The ghost in the machine

[lameness]

OK, my PC has decided to start turning itself on at random times and i dont know why. Rather than thinking that its haunted, im guessing there must be some technical reason.

When it does turn itself on, it always ends up with default bios settings (OCed normally). A similar thing happens when i try and revive my PC from sleep mode. For some reason after it has been asleep it doesnt post....it trys about 5 times before its successful, but then the bios is back to default settings. Im guessing that the same thing is occuring when the pc is turning itself on.

I have a q6600 @ 3.2 (8x400), x48 mobo, corsair tx 750w, 2x 4870. I have tested this OC on various occasions using prime 95, the max was for about 6 hours in very warm conditions and it never dropped a core. I can do this at stock vid, but since these issues i have bumped it up to 1.325 ....it has had no effect.

As iam new to vista it may be a case that i accidentally put it into sleep every now and then rather than turn it off....then during the day someone might knock the mouse etc (or does vista wake itself for defragging...auto updates? ).. waking it up and causing the boot issues that only occur when i try and revive from sleep. That would explain how it turns itself on

Please, why is the sleep mode causing this problem...btw i have speed step enabled for what its worth. Thanks for any help.

 

[iluvgillgill]

when settling for a final OC you should always prime small ffts and blend test 24hours EACH.so you need to spend about two days for full stress.

try turn wake- up-on KB/mouse/ring-in etc OFF. when those features are turn on any sort of electric signal will trigger the PC to turn on. and about it doesnt boot in OC mode is because your OC is not stable so the mobo boot in default mode to let it boot success.

OC is a long winded task!its never gonna be short!

 

[night_wolf_in]

^what he said make more sense to me than what i thought in my mind.

im really not sure. usually these things caused by psu. but i cant really say. cause honestly i have no idea if vista is actually middling with mobo+psu.

 

[T2bus]

I had the same problems with a computer that had Xp. I traced the source to be big fluctuations in the current. When the fluctuations stoped the wakeing up of the pc stopped

 

[V3NOM]

yeah as lupi said, any sort of electrical signal (such as a PSU spike) would cause a power on!! Also, my mobo boots into stock when the OC is high, saves having to reset the bios

 

[iluvgillgill]

you are lucky the spike didnt set your pc in a cloud of smoke!lol

 

[Lupiron]

Hehe, yeah! But you may be right about the random turn on. SOme new Bios support an auto boot option, with a clock timer and alarm function and all that junk!

But as far as the board goes, any short can start it up. IE, most of the time, to start or shutdown my computer, I use a metal pick thingie and just touch the two pins on the mobo that is the power switch connectors, and on she comes!

So if there is any physical short, that can be a sign of it. The power supply could also trigger it, I would imagine, hehe.

Make sure it's nice and clean, and every item is plugged in properly, and secure. And if it keeps happening, just Down Load and leave open the newest HWMonitor, as it records max highs, lows, and current values for alot of voltage indicators.

Anyways, Download that, leave it open, and set your screen saver to Aurora, and let it sit over night, while on,. and maybe you can catch yourself a power spike or serge, or something like that.

Who knows!

Oh, by the way, since you have a new Q6600 on the block, lets see where it fits in on the VID poll!

I wager its a 1.3250!!

But you can check for yourself with either Core Temp, or Real Temp, and then list what it is here, please?

You all have fun!

--Lupi

 

[lameness]

Yeah i know that at a very unstable OC the mb wont post, but this OC is hardly excessive...whilst i may not of tested it fully, i have put it through its paces with the small tfts for 2-6 hours on about 4-5 occasions once on a particularly hot day with no errors. In my experience if the OC is so unstable as to not post, and by some fluke actually got into windows...it would fail this test in about 3 seconds.

I will do further testing....but i feel certain that inst the issue.

The power may be a possibility, my house is a bit old and the lights dim when a large current is being drawn...tho this never effects the PC...(i deliberately started up the elecy chainsaw during a stress test and it didnt fail). I have it surge protected aswell....gonna get an UPS.


My theory is that somehow, when its put into sleep the bios settings get screwed up so that. After it finally posts (when woken) i notice that the fsb:ram ratio is back to normal so that its trying to clock the ram too high...it wont post therfore it starts to lower the fsb untill it reaches reasonable memory clocks. This only happens when i resume from sleep.....but why??!!

Does anyone know what happens in sleep mode....obviously things are still getting some power....in order not to overheat something must be done to the timings???

 

[lameness]

Hehe, yeah! But you may be right about the random turn on. SOme new Bios support an auto boot option, with a clock timer and alarm function and all that junk!

But as far as the board goes, any short can start it up. IE, most of the time, to start or shutdown my computer, I use a metal pick thingie and just touch the two pins on the mobo that is the power switch connectors, and on she comes!

So if there is any physical short, that can be a sign of it. The power supply could also trigger it, I would imagine, hehe.

Make sure it's nice and clean, and every item is plugged in properly, and secure. And if it keeps happening, just Down Load and leave open the newest HWMonitor, as it records max highs, lows, and current values for alot of voltage indicators.

Anyways, Download that, leave it open, and set your screen saver to Aurora, and let it sit over night, while on,. and maybe you can catch yourself a power spike or serge, or something like that.

Who knows!

Oh, by the way, since you have a new Q6600 on the block, lets see where it fits in on the VID poll!

I wager its a 1.3250!!

But you can check for yourself with either Core Temp, or Real Temp, and then list what it is here, please?

You all have fun!

--Lupi

Thanks for advice, i will try that. Default vid is 1.275 (i think...near enough).

 

[will14]

I'm confused on whether it won't boot cold or if it won't boot from the suspend.

There was a lot of talk regarding sleep states and OC issues I believe 9 months ago. In which it was a common issue to have lock-ups when returning from sleep mode in windows. If that's the case I don't remember a sure-fire fix.

If it is from cold-booting then I'd test your OC run prime-95 etc to ensure it's stability.

 

[lameness]

I'm confused on whether it won't boot cold or if it won't boot from the suspend.

There was a lot of talk regarding sleep states and OC issues I believe 9 months ago. In which it was a common issue to have lock-ups when returning from sleep mode in windows. If that's the case I don't remember a sure-fire fix.

If it is from cold-booting then I'd test your OC run prime-95 etc to ensure it's stability.

No it always boots from cold...it only sometimes (most of the time) has issues when being revived from sleep. Thanks for the info about other people having issues....i will google about it.

 

[V3NOM]

lol u probly should have googled it first...

 

[lameness]

lol u probly should have googled it first...

Yeah i didn't expect a major feature of Vista to simply not work....i thought i might have other issues...silly me.

 

[V3NOM]

hmm yes....Vista "fixed" a number of things that werent broken...

 

[iluvgillgill]

XP FTW!!!(as always)

 

[V3NOM]

agreed. apart from the lack of DX10 support, XP is solid, has all the bugs worked out, looks great with a couple of mods (zune desktop and google desktop), not resource hungry like vista...the list goes on...

 

[Lupiron]

1.2750, darn. Where did you get the thing, if you don't mind me asking? gets 3.6 Ghz at about 1.37 volts loaded. So not to bad.

Good luck with the re boot thingie. If it also grows legs, and takes a hike, as well as manages to turn itself on, please let me know.

Thanks!

--Lupi