Windows 7 Lockup after video off...

[CommonTater]

New here... Got a problem that just plain doesn't want to go away.

I have Win7 Pro X86 on an ASUS M2N series motherboard, AMD X2 4200 processor, plus the usual SATA drives, usb keyboard + mouse, nvidia 8400 graphics and Acer x193w monitor. When this setup works it works perfectly... It worked perfectly with XP for 4 years, never missed a beat.

Now here's my problem any time the system turns off the monitor --either by the timer or by going to sleep-- and then resumes normal ops, the desktop is locked up, I can't click icons, expose the task bar, open the start menu... nothing. The mouse cursor will move but the keyboard is dead, even the caps lock lite doesn't come on. After a few seconds the system becomes totally unresponsive, even printing and network activity will stall and I am left no choice but to do a hard button reset --it won't even power off from the power button.

I'm not totally dull on computer stuff so here's what I've tried...

1) Every version of NVIDIA video and chipset drivers.
2) Default Microsoft Video driver.
3) Several USB drivers and updates.
4) Different issues of Win7... Basic, Home, Premium, Professional...
5) Lord only knows how many trips into the registry....
6) 4 complete format/reinstalls of 7 Pro...

And still I get exactly the same behavior every single time.

The log files are no help, that I can see... There is nothing that conincides rigidly with the time of these events. The only repeated error is telling me there's a CPU error 18 reported by the processor core... but diagnostic passes tell me it's OK.

The only thing I can figure is there must be some serious bug in Explorer... (Invalid op-codes?)

Please .... any and all suggestions will be appreciated....

(I need this computer on and working every day. I don't want to dump win7 but I may be forced to if I don't get this straightened out soon.)

 

[Trouble]

Sounds like a potential chipset driver issue. Check with ASUS, Link Removed for a possible BIOS update, I couldn't find just a plain M2N but the M2N-E has an update from June, 25th 2010, one month old. Also see if there are any other new drivers for the Mobo on the site.
Can we assume that the machine works flawlessly, if you turn off all power saving features, sleep, suspend, hibernate, hybrid sleep, etc.??

 

[CommonTater]

Sounds like a potential chipset driver issue. Check with ASUS for a possible BIOS update, I couldn't find just a plain M2N

My apologies, I should have been more specific. It's an M2N-MX-SE (micro-atx) board. I have the most recent bios installed, for quite some time now.

Thing is... if this was non-windows (hardware, bios etc) you would think I'd see it with any OS, and so far only win7 is doing it.

Can we assume that the machine works flawlessly, if you turn off all power saving features, sleep, suspend, hibernate, hybrid sleep, etc.??

Absolutely... it's been a real workhorse since the beginning. Given it's age I probably should look into upgrading but it's been such a good machine it's a bit hard to let go of...

 

[Trouble]

"Thing is... if this was non-windows (hardware, bios etc) you would think I'd see it with any OS, and so far only win7 is doing it."
You would think logically, that that would make sense. However; with a new operating system comes the requirement for new and more robust driver software to support the individual hardware devices. Especially true with some legacy hardware the new APIs that Win7 may use to facilitate certain power saving features may not be supported by older devices and their drivers.
You are certainly not alone, many users have experienced issues with power management in Windows 7 and I will usually chalk this up to old or poorly written hardware drivers. I was just hoping that there might be some out there that would help you with this issue (even Vista Drivers in compatibility mode).

 

[CommonTater]

You are certainly not alone, many users have experienced issues with power management in Windows 7 and I will usually chalk this up to old or poorly written hardware drivers. I was just hoping that there might be some out there that would help you with this issue (even Vista Drivers in compatibility mode).

To be honest, I'm not convinced it's a power management problem...
Or more exactly, not one power management settings can solve.

It's like something is not reinitializing during the "monitor on" phase.

 

[CommonTater]

Are there any more suggestions?

