Windows XP home sleeps, then won't wake, won't load

[Chris 96 WS6]

I have a strange problem.

Patient:

Home built PC, Asus mobo, 3.0ghz Pentium IV Prescott, 1gb PC2700 ram, 1-120gb SATA 1.5 HD, geForce Nvidia FX5500 video card.

I have the power management settings to turn the monitors off after 15 minutes and the hard drive off after 15 minutes. Occassionally, not every time, the PC just won't wake up...the screens won't come on and I'm assuming this means the machine itself has gone to sleep and is in a comma, LOL.

I changed the power mgmt to "never turn hard disks off" thinking that would fix it, but it didn't.

The worst part about this is a simple reboot doesn't always fix it. After this happens and I reset, it goes through POST and all that, but when it gets to the windows load screen, nothing happens...just a black screen.

This can happen whether you hit reset or if you turn the PC off, then turn off the PSU and let it sit for 30 minutes. The only solution I have found is just to keep rebooting until it loads windows. Occasionally I will get a prompt to load in safe mode too, but usually I do not.

Is this a hardware problem or a windows problem?

 

[suddy]

Are you on the latest service pack of windows XP home?

 

[Chris 96 WS6]

Yes, Windows is up to date, SP2 and automatic updates turned on.

 

[azinnc]

I had the same exact problem, but I still have the problem with Windows going to sleep and never waking up.

But I did fix the problem with the boot sequence not finishing. I had to flash a new BIOS version. I have an MSI K8N Neo4-F and downloaded the latest updates. This fixed the boot problem.

I still have the problem with Windows XP not waking up, but it doesn't happen all the time - just 1 or 2 times a week.

Have you had any further progress with that issue?

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Chris 96 WS6]

I have not. I actually goofed up installing a second SATA drive a few weeks ago...so I can run RAID 1 and protect my data. I accidentally overwrote the HD with all the data on it. Luckily I had a complete system back up from November so I didn't lose much at all, except my wife's Christmas list, LOL.

I can say the newly installed setup seems to do it less than before, though I'm still having both problems on occassion. Its down to 1x a week or less now. Good point about the BIOS...I should check for an update.