System wakes from sleep spontaneously- MB or PS problem

spdfreak

Senior member
Mar 6, 2000
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So, my system wakes from sleep spontaneously- I'm trying to figure out if it is a MB problem or a PS problem. The MB is a Gigabyte GA970A-UD3 and the PS is an Antec 620 eco. Both are several years old now. I've also had several occasions where the power button would not wake the system until I turned off/on the rocker switch on the back of the PS. Other than this strange behavior, the system runs fine. No problem if I do a regular shut down. It stays shut down until I restart it. Anyone else had a situation like this?
 

billyb0b

Golden Member
Nov 8, 2009
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is there anything else on that same circuit in your home that powers on or off during this time??
 

spdfreak

Senior member
Mar 6, 2000
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Nope, no Samsung anything and everything is plugged into a UPS so its unlikely that it is a wall power problem. Pretty strange.
 

spdfreak

Senior member
Mar 6, 2000
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In the mobo BIOS are there wakeup options turned on? If I enable my NIC to wake the PC (in Device Manager), it comes on all the time.
I'll check that, but when I set it up I didn't turn any wake-up devices on- unless it is on by default.
 

know of fence

Senior member
May 28, 2009
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In the mobo BIOS are there wakeup options turned on? If I enable my NIC to wake the PC (in Device Manager), it comes on all the time.

Yeah, it might be "wake-on-LAN" or "wake-on-USB" or "wake-on-mouse", particularly if you have wireless devices or a USB hub.
It also can be any software with scheduled updates/checks, I suspect.

It's eerie when it happens, and the PC never goes back to sleep until the battery/UPS is low or automatic hibernation is configured.
 

spdfreak

Senior member
Mar 6, 2000
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What makes me suspect something else is the few times it has gone to sleep and wouldn't turn back on without turning the PS rocker switch off/on.
 

know of fence

Senior member
May 28, 2009
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Ah it just occured to me that with cheap power supplies, including an Antec one that came with the case that I tested, sometimes the PC is powered on if you switch on one of these.

5SOCKETSCHUKO.jpg


For me it happened with a gigabyte AM2+ board and also much older PCs, without pressing either the power button or the power supply rocker I could turn on the PC, by rocking [on] the switchable outlet. It's possible depending on wiring of your house than any device disconnected or switched on, creating a short voltage spike in the circuit can switch on you PC. IF that's the case then consider an upgrade to a new 80+ gold PSU, or move your PC to an outlet that is less busy.
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,682
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Most of the time "wake on USB" has to be on because most keyboards are now USB. I would suspect a faulty peripheral first, then if alternate input devices do not stop the behavior, a BIOS update or re-flash of the most current version might be in order.
 

Tamron

Junior Member
Aug 7, 2014
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Used to happen to me, turned out to be a "wake up on" stipulation for the network controller, after turning off all of those including usb, it stopped booting up randomly
 

spdfreak

Senior member
Mar 6, 2000
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Most of them were on by default on my board as was the NIC.
I checked and they are all off... shouldn't be waking up from anything. As I mentioned, the worrisome aspect of all this is that a few times, it wouldn't wake from sleep without flipping the PS rocker switch off/on. I think it has something to do with how the board senses power but that still doesn't tell me if it is the PS or MB. It does have the latest bios but it did it with the previous bios as well.
 

bradly1101

Diamond Member
May 5, 2013
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www.bradlygsmith.org
I checked and they are all off... shouldn't be waking up from anything. As I mentioned, the worrisome aspect of all this is that a few times, it wouldn't wake from sleep without flipping the PS rocker switch off/on. I think it has something to do with how the board senses power but that still doesn't tell me if it is the PS or MB. It does have the latest bios but it did it with the previous bios as well.

As long as you have all your OS and driver updates, and have tested memory and disconnected peripherals, and if it still does it I'm afraid all that's left are reinstalling the OS and swapping parts.

Does your BIOS have a 'restart VGA bios after resume' option? If so you may want to toggle that to see if it wakes properly.