PC Not Booting After Long Off Time

[MJSAMS]

I am having problems getting my PC to boot/POST after it has been off for an extended period of time (8-12hrs). The fans spin and power comes on, but no signal. I seem to need to disconnect power and hold power button (to drain capacitors?) to get it to boot. Sometimes it will just work on the 2nd or 3rd try, other times i need to do this "power button trick." My understanding is this should not be required and means there is an underlying issue with the system. I build this only a few weeks ago so all of the components are new to me. No use.

I have gone through "the list" for troubleshooting boot/POST issues with no success. I have also read through many forums with similar problems but none of the posted solutions fixed my issue. I have swapped PSU, Reset BIOS, Re-seated all components, set memory frequency(as well as auto setting), Reinstalled OS. Leaving power disconnected from the system after shutting down does not seem to help either. I still need to do the "Power Button Trick" prior to turning on after a long time. Thank you in advance for any help anyone can provide!

System Specs:
Geil 2x8gb RAM
ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 K4 Motherboard
Gigabyte GTX 1070 GPU
Intel i7 6700k
Seasonic G550 PSU
Windows 10

 

[MJSAMS]

In bios, find and disable Fast Boot. (mine has 2 switches, Fast Boot and MSI Fast Boot). If that seems to fix the issue, the the real culprit is Hyberfil.sys, of which fast boot is a client.

It's possible as MM states, that it could be a mobo issue, I'm just a big fan of trying everything possible that I can, before being reduced to time consuming rma's or replacements.

I appreciate you looking into this. I would rather not replace/RMA the mobo if i did not have to. I cannot be without the PC for too long. However, i have disabled fast boot both via windows and in the bios. I disabled Hyberfil.sys via command prompt and registry editor per the link you posted. I did not see an increase in my SSD space.

 

[ac13044]

there is 3gb of space to recover if hibernate is off disable using cmd
powercfg/h off

 

[Karadjgne]

Actually, what Hyberfil.sys uses is 75% of total system ram, or in my case that's 12Gb on C: since I have 16Gb of ddr3. Same with OP, but turning hibernate off does nothing, only delete will free up the space. Hyberfil.sys is also used in the Fast Boot function, an almost identical usage as hibernate. Sometimes there are conflicts, and the symptoms are identical to what I experienced and what op is going through now. Only thing else I can suggest is shutdown the pc pull the cord out hit the power button and hold it down for 20 seconds. Plug back in. That'll clear any caps residual charge that might be leftover from before Hyberfil.sys is deleted. Also temporarily kills any USB ports that might be open for use even if the pc is off/sleep

 

[ac13044]

if it saved 12gb of space for you having 16gb then for an 8gb of ram i should of had 6gb then only had 3gb of space after wiping the hyberfil.sys hibernate is mostly for laptops

 

[Karadjgne]

Yes. At 8Gb, it should have freed up 6Gb of space. And hibernate is primarily for laptop use as it saves everything that's currently in the ram to the hdd for fast boot/fast return when a laptop is opened/closed etc. Desktops as such have a permanent monitor that's not 'closed' and either a timer or switch for sleep/off so have absolutely no need for hibernate. In sleep mode, it's all just 'frozen' in place, as components shut down, but the ram retains it's own memory and the motherboard retains enough power from the psu which can head off down to C7 or so. But it stays active. As does, on newer boards, at least 1 USB port, which is designated for USB boot or in my case the phone charger. This too can create issues if the charger is set for High amperage, like the 5A needed for some Apple products, and not set for a more normal 2.1A or so. My mobo is stubborn about that and refuses to activate the fast charge feature if no fast charge equipment is detected.

Everything op has stated as equipment is decent quality so shouldn't be an issue, and the screens look decent. Psu shouldn't be an issue and as the symptoms are sporadic, I can't see the mobo as defective, mobo's are non user variable, they either work or don't.

Op, you wouldn't happen to have something external plugged into a USB port would you? Like a joystick or external hdd or scanner? There is some issues with boot on certain USB powered equipment that I can't specifically remember what items.

