Vista 64 shuts down/hibernates

[tyralyon]

Hello! Trying to do this using the "How to ask for troubleshooting help V2"

I recently built a new PC (thanks for all the advice I got on that in this forum), and installed Vista 64. It works very well for the most part,
but seemingly on random it goes into hibernate by itself.

I think this has happened since the beginning (guess it's been between 1 and 2 months now), but I haven't gotten around to doing something about it until now.
I naturally installed both hardware and software, different programs, so I can't really tell if it's any of the software I have installed that is causing it.
I wanted to OC, so I fiddled around with settings (using guides), but never got it fully stable and eventually gave it up, at least until I get this problem fixed. I'm pretty sure this problem started even before I started OC, so I don't think that has anything to do with it, and I've gone back to default settings as well.

Like I said, the PC works well for the most part, and this doesn't even happen every day, but seemingly at random.
What happens is that windows suddenly goes into hibernate, and I can click my mouse to get back in (I get to the windows login screen). It's not always the case though, sometimes it goes into something that appears to be hibernate, but I am able to get back in. The computer is still on, not making any weird sounds or anything unusual, but the screen is blank.
I then have to power it off by holding the power button for a few secs (not sure what the professional term for that is ).
Then when I turn it back on it works as normal again, although windows asks me if I want to start windows normally, cause of the unexpected shutdown.
That last thing has not been as common as the regular hibernate, but just now it happened twice in a very short time. The second time I got to the MB boot screen, where it stopped.
It said, among other things, to press DEL to enter Setup. When I did, it said Entering Setup... but didn't. Pressed ctrl-alt-del to reboot it, and then everything was fine.
At first I thought it might be a overheating problem, but it doesn't really happen only when I'm gaming. It's actually most common when not doing much at all. Often happens when I talk on MSN, but perhaps that is because that's what I do the most (my gf lives in another country...). Idle temp on the CPU is 38°C, and Asus PC Probe never lets off any warnings.

CPU
i7-920

Motherboard
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2

Memory
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600.

CPU cooler
Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme

Graphics Card
XFX Geforce GTX 285

PSU
Corsair Powersupply TX 850W

Hard Drive's
2x WDC Black 640GB in RAID 0 (OS)
1x WDC Black 1TB

Operating System
Windows Vista 64bit SP1

Case
Cooler Master HAF 932

What I have done to solve this is:
1. Google for unintentional Hibernates (gives a lot of hits on another (apparently) common problem, Vista won't wake up after hibernate)
2. Use Asus Probe to check temperatures (38°C isn't that bad, is it?)
3. Ask friends that know a little more than me.
4. Ask the peeps at Tom's Hardware

 

[eagles453809]

as for the screen staying black...ive had that problem on vista. it always happened to me when i had the monitor set to shut off after x amount of minutes. Never figured out if it was Vista or if it was Nvidia drivers. Can't say for sure as I'm on Windows 7 RC now. no issues.

set your power profile to high performance and make sure the monitor is set to never turn off. see if it randomly goes into hibernate with those settings...if not then test the settings one by one until you find the one that is triggering it.

 

[Proximon]

Still working on the little help form, but I'm glad you found it useful

Perhaps it helped, as your explanation and info is fairly clear.

Although your problem may seem a bit rare, hibernation issues are common.

My current machine is the only one I have ever owned that works almost flawlessly both hibernating and waking up. I say almost because the keyboard takes a bit longer to wake up than I would like. Sometimes I have to wait at the password screen for an extra 10 seconds before I can type.

There are a total of 3 places you need to adjust for this.
1. Screen saver
2. Vista power management
3. BIOS power management

I can easily see your computer hibernating if all you are doing is talking into the mic. That would not be input that Vista can recognize, and so it would assume it was idle and shut down.

Applications have to be coded to keep the system awake. If they were not, Vista will simply turn them off or pause them while it hibernates. For instance, Media Player now seems to be pretty good about keeping your comp awake.

That might actually be a test you could do. Play a DVD and see if it hibernates while playing.

Really though, it sounds as if you just need to turn everything off. Control panel - Power settings should do the trick. Select the performance option then edit that so that nothing gets turned off. You should still be able to enter sleep from the start menu, so you can do it manually as you wish.

Now, if you are actually hard locking...

Have a look at your "Problem reports and solutions" also found in control panel. See if there is any common crash listed there.

Yes, I would say that 38C is a bit warm at idle, but within acceptable limits given the quad cores.... but PC Probe is not a great app. In fact, you should remove any and all Asus apps.

Here are some nice little tools, and I do mean little and inoffensive:
CPU-Z
Real Temp
HWMonitor

See what Real Temp says.

Did you do anything special when you installed Vista? Any commands or confusions that you recall?

I ask because I would have expected everything to just work.

 

[tyralyon]

Thanks for the replies

I had everything turned off, but now switched from balanced to performance. I also noticed now that there are advanced options where I can turn even more things off.
I will try this as a first step, then if it continues to happen, do more.

We actually use text on msn, not mic. I have also used the computer to play DVDs, but not experienced it then.
It's weird that it happens on random, there is no specific time interval (sometimes experienced days between it happen, and suddenly two within probably 10 minutes).

Hope the power management fixes it, if not I'll report back what else I have done.

Thanks for the tip on the programs, seems a lot better than Asus Probe indeed

Real Temp says my core temps range from 28 to 33/34. 33/34 for Core 0. Is that closer to ideal? Any idea what ideal should be with my setup?
A problem with my setup is the location of the computer, it's in a bit of a tight space (not much I can do about it really).

There have been some unexpected shutdowns, will look further into that if the power management doesn't fix things.

Nothing special with the Vista install, it went smoothly.

 

[Proximon]

Your temps are just fine for idle. Probably right on track for your quad. Perhaps your cooling system gets behind under load, so you'll want to watch that.

I have this suspicion this morning about USB ports as well. What's plugged in? Logitech devices?

 

[tyralyon]

Hahaha, you're spot on about that. Got 3 of those; diNovo Edge keyboard, MX 1100 mouse and a Cordless Number Pad.
If that's what's causing it, what can be done? The Keyboard is f'ing expensive, and the mouse and number pad is brand new (bought them at the same time as my computer).

 

[tyralyon]

Want to add that I'm not using Logitech's drivers/program... Did that initially and my mouse was not working well at all. Someone suggested to uninstall all the Logitech crap, and that fixed it...

 

[Proximon]

I own a G15 MB and G5 mouse

Logitech needs to work a bit harder on Vista 64 drivers I think. I avoid any Logitech mouse drivers, as I don't really need them.

There may be a BIOS setting that helps. Disabling legacy support, enabling it, or some other setting.

If it turns out that it is a logitech issue, open a ticket with em But let me know how it works out.

 

[tyralyon]

Just wanted to do a quick update on this.

Everything has been fine since I changed my power options. Amazing, I was sure it was something more serious.

Thanks a lot for all the help

(Now to OC... Haven't had much luck with that yet)