Basically, I have had two different problems going with my new PC, though I think the latter problem is merely a weird consequence of the first. And, no, I have not even gotten to overclocking yet, since I always try to get things work perfectly at their specified settings first.
Problem 1:
BIOS settings get reset in certain case after I shutdown from Windows 7. The certain case seems to be that this only happens if the BIOS setting "EuP support" is enabled. When it is enabled, windows shutdown also makes it so "deep" poweroff that even the LED in the motherboard power button gets turned off; this is the only way I've seen it turn off (other than switching PSU off). Also, pressing the power button to shutdown while in the BIOS setup does not seem to cause this settings resetting (and the LED stays on, too).
I haven't done total scientific testing on this, but so far 10+ shutdown/turn on sequences with both EuP enabled and disabled, and settings were always lost if it was enabled, and always kept if disabled.
When the settings reset, it is full reset (including date time), unlike the CMOS reset button which seemed to keep date time the one time I've used it so far.
Problem 2:
After a while of banging away with the settings reset problem (i.e. having the EuP enabled), the startup sequence got some weird hiccups, like it starts a bit on the boot first, but then shutdowns automatically again, and restarts... After this happens, the system will not stay shut down, but restarts automatically in few seconds. This happens whatever way it was shut down (win shutdown, hibernate, sleep; power button; even PSU switch turned off... it will try to restart but of course runs out of juice in a blink, literally (some LEDs blink and then its fully over).
Windows has nothing out of ordinary in any logs, but I didn't expect such either, since this happens even with power button shutdown.
The only way to stop this "mode" is to do CMOS reset, then it works ok again (other than still having the problem 1 around).
System details:
* PSU:Corsair HX850W and Chieftec el-cheapo 550W (tried both, just in case)
* mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7, BIOS version F2
* CPU: i7-920
* RAM: G.Skill 3x2GB kit (F3-10666CL7T-6GBPK; running at 1333Hz 7-7-7-18 1.5V as specified and in its X.M.P profile)
* graphics: cheapest HD5670 I could find/get (while waiting for the bigger brother)
* disk: Samsung PB22-J 128GB (SSD; being used in AHCI mode)
* optical: some LiteON blu-ray/DVD-burner SATA combo drive (also in AHCI)
* USB keyboard and mouse
* OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
All BIOS settings are pretty much the defaults, except these:
* All overclocking/performance enhance settings disabled (even the ones that are enabled by default).
* RAM needs the X.M.P. profile for 1333MHz 7-7-7-18 (instead of running at 1066 CL8 or something)
* Init display first set to PCIE x16-1 (doesn't matter really, I've tried with the default value, too)
* SATA ports are in AHCI/Native, extra SATA controllers disabled, USB keyboard support enabled (USB keyboard doesn't matter, AHCI does, of course)
* all event wake up things disabled, HPET mode 64-bit. (mode doesn't matter)
* (I've also meddled at times with SMART support, full screen logo, quick boot (hah, what a joke), instant-off vs. delay 4sec - none of these affect problems, and work as expected)
The whole system is still only "air assembled", on top of a motherboard box. I always do it first like that so that in case of problems, I don't need to waste couple hours for first removing all the crap from case and then put back in once things are fixed. (Did it two times straight to case back in my younger days, lessons learned).
Otherwise it works perfectly. Once settings are there, no problems during operation. I've installed that Win7 (though not activated or updated yet), installed drivers (and updated them, too) and some test programs. CPU testing didn't give a single problem, neither did Memtest86+, though I only run them for like 30minutes and couple hours, but if a problem in either would be the reason, there would need to be more than few problems per minute. Yes, I've have had my share of badly working RAM before. Graphics testing shows no troubles either (though the FPSes looked a bit low, but then again, I haven't got anything to compare them against and its been like few years since I last used the test program). And WEI scores are sweet, all 7+.
So, I'm mostly interested in the problem 1 since seems I can't get problem 2 without first having problem 1 in effect. I've tried changing various BIOS settings, the other PSU, tried pressing the power button in different ways (just in case it was a mechanical bouncing causing the mobo to think there were multiple failed reboots and thus as a safety measure reseted "overclocked" settings to defaults). I've actually even seen twice the warning about overclocking/-voltage, but I count that for the mobo stupidity for thinking that any bad bootup is due to overcloking/-voltage.
Has anyone else with somewhat similar setup experienced either of the problems, or have some more ideas to test? I'm hoping to find out if it just my particular motherboard, or if it is all these motherboards, or if it could get fixed with BIOS update, or do I just have to live without the EuP power saving support (I mean, if it saves sooo much energy that it even cuts the cmos battery off its tiny load... j/k).