 

[MJSAMS]

Yes. At 8Gb, it should have freed up 6Gb of space. And hibernate is primarily for laptop use as it saves everything that's currently in the ram to the hdd for fast boot/fast return when a laptop is opened/closed etc. Desktops as such have a permanent monitor that's not 'closed' and either a timer or switch for sleep/off so have absolutely no need for hibernate. In sleep mode, it's all just 'frozen' in place, as components shut down, but the ram retains it's own memory and the motherboard retains enough power from the psu which can head off down to C7 or so. But it stays active. As does, on newer boards, at least 1 USB port, which is designated for USB boot or in my case the phone charger. This too can create issues if the charger is set for High amperage, like the 5A needed for some Apple products, and not set for a more normal 2.1A or so. My mobo is stubborn about that and refuses to activate the fast charge feature if no fast charge equipment is detected.

Everything op has stated as equipment is decent quality so shouldn't be an issue, and the screens look decent. Psu shouldn't be an issue and as the symptoms are sporadic, I can't see the mobo as defective, mobo's are non user variable, they either work or don't.

Op, you wouldn't happen to have something external plugged into a USB port would you? Like a joystick or external hdd or scanner? There is some issues with boot on certain USB powered equipment that I can't specifically remember what items.

The only things connected vis USB are my mouse and keyboard. I have tried booting with them unplugged as well.

 

[MJSAMS]

It is also starting to take longer for me to get the computer booted. This morning it took me powering in on and off 5 times to get it to post.

 

[Karadjgne]

Having exhausted all the improbable, only the impossible is left. I get no other verdict other than mean machine is correct and your mobo is acting up. Somehow

 

[MJSAMS]

Sorry in advance for the long post, but I believe I could be on to something here.

Last night I decided to remove one of the memory sticks (again) and power the computer back up before shutting down for the night. It could be a fluke (hopefully not), but it booted/posted on the first try with one card. I know the obvious scenarios are either a bad card or DIMM slot, but I started looking into this a bit. It looks like some solutions are to enable a "XMP" setting in the BIOS, but my ram cards do not have any "extreme" profiles listed. They are 2x8gb 2133MHz (PC4-17000) and it sounds like this XMP or overclock settings are for higher frequency ratings?

Another thing to note is that this exact memory card does not seem to be listed on my MOBOs QVL (http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20Z170%20Gaming%20K4/index.asp?cat=Memory) but alot of similar ones are. I do not have alot of experience with this, but I would doubt these lists are 100% comprehensive.

I purchased this hardware with the help of a build guide from PCpartpicker.

Build Guide: https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/WckcCJ/great-gaming-build.

I made a few minor changes to the parts, but I worked off of this list as it is my first build and there is a nice video to go along with this. The Memory on the link is on a filter for cheapest available, but my memory is a part of the kits from some retail sites and was recommended as the memory my time of purchase (on sale). I would doubt there is actually a compatibility issue but I cannot be sure.

With both cards in I have tried running on Auto settings as well as manually setting frequency with no success. Does anyone have any other ideas for what I should try for tomorrow? (troubleshooting can be an issue when you can only replicate the problem once a day).

Thanks again to everyone for their posts. I greatly appreciate all of the help.

 

[Karadjgne]

Default speed for most ddr4 is 2133MHz, so yes, you probably won't have an XMP profile.

Yes, you are correct, the QVL is almost never fully complete, mobo vendors don't test every single serial number, they'll test a variety of different speeds and common series within any brand. To fully certify every single stick would require a huge investment in time and labor when most times just 1 speed is sufficient to cover most since the other speeds have similar builds, chips etc. They also test on a frequent basis as new models are introduced, so many don't check for updated QVL, just the one in the manual.

You can try adjusting the dram voltage, if your ram is 1.35v, you could manually set it to 1.355v or even 1.36v.

Ram is touchy. It could be a bad stick, bad cpu, bad slot, even a bad solder joint somewhere, no telling. If you suspect the ram itself, run memtest86. It's a comprehensive program for deep testing ram. It'll show any discrepancy. If the sticks come back lopsided, swap sockets and try again.

 

[MJSAMS]

Default speed for most ddr4 is 2133MHz, so yes, you probably won't have an XMP profile.

Yes, you are correct, the QVL is almost never fully complete, mobo vendors don't test every single serial number, they'll test a variety of different speeds and common series within any brand. To fully certify every single stick would require a huge investment in time and labor when most times just 1 speed is sufficient to cover most since the other speeds have similar builds, chips etc. They also test on a frequent basis as new models are introduced, so many don't check for updated QVL, just the one in the manual.

You can try adjusting the dram voltage, if your ram is 1.35v, you could manually set it to 1.355v or even 1.36v.

