Do I have a bad memory controller?

triviallytravis

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EDIT: Updated with new details below.

Hey guys,

Over the weekend, I upgraded the CPU and motherboard on my computer (went from an AMD Athlon to a Core i5). Everything seems to be working fine, except my computer will no longer resume from Standby. I did a reinstall of Windows 8 x64 and updated all of the drivers (to the best of my knowledge), but the problem persists.

Basically when I put the computer to sleep, it goes into Standby normally. But when I try to wake it up, the keyboard and mouse will not do wake it up at all (nothing happens on key presses, button clicks or mouse movement). If I press the power button, the fans spin up, the lights on the PC come on, but nothing else happens. Keyboard, monitor and mouse fail to light up. I can't get it to respond to anything but holding the power button down and turning it off (reset button on the case does not even work).

I've messed around with some settings in Windows and in the BIOS that I thought might be causing the problem, but no luck so far. I've also contacted Gigabyte support (I suspect the motherboard may be the problem), but I figured in the mean time I'd reach out to the masses and see if anybody has any good ideas. Thanks guys!

Current System -- http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NFwI
CPU: Core i5 3570K
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77N-Wifi
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 (OC) 2GB
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W
Case: Bitfenix Prodigy
OS: Windows 8 x64
SSD: OSZ Vertex 2
 

triviallytravis

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I've tried toggling the ErP setting in the BIOS, and messing with the "Power on by Keyboard" and "Power on by Mouse" settings. In Windows, I've tried different combinations of all of the normal power options: hibernation on/off, turning off monitors and hard disks, USB selective suspending, etc.
 

triviallytravis

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xHCI Pre-Boot Driver is set to 'Enabled'
xHCI Mode mode is set to 'Auto'
USB2.0 Controller is set to 'Enabled'
Legacy USB Support is 'Enabled'
 

Flying-Q

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run command prompt as administrator
type>powercfg.exe /hibernation off <return>
>exit <return>

reboot

run cmd as administrator
>powercfg.exe /hibernation on <return>
>exit>

reboot

This will delete and rebuild the hiberfil.sys hidden file which is where the hibernation/standby info is stored in the OS drive root.

Make sure standby and sleep are enabled in the advanced power options.

reboot

If this does not succeed then it is not your windows installation. Look to hardware.
 

triviallytravis

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Nope, did not work. (Thank you for the help, by the way!)

I do not think it is the Windows installation because I was not having the problem before, and it showed up after I installed the new motherboard and CPU. Also, a fresh install of Windows 8 did not fix the problem. The same problem occurred right after the installation, as well as after I updated all of the drivers.
 

triviallytravis

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Yeah I was afraid of that. I haven't quite given up yet -- I still haven't heard back from Gigabyte -- but the RMA process at Microcenter is easy, thankfully. Just throw everything back into the box, go into the store, and swap it for a new one.
 

triviallytravis

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Well, I exchanged the board, installed it into my system, booted it up, and then entered Standby mode. Waited a few seconds... Keyboard and mouse were still unresponsive. When I pushed the power button, it came back on. "Progress!" I thought. Tried it again, with the same results. Cool.

So from there I rebooted and looked for some options in the BIOS to try to get the keyboard and mouse working. Rebooted. Went into Standby mode... And the original problem resurfaced again. Not only that, but after I swapped the BIOS settings back to the defaults, the problem STILL persists. I don't know why it didn't happen those first two tries, but now no matter what I do, I still have the problem again.

So I guess the motherboard isn't the problem? Is there another piece of hardware that could be causing this? The only other thing that has changed from the old system is the CPU.
 

triviallytravis

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I ran some tests with memtest86, one RAM stick at a time in each memory slot, and then again with both modules inserted. I definitely have one RAM module that has some problems, as it returned a ton or errors in all cases, and the other stick never returned any errors.

I popped that RAM out, and installed 2x2GB from another system I have, and ran it again with zero errors. So it seems like one of the RAM modules is at least contributing to the problem.

I left the good RAM in and then ran Prime95 overnight to test the processor, and when I stopped it, I have zero errors and zero warnings, so I think the CPU is good.

The bad RAM is about 2 years old from G.Skill, and I'm not sure what the warranty is on it, but I'm going to try to return it.
 

triviallytravis

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Aaaaaand after all of that and a few more tests, the resume from Standby issue persists =) I'm running out of ideas. Hibernate mode seems to work though.

I have no problem just using Hibernate instead of Standby to fix the immediate issue, but it just bugs me knowing that there is some unknown, unsolved problem with my system...
 

triviallytravis

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Had to go to work, but will try this when I get home. From the tests I've done, it seems like if I disable hibernate (powercfg /h off), reboot, and then put the computer into Standby mode, that is when I definitely see the problem. If I turn hibernate back on, reboot, and then put the computer into Hibernate mode, I don't have the problem. I believe that I've left the Hybrid Sleep option on when I've done the experiments with Hibernate, but I'm not sure.
 

triviallytravis

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Given that I've tested that both memory slots, have two known good sticks of RAM, and am still having the issue, could the issue still be the CPU? I mean I ran it overnight on P95 with no errors... The only reason I suspect the CPU is because of what the Gigabyte customer support rep said, and admittedly, I don't know much about the CPU memory controller, or what can go wrong with it.
 

triviallytravis

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Well I figured it out, and the problem is kinda stupid... Evidently I can only use my keyboard/mouse to wake the computer from sleep (any kind of sleep) when they are plugged into certain USB ports. I got out an old USB keyboard, plugged that into a USB 2.0 port along side my G15, and I was able to wake from hibernation with no problem. I then unplugged it, and plugged the G15 into the same port. Nothing. Unplugged the G15 and plugged it into a USB port, 3.0 this time. Success!

I have 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back and 2 USB 3.0, then another 2 3.0 on my front panel. For some reason the G15 will only wake the computer if it is plugged into one of the 3.0 ports. Beats me why.

And as a side effect, this has also cleared up my Standby (S3) problem! No my keyboard/mouse will wake the computer from Standby with no problems. I think the problem I was seeing where it wasn't resuming from Standby came from it being on Standby and then trying to use the power button to wake it up. For whatever reason it doesn't like that, and I guess it was hanging. Now the the keyboard and mouse are working, I don't care about this.

Whew, what a pain.