A7N8X Hibernate problem & BIOS flash

  • Thread starter Thread starter JM
  • Start date Start date
J

JM

Hi all,

I haven't had a single problem with my A7N8X Deluxe except for this. When I
hibernate in Win2k, everything goes normally until I try to switch back
on... at which point nothing happens, no response at all from the computer.
If I turn off the master PSU switch, and turn it back on, then I can turn on
and boot up with no problems.

I checked the latest BIOS and don't see any mention of this problem, so I
don't want to flash unless there is a fix for this problem.. I don't know
off hand what BIOS I have, is there one aside from the latest that is more
stable than the others, if I were to flash it?
 
"JM" said:
Hi all,

I haven't had a single problem with my A7N8X Deluxe except for this. When I
hibernate in Win2k, everything goes normally until I try to switch back
on... at which point nothing happens, no response at all from the computer.
If I turn off the master PSU switch, and turn it back on, then I can turn on
and boot up with no problems.

I checked the latest BIOS and don't see any mention of this problem, so I
don't want to flash unless there is a fix for this problem.. I don't know
off hand what BIOS I have, is there one aside from the latest that is more
stable than the others, if I were to flash it?
Click to expand...

Before you flash it, do you think there might be a problem with
the power supply ? Even if ACPI wasn't working properly, and
when you hibernated, the machine was completely shut off, the
machine should still do a normal boot the next time you press
the button. Maybe in fact, your +5VSB is overloaded ?

+5VSB powers the green lED on the motherboard. Is the green
LED lit when the machine is in its "hibernate" state ? It
should be on, as long as the switch on the back of the
computer is in the "ON" position and the cord is plugged
in. If you've been switching the switch on the back to the
"OFF" position, then that will wipe out a "sleeping" computer,
but perhaps not a "hibernating" computer.

Sleep is where the system state is still stored in RAM.
The +5VSB powers the RAM on the motherboard while in this
state. When the BIOS is awakened, it realizes the system
state is in RAM, and it restores the program counter and
execution carries on from where it left off.

AFAIK, Hibernate stores system state on disk, and the BIOS
is aware on the next boot occasion, that the system is
hibernating, and the system image is pulled off disk again.
I think you can completely unplug the computer in this state,
and when you power back up and press the button, it should
pull system state off the disk.

If the computer boots and the BIOS checks and finds it is
in no special ACPI state, then it will boot normally.

HTH,
Paul
 
JM said:
Hi all,

I haven't had a single problem with my A7N8X Deluxe except for this. When I
hibernate in Win2k, everything goes normally until I try to switch back
on... at which point nothing happens, no response at all from the computer.
If I turn off the master PSU switch, and turn it back on, then I can turn on
and boot up with no problems.

I checked the latest BIOS and don't see any mention of this problem, so I
don't want to flash unless there is a fix for this problem.. I don't know
off hand what BIOS I have, is there one aside from the latest that is more
stable than the others, if I were to flash it?
Click to expand...

This may be way off base, but I had the same problem with an ABIT
mobo, but same BIOS manufacturer. Try this, when you want to restart
it, push and hold the power button in for a few seconds. I don't know
why, but that would restart my system.

arnie
 
Paul said:
Before you flash it, do you think there might be a problem with
the power supply ? Even if ACPI wasn't working properly, and
when you hibernated, the machine was completely shut off, the
machine should still do a normal boot the next time you press
the button. Maybe in fact, your +5VSB is overloaded ?
Click to expand...

I suppose it's possible, but I"m running a new Enermax 450 watt power
supply, and I only have a TV tuner card and a Geforce 4 plugged in, plus a
USB mouse, two CD drives and two hard drives. Surely that's not too much
for the PSU?
+5VSB powers the green lED on the motherboard. Is the green
LED lit when the machine is in its "hibernate" state ? It
should be on, as long as the switch on the back of the
computer is in the "ON" position and the cord is plugged
in. If you've been switching the switch on the back to the
"OFF" position, then that will wipe out a "sleeping" computer,
but perhaps not a "hibernating" computer.
Click to expand...

Nope, the LED goes out in hibernate mode.
AFAIK, Hibernate stores system state on disk, and the BIOS
is aware on the next boot occasion, that the system is
hibernating, and the system image is pulled off disk again.
I think you can completely unplug the computer in this state,
and when you power back up and press the button, it should
pull system state off the disk.
If the computer boots and the BIOS checks and finds it is
in no special ACPI state, then it will boot normally.
Click to expand...

Well I think the way that hibernate works from windows is different. When I
power up after hibernating, everything looks as normal until windows starts
loading, and that's when the image on the HD gets loaded. I'm pretty sure I
could select Linux from my boot menu and boot up into Redhat just fine, and
still restore my session next time I boot into windows.

Maybe I'll take a look in the BIOS and see if there's some setting there
that might affect things. It's not a big issue to have to turn off, but I'd
almost like to get into the habit of hibernating all the time, because it
makes booting up very fast compared with starting from scratch :)
 
This may be way off base, but I had the same problem with an ABIT
mobo, but same BIOS manufacturer. Try this, when you want to restart
it, push and hold the power button in for a few seconds. I don't know
why, but that would restart my system.
Click to expand...

I think I tried that, but I'll keep it in mind next time, thanks for the
suggestion ;)
 
"JM" said:
I suppose it's possible, but I"m running a new Enermax 450 watt power
supply, and I only have a TV tuner card and a Geforce 4 plugged in, plus a
USB mouse, two CD drives and two hard drives. Surely that's not too much
for the PSU?


Nope, the LED goes out in hibernate mode.


Well I think the way that hibernate works from windows is different. When I
power up after hibernating, everything looks as normal until windows starts
loading, and that's when the image on the HD gets loaded. I'm pretty sure I
could select Linux from my boot menu and boot up into Redhat just fine, and
still restore my session next time I boot into windows.

Maybe I'll take a look in the BIOS and see if there's some setting there
that might affect things. It's not a big issue to have to turn off, but I'd
almost like to get into the habit of hibernating all the time, because it
makes booting up very fast compared with starting from scratch :)
Click to expand...

Well, I don't hibernate, I only sleep :-) If you are on
a UPS, sleep isn't too risky.

I guess the computer shuts down on hibernate, but the
green LED should remain lit. I thought the green LED was
powered by +5VSB, and that stays running until you switch
off via the switch on the back of the computer.

In any case, I have a feeling that ACPI isn't set up properly,
because I believe that hibernate works the same whether the
machine is just shut down or the plug is pulled.

The only ACPI state I see support for in the BIOS, is via
the "ACPI Suspend to RAM" [Enabled] setting. I don't know
if this has any influence over hibernate or not (it would
be needed for sleep). Based on your idea that Hibernate
is supported by Windows and not the BIOS, maybe that is why
a Hibernate setting doesn't exist in the BIOS and only
the Sleep option ?

If the OS has the right HAL installed (ACPI instead of
"Standard PC"), then you are ready for the next step.

Get a copy of dumppo.exe, and that Microsoft program has
the ability to query and repair ACPI settings. The download
is here:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe

The last person I helped...
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...859-1&[email protected]

suggested this link, for some background. While this info
is for sleep, a very similar procedure should work for
hibernate:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...@tkmsftngp04&prev=/groups?q=xp_S3_standby_exe

HTH,
Paul
 
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