Question Sleep sometimes doesn't work and occasional crashes

[Derden]

Build a PC in 2015.
Win10 Pro
Asus z93
Intel 4790k
NVIDIA GTX 970
16g RAM
Corsair AX 860

All has been really stable until recently. Windows update in march made my machine go batty, wouldn't boot (couldn't get to windows login. I resolved this (alot of troubleshooting) eventually. Said bad sectors the couple of times i did get in (through windows error logs and also ran repair which each time said it did so. But same issue remained. So i totally reinstalled OS, went from scratch. I was about to replace the hard drive, but instead tried the following because i didnt want some system issue chewing through a new SSD (if it was causing bad sectors).

Eventually, I went into BIOS and changed for PC to boot using Intel graphics,,,, BAM. I did another Microsoft update (I think it was a fix to the disastrous one that was causing issues for many) and also updated BIO and graphics card drivers. Likely the unique combination made THIS issue. All stable, ran third party disk check tool, no bad sectors, no errors anymore. All worked very smoothly for a month.

Now

• PC is set to sleep/hibernate hybrid after 5 hours, which it does, but for years if i moved my mouse, it would boot right back to where i left off.
• Now, 9/10 times it makes the "sound" like disks turn on, but I get nothing. I can see the PC is still on, has power, etc. Just not getting windows to come up.
• So, If i press power button, hold it down, i get a quasi reboot, goes through bios, then to windows.
• About 50% of the time, I get back to where i left off. The other 50% of the time, either many applications are closed or it's a total restart, nothing was saved.
• Another issue, is that I have intermittent blue screen crashes, about once a week, out of the blue when doing light work (writing a paper, etc.).

So i know this machine is aging. I plan to do a new build, but money is tight and not really a good time, or warranted as its fine for the work i do - if i can get it working properly again. But I worry about someday soon, its going to tank and I'll be down for days waiting for parts, building, etc. If its just one part that i could replace, but i really haven't any idea where to begin systematically. Just solving the last issue took more time than I'm proud to admit ;-)

Thank You for any advise and direction!

 

[Colif]

The bad sectors were likely on the old drive, not caused by anything apart from age.

Which Asus Z97 motherboard is it?
Sleep problems often associated with old drivers
to find old drivers -

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any
When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Now its up to you, you can look through the drivers and try to find old drivers, or you can take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

All I would do is look at driver versions (or dates if you lucky to have any) to see what might have newer versions.

to look at bsod results
Can you follow option one on the following link - here - and then do this step below: Small memory dumps - Have Windows Create a Small Memory Dump (Minidump) on BSOD - that creates a file in c windows/minidump after the next BSOD

copy that file to documents

upload the copy from documents to a file sharing web site, and share the link in your thread so we can help fix the problem

Asus Z97 motherboard isn't that old (I am using one now) and it shouldn't have any problems with win 10. I have to admit the thought of what breaks next has crossed my mind, and getting a new PC has also been thought of.

 

[Derden]

The bad sectors were likely on the old drive, not caused by anything apart from age.

Which Asus Z97 motherboard is it?
Sleep problems often associated with old drivers
to find old drivers -

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any
When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Now its up to you, you can look through the drivers and try to find old drivers, or you can take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

All I would do is look at driver versions (or dates if you lucky to have any) to see what might have newer versions.

to look at bsod results
Can you follow option one on the following link - here - and then do this step below: Small memory dumps - Have Windows Create a Small Memory Dump (Minidump) on BSOD - that creates a file in c windows/minidump after the next BSOD

copy that file to documents

upload the copy from documents to a file sharing web site, and share the link in your thread so we can help fix the problem

Asus Z97 motherboard isn't that old (I am using one now) and it shouldn't have any problems with win 10. I have to admit the thought of what breaks next has crossed my mind, and getting a new PC has also been thought of.

First, THANK YOU for taking the time to reply and willing to help. Really, very much appreciate it.

So, to your points:
#1: Same drive. Said bad sectors when i could reboot once in a while (got worse and worse), but that was microsoft running a repair, telling me bad sectors. Would "repair" but then more bad sectors were concurring just from booting up the next time (if i could). I used an external tool to evaluate the drive after I fixed the boot problem and said no bad sectors found. Also worked very smoothly, so i think it was an Microsoft OS read issue. Even now, same drive, no bad sector issues.

#2: Z97 Deluxe

#3: When i reinstalled fresh OS, I made sure I had all the correct drivers and ran paid version of Driver Booster Pro (used to use another program but this appears to be really good). So all drivers already up to date. Should I still run the other program you suggest?

#4: On BSOD. When can i do this? Do i need to do it right after it occurs? It's been a few days since a crash.

Since it's intermittent, and main issue now appears to be recovering from a sleep state that relies heavily on memory and is inconsistent, could it be failing RAM?

THANK YOU

 

[gardenman]

#3. Uninstall and undo any changes made by Driver Booster if possible. We highly recommend avoiding such programs. They often install incorrect drivers or update drivers that don't need to touched therefore causing additional BSODs.

#4. Go ahead and change the setting (if needed). Then the next time you crash, it will create a minidump file that you can upload.

Colif may answer the rest later.

 

[Colif]

1. Do you know who made the drive? a few of the drive makers have their own software you can run on their drives to test them. We should do that to confirm its okay now. Chkdsk shouldn't find bad sectors one time and not the next... although it can correct windows so that it doesn't use them.

3: can you run the program I asked for as it will show what drivers are installed now. It is likely we can't use the drivers from Asus but I should be able to find updates for most.

