Standby scare

[displayname]

Hello everyone, thank you for having me.

Here is my story, and I'm sticking to it. I was on my computer for about 20 minutes before work yesterday and put it into what I think is standby mode, the one that "puts your computer in a low power state so you can quickly resume working" (I remember the text, but not the specific name lol). The monitor turned off and I left the room before hearing the computer shut off. I returned to my computer some 12 hours later and it was still on with the HD access light solid red, and with the monitor off and the power button blinking, waiting for a signal. I said to myself, boy thats weird. I held the power button in and shut it down.

Here is where I had a heart attack. I pushed to power button to reboot and nothing happened. It didn't turn on.

I pulled the power cord from the back of the power supply and drained any remaining juice from my rig, then plugged it back in, pushed the power button, and voila, on it came. It then booted up like it would if it were fully in standby / sleep / hibernate mode and the power went out starting up with 'resuming windows' and then going insanely slow as it tries to return all programs to the state they were in when the power failed.

So my question... What the heck happened and how do I stop it from happening again?

Specs:

Asus p5ne-sli mobo
intel e6850 3.2 ghz proc
4 gb ddr2 pc6300 ram
2x xfx 8600gt gpu (I did update drivers and then revert to older ones when the new ones crapped out my SLi performance, which was te night before this happened, if video card drivers could have caused this, I have no clue)

Thank you in advance!

 

[Barman58]

Hi Displayname and welcome to the Vista forums

Sounds like the PC went into Hybrid sleep mode, where the system save the hibernation file as in normal hibernate mode and then puts the system into sleep mode.

the thinking behind this is that you retain the speed advantage of sleep mode whilst protecting the data against loss of power, it is a useful mode for use with laptops where power could run out while in sleep mode.

you can control the use of this mode using the advanced power options

 

[displayname]

Even if that was the case, do people always have to unplug thier power supply, drain the system of power, and plug it back in just to turn on? Haha.

 

[Barman58]

Hi,

No not usually , the unfortunate thing with sleep options in vista is that the way that it is implemented on the motherboard is not always compatible. the fact that the case switch was displaying red would suggest that an error condition existed, I use Hybrid mode myself without problems but a lot of problems have been reported with systems either not going into or coming out of sleep or hibernate mode on vista. The only cure I know of if your are affected is to check for bios upgrade from your motherboard manufacturer

 

[smarteyeball]

Did you try holding the power button down for at least 4-5 secs before yanking the cord out?

 

[bruce2]

Specs:

Asus p5ne-sli mobo
intel e6850 3.2 ghz proc
4 gb ddr2 pc6300 ram
2x xfx 8600gt gpu (I did update drivers and then revert to older ones when the new ones crapped out my SLi performance, which was te night before this happened, if video card drivers could have caused this, I have no clue)

Thank you in advance!

Hi displayname, welcome to the board.

It is very likely to be driver related problem as you have suspected. Sli 8600's has been very problematic with drivers. I would not worry about it too much unless it happen all the time.

Please note that you don't unplug the power cord to drain the capacitors in the system. To avoid possible damage, instead, you should have held down the power button for about 5 seconds to let the system to drain as suggest buy the above post.

Good luck and enjoy,

Bruce

 

[displayname]

Yes I did all power button holding known to man before pulling the cord. The machine simply wouldn't turn back on. I even shut off the power supply via the switch and drained, which my friend said was useless because without it being unplugged it will still draw new power in, just not enough to power up the machine.

I've used sleep mode since I've got the computer, only shutting it down when severe weather is forecasted, and I've never had an issue. If it just randomly hung up and restarted fine I wouldn't really care, but the fact that it wouldn't power on made me pee myself a little, and then go running to every forum I could find. Lucky you.

 

[lordbob75]

Sounds like a frustrating problem. I had some wierd issues with sleep/hibernate with my rig, so I just shut down for now. Too lazy to figure it out, and too much homework (which i need to be doing.......)

Anyways, I agree with Barman here, it could be a mobo issue.

Let us know if the problems continue.
~Lordbob