 

[TorrentG]

See if USB Keyboard support is on in the bios. Sometimes, it goes by a similar but different setting name with Legacy in it (USB Legacy Support etc...)

 

[CommonTater]

See if USB Keyboard support is on in the bios. Sometimes, it goes by a similar but different setting name with Legacy in it (USB Legacy Support etc...)

Just checked it... Yes, it was on. (Legacy USB Devices) The bios correctly detects a keyboard, a mouse and the 4 bays of my card reader.

 

[Trouble]

You may also want to check in device manager, the property settings for both keyboard and mouse and make sure that under the power management tab, the allow this device to wake the computer hasn't for some reason been unchecked.

 

[CommonTater]

You may also want to check in device manager, the property settings for both keyboard and mouse and make sure that under the power management tab, the allow this device to wake the computer hasn't for some reason been unchecked.

They are checked, and they do wake the computer....

Thank you, I hadn't thought to test that.

A more accurate description of the symptoms might help... When the monitor comes back on, sweeping the mouse cursor does not show the white tile behind the bitmaps (icons) on the desktop, clicking the icons does nothing, and the keyboard is completely dead. I can't access the start menu and then, after about 3 clicks the mouse cursor won't move and then the whole system locks up. From there my only choice is to hit the reset button on the computer case.

 

[Saltgrass]

How old is your monitor, perhaps it may not be behaving... Does it show up correctly identified in Win 7? What type of connection do you have to the monitor?

You might try running this utility to check your system. Close all open programs you can first and make sure to note of where the report file it kept.

Open an Administrative command prompt window. Type the following with enter after. It will take about a minute.

powercfg -energy

Go through the report to see if anything shows up as causing problems with power saving features.

 

[Captain Jack]

Hello,

Did you check these articles
Link Removed

The computer stops responding when an USB device resumes from the USB Selective Suspend state in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

USB devices that are connected to a computer may not work after the computer is idle for more than one hour Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

Troubleshoot problems waking computer from sleep mode

Try setting the Power Plan Settings to High Performance by going to: Control Panel>Power Options>High Performance also disable "Hybrid Sleep".

Hope this helps,
Captain

 

[TorrentG]

Some kind of security software interfering?

 

[CommonTater]

Hi guys, thanks for the responses... Lets see if I can answer in sum...

My monitor is 1 1/2 years old (19" lcd) connected by SVGA with DDC enabled. It worked perfectly under XP.

I don't use full time security or virus scanners. (I do use them on-demand)

Yes, I will give those articles a read...

I looked at the powercfg report and noted that Windows wants S3 sleep mode, so as soon as I send this I'll check my BIOS and make sure it's enabled... However the lockups don't appear to be associated with sleep or hybernate. This will happed even if it turns off the monitor but continues running (like during network activity)...

Kind of a toughy ain't it?

 

[TorrentG]

A few thoughts.

That monitor probably has a DVI connection. If your video card also has one, it really would benefit from hooking up using a DVI cable. This way, the signal is kept completely digital with ADDA conversions and also, outside electromagnetic interference induced into the cabling is not possible from outside sources. Means a perfectly clean signal.

Anyhow...you might find some success by updating to the latest bios available for the motherboard and/or setting optimized defaults as a test.

 

[CommonTater]

A few thoughts.

That monitor probably has a DVI connection.

I use dvi on my htpc system and it is a much better image...
However, the x193w is probably the last model made with svga only.

Anyhow...you might find some success by updating to the latest bios available for the motherboard and/or setting optimized defaults as a test.

Did that a year ago. Been running optimized defaults (without overclock) all along.

 

[CommonTater]

Well, thanks for all the help guys... it really is appreciated.

For the time being I've come up with a bit of a work-around...

I set the monitor timer to NEVER and let the machine go to sleep (stanby, not hibernation) at 20 minutes.

I've seen this problem all over the web, it's far from unique, but until M$ decides to apply it's infinite wisdom to this problem, I've at least got a computer I don't have to reset every 45 minutes or so.

Again... thanks!