Insufficient power?

As the title suggests I was about to post this in the PSU forum instead, but I thought better of it because I think it could also be something with the OS. And then I don't know what else it could be...

Since a couple of weeks my system has started to shut down inappropriately,
that is to say, most of the times it happens when it falls asleep, I come back after a while and I have to reset it, and then I get on Windows recovery screen. In Event Viewer I can see that every time this happens I have a Kernel-power Error 41 (63). I was pretty much thinking PSU when a new symptom occured : the PC went asleep as I was using it. I did not have to reboot, just stroke a key to make it come back. But then I was thinking maybe something is wrong with the way Windows manages power.

So let's look at what happened a little more closely. I made changes in my rig recently. A month ago it was pretty much the same thing, but then I added a SSD (with a clean Win 7 install), switched GTX650 1GB for HD7850 2GB, switched RAM 2x8GB Kingston Hyper X 1600 to 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1866, and switched PSU HCG-520M for the 620M version instead. And finally I added one more HDD, making it to 1 SSD + 3 HDD as indicated in my sig, changed from a Cooler Master Hyper N520 to the water loop, and changed one 120mm fan for a LED version instead. And everything was fine for about two or three weeks, but then this started.

Exact version of Win 7 is Ultimate 64 bits.

When I come to think of it, this problem may have started around when I installed Acronis True Image and FreeFileSync (data backup) to create an automated backup routine to one of my HDD - and then sync that drive with my external drive whenever I choose to with a ffs batch file. So, this was also when I added another HDD.

Is this it then... PSU? But why when going to sleep? Why not when I play or encode Blu Rays or Prime?

It looks a lot less like a power issue than a sync or power down issue. If you have the backup scheduled to run after you've told the system to hibernate, there is a potential conflict between your OS and your secondary backup software. Have you tried changing your backup schedule? Tried using MS backup? Change your power settings to allow it to come out of hibernate or sleep just before the scheduled backup?

Sleep mode is known to be troublesome. Some parts don't wake up correctly.

Overclocks can make it worse.

4.8 speed dragsters don't have a sleep mode?

Lots just never use sleep mode and turn that function off/never use it if it's a problem.

When you encode the system is active.

Hi thanks for replying.

The thing is it doesn't happen when I do the backup or the syncing. All logs of both Acronis and FFS are successful. As a matter of fact when I first set it up I did for five minutes later, and put the PC to sleep, and watched as task manager waked it up for five seconds, and put it back to sleep all by itself. Did the same with Acronis. Then I could easily resume from sleep by stroking a key. Then checked logs and all was fine. Then checked files and all was where it was supposed to be. Only then I set it to run every day at 06:00 for FFS, twice a month for Acronis saturday at 13:00. Acronis backed up last saturday without a problem. FFS backed up since 12/27/2012 up to now without a fault. So I'm under the impression the backup routine is quite all right.

Also, I set hibernate to off because I don't use it, only the common sleep pattern... I mean, I really entered the prompt "powercfg -h off" or something along that line... Does that change anything?

Also there's something I forgot to mention, that may be important or completely stupid, IDK... but now when I resume from sleep I can see the Asus Bios Prompt screen before the PC resumes to my logon. I never saw it before, but I wondered if it was because I changed my screen and it powers on faster... ?

Conumdrum said:

Sleep mode is known to be troublesome. Some parts don't wake up correctly.

Overclocks can make it worse.

4.8 speed dragsters don't have a sleep mode?

Lots just never use sleep mode and turn that function off/never use it if it's a problem.

When you encode the system is active.

Click to expand...

I hadn't see that post...

Well should I use Hibernate instead? I don't really want my PC to be always on, I do work 50 hours and sleep 40 hours a week and I'm the only one who uses it, and I rarely leave any process running behind when I quit. Not that I'm such a green person that I twist my fingers in anguish at the idea of leaving it always on, I just try to do my share as any other folk but I don't stop living, yet I'm still the one paying the powerhouse bill so... I am used to Sleep, never thought to use another option because it has always worked for me since XP.

best thing i can think of would be to turn off the system when your not using it. hibernation prety much shuts it down just takes the memory and dumps it to a spot on the hdd and loads it upon start up. just in my own personal experience ive had alot of problems with hibernation causing issues when i turn it on idk if it has to do with overclocks or what but the hibernation files are corrupt (thats a guess all i know is it wont resume and will lock up and upon reboot it will ask if i would like to resume.)

Did you try removing the Acronis True Image and FreeFileSync data backup?

wingman99 said:

Did you try removing the Acronis True Image and FreeFileSync data backup?

Click to expand...

Yes I did that, both with Your Uninstaller and through a Windows restore point. But I did it because of another problem the installation created at that time, and I solved that problem, and at the time there was no reason for me to suspect that it would start shutting down the wrong way. If you think you need to know what that earlier problem was and how I resolved it I can tell you, but I highly doubt it has anything to do with my Sleep problems as the trouble was a simple conflict that I finally resolved.

wagex said:

best thing i can think of would be to turn off the system when your not using it. hibernation prety much shuts it down just takes the memory and dumps it to a spot on the hdd and loads it upon start up. just in my own personal experience ive had alot of problems with hibernation causing issues when i turn it on idk if it has to do with overclocks or what but the hibernation files are corrupt (thats a guess all i know is it wont resume and will lock up and upon reboot it will ask if i would like to resume.)

Click to expand...

Yeah I've read about similar problems concerning hibernation, hence why I decided not to use it. Although I appreciate the suggestion of shutting the system down (it wouldn't really bother me with the SSD), I don't want to do that because then the backup routine would not take place when I'm away.

Anyone has any other suggestion?

And what about that bit concerning the fact that I can see the BIOS prompt screen when I resume from sleep? Is that normal behavior. I always felt like it resumed directly on logon...

it should, thats weird, check your system state settings in the bios theres like s4 s3 and stuff like that im not sure what the difference is but perhaps changing one of those settings could help, should be in the power settings or something like that.

I would check his C-States in the Bios as there have a lot to do with Sleep and others! If by chance they are still enabled you can disable them all or just leave C1E Enabled. AJ.

wagex said:

it should, thats weird, check your system state settings in the bios theres like s4 s3 and stuff like that im not sure what the difference is but perhaps changing one of those settings could help, should be in the power settings or something like that.

Click to expand...

By "it should that's weird", you meant : "It should resume to logon directly" or "It should display the BIOS prompt screen first"??? Or it wasn't about that at all?

Ajay57 said:

I would check his C-States in the Bios as there have a lot to do with Sleep and others! If by chance they are still enabled you can disable them all or just leave C1E Enabled. AJ.

Click to expand...

Hi Ajay!
Thanks to take the time once again, and FYI I already have disabled all C-States except C1E. I thought, on the other hand, that perhaps I should re-enable one of the others? I don't know what to do anymore.

I think I'm gonna try and post this in the OS forum and see if different views will come up. But thanks to all for the input, Conumdrum, Ajay, you're always there for me (as for everybody posting here), thanks Wagex good input here.