 

[Derden]

1. Do you know who made the drive? a few of the drive makers have their own software you can run on their drives to test them. We should do that to confirm its okay now. Chkdsk shouldn't find bad sectors one time and not the next... although it can correct windows so that it doesn't use them.

3: can you run the program I asked for as it will show what drivers are installed now. It is likely we can't use the drivers from Asus but I should be able to find updates for most.

#1. Samsung 960 EVO m2. I did download Samsung magician and does not perform disk integrity checks. I called Samsung and they said the capability is in the magician software but for some drive models it does not perform that feature. Hence, my model is SOL. So i downloaded Macrorit which seemed prettty good. zero bad sectors after issue was resolve.

#3: I don't understand what you are asking regarding drivers. They are all up to date. I literally reinstalled all of them manually when i reinstalled the OS. I did use Booster to do all updates. Do you want me to uninstall, downgrade, then manually reinstall the updates? Just trying to understand purpose and objective.

Now my PC is taking a long time to boot, sometimes BIO comes on, sometimes it doesnt, sometimes makes it to Windows logia nd sometimes just makes an "grek" sound and reboots on its own to get to BIO again. an even hang while loading BIO. To me doesn't seem like a driver, that would be more consistent behavior, and drivers dont fail over time. To me seems like failing inintegrity of something (degrading), can it be RAM?

 

[Colif]

3) don't worry about it now, if the pc crashes and creates minidumps, they will show me what drivers are running.

Driver booster has been known to install the wrong drivers. I used it twice before and both times it installed drivers that broke functions, last time itt installed sound drivers that left me in silence. Its only saving grace is it creates a restore point before installing drivers, so you can roll back if need be.

We generally don't recommend 3rd party driver updaters.

Now my PC is taking a long time to boot, sometimes BIO comes on, sometimes it doesnt, sometimes makes it to Windows logia nd sometimes just makes an "grek" sound and reboots on its own to get to BIO again. an even hang while loading BIO. To me doesn't seem like a driver, that would be more consistent behavior, and drivers dont fail over time. To me seems like failing integrity of something (degrading), can it be RAM?

Pretty sure windows isn't to blame for that. You could try turning fast startup off and see if it makes any difference - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html
Fast startup is about only windows feature that has anything to do with that early in startup.

Normally if ram is the problem you get all sorts of weird behaviour, weird errors and different drivers being blamed for errors.Doubt its the CPU

not sure about the noise.

is the 970 in pc or are you still running off INtel graphics? Maybe remove gpu and see if its slow to start, need to see if we can identify part that is to blame.

Is PSU 5 years old as well? If any parts likely to die in 5 years, its boot drive or psu, and PSU can cause bad sectors if it supplies insufficient power.

 

[Derden]

3) don't worry about it now, if the pc crashes and creates minidumps, they will show me what drivers are running.

Driver booster has been known to install the wrong drivers. I used it twice before and both times it installed drivers that broke functions, last time itt installed sound drivers that left me in silence. Its only saving grace is it creates a restore point before installing drivers, so you can roll back if need be.

We generally don't recommend 3rd party driver updaters.



Pretty sure windows isn't to blame for that. You could try turning fast startup off and see if it makes any difference - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html
Fast startup is about only windows feature that has anything to do with that early in startup.

Normally if ram is the problem you get all sorts of weird behaviour, weird errors and different drivers being blamed for errors.Doubt its the CPU

not sure about the noise.

is the 970 in pc or are you still running off INtel graphics? Maybe remove gpu and see if its slow to start, need to see if we can identify part that is to blame.

Is PSU 5 years old as well? If any parts likely to die in 5 years, its boot drive or psu, and PSU can cause bad sectors if it supplies insufficient power.

Hi Colif- Well i found the issue - its the mobo! It took me a while to test. VERY strange behavior though.

I took it all apart, dedusted EVERYTHING. Blue screens went away. There was dust that just couldn't get to or see unless i fully disassembled. Lesson learned.

Reassembled. Manually put earlier drivers back on. Updated to recent (but not latest driver releases in case they were the issue). I got to a point where my computer would boot, but skip bios and go into windows. Then was VERY stable and repeatable.

If i tool out my hard driver, could get to bios. If i took out graphics card (and used intel graphics it would boot normally > bios > windows. If I switched graphics card to other PCIe, all would behave normally, and very stable. So, it want the GPU. However, after about 3 days of zero issues, computer couldnt even get into either bios or windows. Blank screen with flashing cursor. Even if i pulled the hard drive, cleared CMOS, put my backup drive in. Nothing worked. I can't explain it.

It's not the best time financially to build another computer, but given it's 7 years old, and losing precious time, and I think I'm out of options, I'm building. I want to thank you, and everyone else for your advice. If you have any thoughts/insights on this, I'd be really curious from a learning perspective.

 

[Colif]

I got to a point where my computer would boot, but skip bios and go into windows. Then was VERY stable and repeatable.

PC can't skip bios, all it was doing was loading so fast you didn't see the flash screen. BIOS - Basic Input Output System. WIndows talks to bios to do things. It is always there.

Blank screen with flashing cursor.

you get that at startup if the boot method has swapped and it can't find the drive. But that is after the bios flash screen.
Asus Bios are set to Auto when it comes to boot method. That means that if it doesn't find the drive at startup, on a restart, it should swap boot methods and try the right one.

I am in process of updating as 7 years or 5 in my case is about when things start to randomly break, So it is not a surprise to find something isn't right with yours.

start PC and hit delete a few times at startup, if you going to get into bios, thats the thing.