 120GB & A400 240GB, M.2 Samsung EVO 500GB (M.2 for OS)
- OS: Windows 10 Pro
- CASE: MS ARMOR V500

Monitors:
- 27" DELL S2721H - running at 75Hz - ( connected via HDMI cable, using Adapter SBOX (DP(M) to HDMI(F)),
- 24" Acer Nitro VG240Y - running at 144hz - ( connected via DP cable),
- TV (Vivax 32LE95T2) - running at 60hz - ( connected via HDMI cable ),

I am well aware that the MBO and PSU have aged well and should be replaced, but the current situation prevents me from doing that, unless absolutely necessary and really sure that they need replacement. I've done the following to narrow the list of suspects as much as possible, to figure out what is the cause. I wouldn't be making a thread about it before checking everything myself. I've tried all I could think of and here's what I've done so far:

1. At first, I thought it could be related to Windows. I did a quick scan on Windows 10 using Windows Defender. Nothing popped up. I used PowerShell to initiate a safe boot of Windows 10, then scanned the PC again which provided no results to grab my attention. This was followed by a full scan in normal mode which lasted for 2 hours. Nothing appeared. (I avoid doing anything suspicious that would throw a virus or two at me. I use the PC now mostly for college projects, Blender creations, Unity and the usual Netflix/YouTube content.

2. Have done fresh installment of OS onto existing M.2 SSD 1st time, 2nd time 240GB SSD. Backed up everything on my external WD Elements before the wipe. Didn't transfer anything from the external HDD before and after testing. Issue remained in both cases.

3. Unplugged everything and taken out all parts in the case except for the case connectors, case fans, MBO, PSU, CPU w/ 212X and 1 stick of RAM (slot 2, used old RAM). Reconnected the cables to their positions, triple checked the connections and started testing. The PC turned on without any issues, multiple times even. Then started connecting the following: 212X cable, each and every case fan cable, HDD, A400 120GB, 240GB, M.2, then replaced the RAM with the newer ones (firstly slot 2, then slot 4), with the GPU being the last, the muscle that it is. After mounting/putting back each part individually, I checked the cables yet again to be sure it is alright, then I powered off/on the PC with 20 seconds waiting interval in between. Everything worked flawlessly. However, the issue didn't go away.

All fans in the PC are running without any issues, the RAM sticks are working fine, double-checked everything in the BIOS for any irregularities, anything that could be read from the displayed information provided to me by third party apps, BIOS and Windows itself. Have updated the drivers too after each new and fresh OS install. Nothing.

Interestingly, the PC powers on and off without any issues when it is completely shut down or hibernating. What I have noticed is this:

- Regardless of the amount of time it was running from the moment it was powered on until the moment I put it to sleep, the PC would wake up from sleep mode without any issues only if a short amount of time has passed since it was put to sleep, we could be talking about +/- 10 minutes. Anything more than that, it would just not be possible for the PC to wake up normally and the issue would surface. This makes me think that not enough power is being pulled for the PC to be up and running in that very moment. Also the 2 out of 3 monitors are powered off whenever I turn on the PC. The case connectors have been checked multiple times if there's anything wrong with them, wasn't able to notice anything.

I can perfectly play videogames on the PC. Elite Dangerous, Just Cause 3, Cyberpunk 2077, AC Black Flag and such.

And that's about it. I suspect the culprit could be the PSU. Unsure if the MBO could also be the culprit here.

Thank you for reading my wall of text. What do you think? All opinions and suggestions are welcome.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

As you've stated the obvious already, it's possibly to do with PSU. It's old. Possibly not providing clean power, resulting in anomalous behaviour.

What bios are you running? Is it the latest? The system is getting on, so having the latest bios might bring stability or bug fixes.

It may also be something to do with your power plans. You can reset them to default by typing the foolowing commands into powershell:

Ultimate Performance: powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
High Performance: powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
Balanced: powercfg -duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
Power saver: powercfg -duplicatescheme a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

Paste the codes into powershell to reset them. THen try them all, and see if the problem persists. It could be something simple that's been overlooked.

 

[Defender99]

I appreciate the quick response.

Just got back home and wanted to power up the PC, which was already shut down. The issue happened again, somehow managed to turn on the PC. The decision has been made, will buy and replace the PSU tomorrow.

I can see the latest BIOS version for my MBO is v2.70, checked Sys Info and I can see I'm running on v2.20. Will update it tomorrow too.

As for power plans, I'll proceed with what you posted. I'll post any updates that I can soon.

Thank you.

 

[Bob.B]

Greetings everyone,

I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions regarding an issue I'm currently having.

