Intermittent hanging/lockup when unattended

[Zxian]

I'm having a bit of a tough time troubleshooting an issue I've been having with my new system. When actively used (browsing, gaming, encoding videos, etc), the system seems perfectly stable and shows no signs of hiccups or hardware issues. The problem persists with or without my overclock, and I have replaced the video card with no change in behaviour.

I have checked all the usual places that I can think of to see if I can figure this out. Power options are set to never let the computer automatically go into standby (monitors shut off after 15 minutes). Both my keyboard and mouse are set to be able to wake the computer if it is in standby. I have used "Optimized Defaults" in BIOS and my overclock settings using this guide as a reference.

I've been trying to stress test my system using Prime95 overnight to see if this has been a voltage/stability issue. When I return to my system in the morning, the system is running but it is unresponsive to keyboard or mouse input. I had left my system Prime-ing last night with iTunes open and playing music as well (speakers off so I could sleep). There was no audio output when the computer was in this "hung" state.

Hardware
ASUS P8Z77 WS
Intel i5 2500K @ 4.2GHz, 1.28V w/ Prolimatech Megahalems
4x 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 1.5V
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 OC @ 1100/1200 (factory stock)
2x Intel 520 120GB in RAID0 (system drive)
2x WD6400AAK in RAID0 (scratch drive)
Enermax Revolution85+ 850W
3x Samsung 2443BW 24" 1920x1200 monitors (two through DP, one through DVI)

Latest BIOS and drivers have been installed. Memory has been tested with Memtest86+ (individual sticks, and all 4 at the same time). I've tried running the leaked Catalyst 12.5 Beta drivers with no change in behaviour. I have been having issues with the Catalyst drivers occasionally becoming unresponsive after the monitors go to sleep and I wake them again, so I'm wondering if this has something to do with my triple monitor setup and ZeroCore.


I haven't tried to change my monitor power settings to not sleep yet, but I'm wondering if anyone has any other suggestions on things to try or hidden BIOS options with UEFI or Z77 that I may have missed (this is my first new build since my Intel Q9550 based system).

 

[C1]

This is one of the issues of adding too many "green" technologies (monitors, usb devices, HDDs, etc). Some things go to sleep, are unable to re-awake and the system is locked. One of the big things MS (with all of its wealth of all things) wont learn are:

- Automated operations should be manual additions (not defaults)
- Do not provide users with too many alerts
- Users must have the ability to have the ultimate say over their system

I would start disconnecting things from or out of the system then re-test (eg, run only a single monitor configuration and if necessary swap out the monitor using a simple old fashion version; when I added my PA241w LCD, display, power settings mysteriously began change from time to time and for an indeterminate reason, the LCD fails to enter sleep - always wakes up though when it does sleep).

 

[Zxian]

One of the big things MS (with all of its wealth of all things) wont learn are...

I'm actually fairly certain that this is not due to Microsoft, but rather the BIOS or drivers on my Gigabyte Radeon card. After digging around a little more I managed to find a forum post regarding another user who was having issues with ZeroCore preventing his monitor from waking up. A beta GPU BIOS update seems to have solved his problem.

My concern is that this doesn't seem to be just a monitor/graphics issue. The fact that I left music running last night (70GB of my library on repeat) and it wasn't playing this morning leads me to believe there's something else going on.

 

[kami]

Under CPU advanced settings try disabling C1E, C3 and C6 in the bios. Also try disabling PLL Overvoltage if its currently set to "Auto"

I've seen this solve random reboots when a PC is idle.

 

[Zxian]

So last night, I had disabled the ability for my system to put my monitors to sleep and enabled a screensaver to run. My system was running and responsive this morning without any hangs. I'll have to do some more testing (when I find the time) to see if this is due to the video card and my multiple monitor setup.

I'll have to contact Gigabyte to see if they have any additional information regarding the subject. I'm using two XFX active DisplayPort adaptors for two of my monitors, and this forum thread seems to indicate the possibility of incompatibility with certain monitors or adaptors (dispite the problem being with Quadro cards for them).

 

[sm625]

When I return to my system in the morning, the system is running but it is unresponsive to keyboard or mouse input.

Is it locked up? Is there anything on the screen? (Are the screens on when it is in this state?)

 

[Zxian]

When I've had the problem, the monitors will not wake up. I am unable to see anything, since the monitor power lights are still flashing as though they have been put to sleep by the system.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is to test whether or not the operating system has locked up by accessing a network share or logging in through RDP.