Problem 1:
BIOS settings get reset in certain case after I shutdown from Windows 7. The certain case seems to be that this only happens if the BIOS setting "EuP support" is enabled. When it is enabled, windows shutdown also makes it so "deep" poweroff that even the LED in the motherboard power button gets turned off; this is the only way I've seen it turn off (other than switching PSU off). Also, pressing the power button to shutdown while in the BIOS setup does not seem to cause this settings resetting (and the LED stays on, too).
I haven't done total scientific testing on this, but so far 10+ shutdown/turn on sequences with both EuP enabled and disabled, and settings were always lost if it was enabled, and always kept if disabled.
When the settings reset, it is full reset (including date time), unlike the CMOS reset button which seemed to keep date time the one time I've used it so far.
Problem 2:
After a while of banging away with the settings reset problem (i.e. having the EuP enabled), the startup sequence got some weird hiccups, like it starts a bit on the boot first, but then shutdowns automatically again, and restarts... After this happens, the system will not stay shut down, but restarts automatically in few seconds. This happens whatever way it was shut down (win shutdown, hibernate, sleep; power button; even PSU switch turned off... it will try to restart but of course runs out of juice in a blink, literally (some LEDs blink and then its fully over).
Windows has nothing out of ordinary in any logs, but I didn't expect such either, since this happens even with power button shutdown.
The only way to stop this "mode" is to do CMOS reset, then it works ok again (other than still having the problem 1 around).
System details:
* PSU:Corsair HX850W and Chieftec el-cheapo 550W (tried both, just in case)
* mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7, BIOS version F2
* CPU: i7-920
* RAM: G.Skill 3x2GB kit (F3-10666CL7T-6GBPK; running at 1333Hz 7-7-7-18 1.5V as specified and in its X.M.P profile)
* graphics: cheapest HD5670 I could find/get (while waiting for the bigger brother)
* disk: Samsung PB22-J 128GB (SSD; being used in AHCI mode)
* optical: some LiteON blu-ray/DVD-burner SATA combo drive (also in AHCI)
* USB keyboard and mouse
* OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
All BIOS settings are pretty much the defaults, except these:
* All overclocking/performance enhance settings disabled (even the ones that are enabled by default).
* RAM needs the X.M.P. profile for 1333MHz 7-7-7-18 (instead of running at 1066 CL8 or something)
* Init display first set to PCIE x16-1 (doesn't matter really, I've tried with the default value, too)
* SATA ports are in AHCI/Native, extra SATA controllers disabled, USB keyboard support enabled (USB keyboard doesn't matter, AHCI does, of course)
* all event wake up things disabled, HPET mode 64-bit. (mode doesn't matter)
* (I've also meddled at times with SMART support, full screen logo, quick boot (hah, what a joke), instant-off vs. delay 4sec - none of these affect problems, and work as expected)
The whole system is still only "air assembled", on top of a motherboard box. I always do it first like that so that in case of problems, I don't need to waste couple hours for first removing all the crap from case and then put back in once things are fixed. (Did it two times straight to case back in my younger days, lessons learned).
Otherwise it works perfectly. Once settings are there, no problems during operation. I've installed that Win7 (though not activated or updated yet), installed drivers (and updated them, too) and some test programs. CPU testing didn't give a single problem, neither did Memtest86+, though I only run them for like 30minutes and couple hours, but if a problem in either would be the reason, there would need to be more than few problems per minute. Yes, I've have had my share of badly working RAM before. Graphics testing shows no troubles either (though the FPSes looked a bit low, but then again, I haven't got anything to compare them against and its been like few years since I last used the test program). And WEI scores are sweet, all 7+.
So, I'm mostly interested in the problem 1 since seems I can't get problem 2 without first having problem 1 in effect. I've tried changing various BIOS settings, the other PSU, tried pressing the power button in different ways (just in case it was a mechanical bouncing causing the mobo to think there were multiple failed reboots and thus as a safety measure reseted "overclocked" settings to defaults). I've actually even seen twice the warning about overclocking/-voltage, but I count that for the mobo stupidity for thinking that any bad bootup is due to overcloking/-voltage.
Has anyone else with somewhat similar setup experienced either of the problems, or have some more ideas to test? I'm hoping to find out if it just my particular motherboard, or if it is all these motherboards, or if it could get fixed with BIOS update, or do I just have to live without the EuP power saving support (I mean, if it saves sooo much energy that it even cuts the cmos battery off its tiny load... j/k).
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