This issue surfaced 2 weeks ago. The PC was in sleep mode for over an hour and my girlfriend wanted to power it up by pushing the power button on the case. The fans started to roll and the PC lighted up for a split second, then it stopped. The light on the case continued blinking, indicating that the PC was still in sleep mode (apparently), but remained unresponsive when interacting with the case power button, keyboard and/or mouse. The only thing I could do is, I flipped the PSU switch off/on (waited 10 seconds in between each flip), the PC powered on and worked normally, even in time of writing this. I usually use alt+f4 to quickly access "Shut Down Windows" menu for putting the PC in sleep mode, shut down, hibernation, restart and such.

3 days ago, after working on the PC, I alt+f4 and put it to sleep mode. Came back later, interacted with the keyboard, the issue surfaced again. I repeated the same steps as above, fixed the issue temporarily, used the PC for some time, put it into sleep mode again, came back later, interacted with the keyboard, issue appeared again. This time, I didn't want to take any chances and decided to intervene and figure out what was causing this. I'm aware that the reason why this is happening is because it is preventing something bad from happening to the PC itself.

Here's some background information about the PC:

The PC was assembled in August 2018. The parts:
- GPU: ASUS GTX 1060 O6G Dual
- CPU: Intel i7-7700k, Quad-core, 4.2GHz - w/ COOLERMASTER 212X Cooler
- MBO: ASRock Z270 Pro4
- RAM: x2 Kingston HyperX Fury KIN 2666MHz 8GB (DDR4, 16GB)
- PSU: Thermaltake 730W Smart SE
- HDD: Western Digital Black SATA3 2TB
- SSD: Kingston A400 120GB (for OS)
- OS: Windows 10 Pro
- CASE: MS MONSTER

The parts were brand new when they were purchased. The PC served me well over the years, was never prone to overclocking (not much interest in that) and was maintained very well, even today. Careful dust cleaning every 2-3 months, thermal paste on the CPU changed once every 12-16 months. I never forced the PC to run on high temperatures when playing videogames, so I took good care of it and often monitored the temperatures using programs such as HW Monitor, CPUID, MSI Afterburner, CrystalDiskInfo. Every year or so, I would take all the parts out and strip the case to the very skeleton and clean the dust off. Fast forward to November 2022, the PC was then upgraded with a new GPU, more RAM, 2 SSD's and a new case (to fit the GPU). Recently started using 3 monitors.

Current PC:
- GPU: MSI Nvidia RTX 3070 Gaming Z Trio ( 8GB VRAM ) - 3 DP's, 1 HDMI outputs
- CPU: Intel i7-7700k, Quad-core, 4.2GHz - w/ COOLERMASTER 212X Cooler
- MBO: ASRock Z270 Pro4
- RAM: x2 Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 16GB 3200MHz (DDR4, 32GB)
- PSU: Thermaltake 730W Smart SE
- HDD: Western Digital Black SATA3 2TB
- SSD: Kingston A400 120GB & A400 240GB, M.2 Samsung EVO 500GB (M.2 for OS)
- OS: Windows 10 Pro
- CASE: MS ARMOR V500

Monitors:
- 27" DELL S2721H - running at 75Hz - ( connected via HDMI cable, using Adapter SBOX (DP(M) to HDMI(F)),
- 24" Acer Nitro VG240Y - running at 144hz - ( connected via DP cable),
- TV (Vivax 32LE95T2) - running at 60hz - ( connected via HDMI cable ),

I am well aware that the MBO and PSU have aged well and should be replaced, but the current situation prevents me from doing that, unless absolutely necessary and really sure that they need replacement. I've done the following to narrow the list of suspects as much as possible, to figure out what is the cause. I wouldn't be making a thread about it before checking everything myself. I've tried all I could think of and here's what I've done so far:

1. At first, I thought it could be related to Windows. I did a quick scan on Windows 10 using Windows Defender. Nothing popped up. I used PowerShell to initiate a safe boot of Windows 10, then scanned the PC again which provided no results to grab my attention. This was followed by a full scan in normal mode which lasted for 2 hours. Nothing appeared. (I avoid doing anything suspicious that would throw a virus or two at me. I use the PC now mostly for college projects, Blender creations, Unity and the usual Netflix/YouTube content.

2. Have done fresh installment of OS onto existing M.2 SSD 1st time, 2nd time 240GB SSD. Backed up everything on my external WD Elements before the wipe. Didn't transfer anything from the external HDD before and after testing. Issue remained in both cases.

3. Unplugged everything and taken out all parts in the case except for the case connectors, case fans, MBO, PSU, CPU w/ 212X and 1 stick of RAM (slot 2, used old RAM). Reconnected the cables to their positions, triple checked the connections and started testing. The PC turned on without any issues, multiple times even. Then started connecting the following: 212X cable, each and every case fan cable, HDD, A400 120GB, 240GB, M.2, then replaced the RAM with the newer ones (firstly slot 2, then slot 4), with the GPU being the last, the muscle that it is. After mounting/putting back each part individually, I checked the cables yet again to be sure it is alright, then I powered off/on the PC with 20 seconds waiting interval in between. Everything worked flawlessly. However, the issue didn't go away.