Ram is touchy. It could be a bad stick, bad cpu, bad slot, even a bad solder joint somewhere, no telling. If you suspect the ram itself, run memtest86. It's a comprehensive program for deep testing ram. It'll show any discrepancy. If the sticks come back lopsided, swap sockets and try again.

Wow well I hope it is not a bad CPU...

My card says it is meant for 1.2V? would you still adjust to 1.35-1.36V?

 

[Karadjgne]

If your motherboard specified 1.2v, then the ram should be 1.2v. To raise dram voltage, it's done in tiny increments, so it'd be 1.205v, or 1.21v if no change.

 

[MJSAMS]

If your motherboard specified 1.2v, then the ram should be 1.2v. To raise dram voltage, it's done in tiny increments, so it'd be 1.205v, or 1.21v if no change.

Ok thank you. I will give this a shot in bios. Should this be done with one or both sticks installed? or does it matter?

Also, is adjusting the voltage an acceptable solution or just a way to troubleshoot the RAM? I don't really have much of an issue replacing the cards in necessary, but i would like to confirm they are the issue before hand. Can I rule out the CPU somehow?

 

[Karadjgne]

Almost all ram works as intended at the factory clocks, but sometimes there are mobo or cpu (the memory controller is part of the cpu) issues that mean to get performance and/or stability from the ram it'll require a 'tweak' to its settings, be it voltage or timings. Try 1.205v with both sticks and they should be in slots 2+4.

 

[MJSAMS]

Almost all ram works as intended at the factory clocks, but sometimes there are mobo or cpu (the memory controller is part of the cpu) issues that mean to get performance and/or stability from the ram it'll require a 'tweak' to its settings, be it voltage or timings. Try 1.205v with both sticks and they should be in slots 2+4.

Thank you. I tried today at 1.205V but I had the same issue. I guess I will bump it to 1.21 and see if that does it.

 

[MJSAMS]

So i decided to try something before further adjusting voltages. As you said, my mobo should not have any issues with memory at this frequency. Last night i left the single card in slot 2 (same as last time) and it booted right up on the first try once again. This should confirm that this stick is good. After the boot up, i shut down, unplugged, and put the other stick in the same slot. The machine did not boot on the first try with this second stick. I needed to unplug and do the "power button trick" before it came on. I do not know if this is a normal requirement when changing out memory. I plan to leave the second stick in overnight now that i was able to get it to boot. If i run in to the same issue tomorrow after it has been off overnight with the second card, is this enough to confirm a bad module is my problem?

Not sure why this didnt come up the first time i did this test... i must have had the cards mixed up.

 

[MeanMachine41]

You can test your modules by booting from a USB stick with Memtest86 installed on the USB.
Run test for 3 passes on the module that appears to be failing. If you have any errors then RMA the whole kit. If they test OK then I still think its the MB.

 

[MJSAMS]

You can test your modules by booting from a USB stick with Memtest86 installed on the USB.
Run test for 3 passes on the module that appears to be failing. If you have any errors then RMA the whole kit. If they test OK then I still think its the MB.

So i just finished 3 passes of the test without any errors. Is this 100% definitive that the problem is not caused by my memory? If i am able to replicate the problem with one stick while the other works as intended on the same board, how could the mobo be the problem?

 

[MeanMachine41]

If all DIMMs passed Memtest86, then it must be the MB slot. You may have contamination in the slot. Blow them out with compressed air from a canister with PSU turned off. Clean your DIMM terminals with Isopropyl Alcohol 95%. If that does not fix the issue then you have a dead slot.

 

[MJSAMS]

If all DIMMs passed Memtest86, then it must be the MB slot. You may have contamination in the slot. Blow them out with compressed air from a canister with PSU turned off. Clean your DIMM terminals with Isopropyl Alcohol 95%. If that does not fix the issue then you have a dead slot.

In trying each card individually from the same slot in the mobo, one presented the booting problem after being turned off while the other did not.

 

[Karadjgne]

Inspect the bad stick. Pay particular attention to the gold teeth, there should be evident scratches on every single tooth, with no aberrations. Considering the stick passed memtest, I'd say the ram was good, but somewhere there's a fault in transmission. I'm guessing you don't have a pc speaker? Any fault in a ram module at post should apply a beep code. It might simply be a factory defect. Worst case scenario would be to rma the ram.