Bizarre IP35 XE Pro power and sleep issues

[db298]

I'm pulling my hair out with my Abit IP35 system. It's worked perfectly since I bought it, but these new issues have arisen recently. It appeared to happen at the same time as upgrading from one of the Windows 7 betas to the final RTM Professional, but obviously that might be a coincidence.

The hardware is:

Abit IP35 XE Pro
Intel E8200
2x2gb Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400
Radeon HD4850 512mb
Crucial CT64M225 SSD
WD WD6400AAKS HDD
Akasa 80plus 500W PSU

I have always used S3 sleep in the past, which worked fine, but since the new install, this hasn't seemed to work at all. The machine always seems to go into hibernation (whatever the power saving settings) and then needs to reboot from bios to recover (ie. it says 'resuming windows' when it starts).

I've also noticed some unusual activity in the red power and bootup leds. When I power the machine down, the red led (3vsb) flashes for some time. While it's flashing, the machine cannot be booted up again. After a minute or so, the flashing slows until eventually the red light is on constantly. At this point the bootup led reads "02". The machine still can't be booted up, and when I try, the boot led reads " 2" (thats nothing in the first figure). Eventually, after another couple of minutes, the machine will boot up again as normal. How screwy is that?!

When the machine is put to sleep, the behaviour on the leds and the delay on restarting is actually the same... In fact, if I disable Hybrid sleep, when I try to reboot the bootup led changes to " .F" and doesn't boot, and when it finally does, the machine reports a failure to shut down properly last time, and reboots from the start...

I've cleared the CMOS and started again, but have made no progress. Any suggestions?

[handscombmp]

Are you sure that your 'sleep' button doesn't put the pc into hibernate instead of sleep.

It's probaly to due with the windows power settings espically as you said since your new install.

[db298]

I don't have a sleep button, I'm just doing it from the menu in Windows. I think I've tried every different setting as well.

Also, the power down/restart issues woudn't have anything to do with sleep settings?

[db298]

Interestingly, my entire PC wouldn't power up on Friday. I've determined that the PSU has actually died (it won't start when removed from the PC and jumped from green to black wires).

This is now absolute proof that the PSU is dead, and I'll need to wait for a new replacement to arrive before I can finally prove if it has been on it's way out for a while, and that's been the problem all along...

(I'm ordering one of these http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=777991 so quality power shouldn't be an issue )

BTW. It was an Akasa Greenpower 500w PSU, and I'm disappointed to see that there was only a 12 month warranty on it. Don't PSU suppliers trust their own products to cover more than this?! The Enermax is three years though, and that certainly figured in the buying equation this time around...

[db298]

That was it then. PC now running fine, and will sleep or switch off, and then boot fine.

It's the wierdest thing - I've been suffering that problem for quite a long time, so my PSU must have been dodgy for months. However, once it was up and running, everything was fine and 100% stable. Then eventually, it gave up the ghost.

So, for anyone having similar issues, the suggestion is this - have a go at swapping your PSU, even if logic suggests it shouldn't be the cause!