Asus P6T won't sleep problem - solved

[stuartbgt3]

I have a 3XS system based on an Asus P6T Deluxe mobo. I thought I'd post up about the issue I was having and the apparent solution in case it helps others.

The system started failing to sleep (and shutdown IIRC). It would go into sleep and then a few seconds later restart. Upon restarting, I would get an overclock failure message. Sometimes, when it booted, I would get the Asus splash screen (which was disabled in the config previously). The workaround was to go into BIOS setup and reload the 3XS O.C. profile using Asus Load O.C. Profile option in the Tools section and then restart. This would work until the next time sleep or a shutdown was required.

I had had similar problems shortly after getting the system > 1 year ago, but a BIOS upgrade had solved it then and this had come out of the blue with no config changes.

Today I tried suggestions found on other fora (thanks to those guys even though I can't recall where I found the suggestions).

There were two suggestions and I actually carried out both at the same time (bad for isolating which fixed it, but quicker for me). These were to 1) clear the mobo CMOS or RTC RAM and 2) change the mobo battery.

I cleared the CMOS by:-

Making a backup of my settings to a USB thumb drive using the ASUS utility in the tools section of the BIOS setup (once in the utility, select the right drive and then use "B" to backup up your profile). I wasn't sure whether this did just the current profile or all profiles so I did it twice; once with the standard profile loaded and once with the OC profile loaded - it takes seconds. I believe it's belt and braces (seee later), but easier than reentering settings (I also took photos of all the BIOS settings )

Moving a jumper and waiting 15 seconds before moving it back (I don't think I got a manual with my system, but you can find a diagram for this at the moment here..

i4memory.com/f54/asus-p6t-deluxe-manual-motherboard-layout-memory-configuration-bios-info-11498/

For normal installs the CR2032 battery is at the top right of the mobo. Change by carefully prising the clip at the front to one side and sliding the old battery out. Remember which way round it goes and reinsert the new battery. Ideally avoid touching any of the battery contact surfaces with your fingers to avoid contamination.

I'm pretty sure the CMOS was cleared because after starting up and entering BIOS setup the clock and date were reset. I reset these manually (note that the date is entered MM/DD/YY) and then went into the Tools menu again. I was pleased to find that the 3XS profiles were still listed (I guess they're in flash so the backup is not strictly necessary) so it was easy to load up the right one again and restart. Tested and sleep working fine now which is great since it was getting to be a right royal pain.

The old battery was reading 2.86V vs 3.27 V for the new one so I suspect that may have been the issue. I thought they'd last longer, but worth knowing that these are a good first thing to check if BIOS related problems occur.

Regards
Stuart

[Ben @ Scan]

Hi Stuart

Glad you got it sorted but one thing I have noticed is that your system is Overclocked and you shouldnt be using Sleep or any power saving features as in the thread below it can cause issues and an unstable system

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-3xs-sys...ocked-pcs.html

Regards

Ben

[stuartbgt3]

Thanks Ben. Any further info. on the nature of the issues? I have the Windows power saving features set as recommended already (although on Vista), but until this problem came up recently had been using sleep routinely on this PC since Mar 2009 without difficulties.

I'd be interested to know if the issues you mention could be any kind of permanent damage. If it's merely potential for instability/loss of unsaved data, then I'd live with that because the benefit of being able to sleep and wake the PC quickly is worth more to me (especially since it's been very stable otherwise). Even allowing keyboard and mouse to wake the PC worked fine (I disabled these recently as this was one suggested fix for the sleep/shutdown issues I was having).

BTW - I don't allow it to sleep on it's own (just the monitor), only when I manually put it to sleep.

Alternatively I guess I could use the standard profile normally and then just restart with OC when needed.

Regards
Stuart