All fans in the PC are running without any issues, the RAM sticks are working fine, double-checked everything in the BIOS for any irregularities, anything that could be read from the displayed information provided to me by third party apps, BIOS and Windows itself. Have updated the drivers too after each new and fresh OS install. Nothing.

Interestingly, the PC powers on and off without any issues when it is completely shut down or hibernating. What I have noticed is this:

- Regardless of the amount of time it was running from the moment it was powered on until the moment I put it to sleep, the PC would wake up from sleep mode without any issues only if a short amount of time has passed since it was put to sleep, we could be talking about +/- 10 minutes. Anything more than that, it would just not be possible for the PC to wake up normally and the issue would surface. This makes me think that not enough power is being pulled for the PC to be up and running in that very moment. Also the 2 out of 3 monitors are powered off whenever I turn on the PC. The case connectors have been checked multiple times if there's anything wrong with them, wasn't able to notice anything.

I can perfectly play videogames on the PC. Elite Dangerous, Just Cause 3, Cyberpunk 2077, AC Black Flag and such.

And that's about it. I suspect the culprit could be the PSU. Unsure if the MBO could also be the culprit here.

Thank you for reading my wall of text. What do you think? All opinions and suggestions are welcome.

Remove the gpu and connect to the igp see if it makes a diff.

 

[Defender99]

Paste the codes into powershell to reset them. THen try them all, and see if the problem persists. It could be something simple that's been overlooked.

For as long as I remember, the power plan was always set on balanced and was never prone to any heavy modifications from my side, just something light such as changing options for the PC not to turn off the display and not to be put to sleep, basically set to "never". Also enabled hibernation, but rarely used. However, even with what you suggested, unfortunately nothing has changed in the behavior of the old PSU.

Remove the gpu and connect to the igp see if it makes a diff.

When I was slowly putting back piece by piece and powering on/off to find the culprit, at the very end everything was connected and was using the igp, the GPU came in last. In that time the PC was running normally.

Interestingly, even with the latest drivers for Intel® HD Graphics 630 which is on i7-7700k, I wasn't able to find the option to enable sleep mode in the power options. I knew where to find it, but it was missing and not showing in the list. The reason could also be for not having latest MBO drivers. Regardless of that, to not deviate from the topic, the PC was running alright.

In the last 2 days, the PC wouldn't start when it was already shut down, multiple times. I've already taken out my current PSU and ordered a new one, ThermalTake Smart BM2 750w.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

For as long as I remember, the power plan was always set on balanced and was never prone to any heavy modifications from my side, just something light such as changing options for the PC not to turn off the display and not to be put to sleep, basically set to "never". Also enabled hibernation, but rarely used. However, even with what you suggested, unfortunately nothing has changed in the behavior of the old PSU.



When I was slowly putting back piece by piece and powering on/off to find the culprit, at the very end everything was connected and was using the igp, the GPU came in last. In that time the PC was running normally.

Interestingly, even with the latest drivers for Intel® HD Graphics 630 which is on i7-7700k, I wasn't able to find the option to enable sleep mode in the power options. I knew where to find it, but it was missing and not showing in the list. The reason could also be for not having latest MBO drivers. Regardless of that, to not deviate from the topic, the PC was running alright.

In the last 2 days, the PC wouldn't start when it was already shut down, multiple times. I've already taken out my current PSU and ordered a new one, ThermalTake Smart BM2 750w.

The PSU you chose, is okay. It's in the same line as a Corsair CX. Decent enough mid-range unit.

 

[Defender99]

Greetings everyone once more.

My new PSU has arrived 5 days ago. I've connected all of the cables, checked multiple times if everything was connected properly and powered up the PC. Stress tested the PC using FurMark, everything was fine, played a bit of Just Cause 3 and ran Elite Dangerous Odyssey for around 3-4 hours. Put it into sleep mode, came back after 2 hours, the issue surfaced again.

I drove the PC to a nearby PC service/repair shop minutes away from my place, folks connected everything and checked the PSU and the PC itself if something was a miss. Nothing was wrong. They even put back the ThermalTake Smart SE 730W and there was nothing wrong with it, said it was as good as new, they were just as confused as me. Got back home and taken a good look at it.

But here comes the funny part and the current solution to the issue.

The CMOS battery on the MBO. The battery (CR2032) was not changed since I first assembled the PC back in 2018. I've taken out the old battery replaced it with a new one. Since then, everything is working alright now. The components are still the same, including the PSU. I've returned the new ThermalTake PSU and got my money back.

This is an experience worthy of mentioning and remembering.