Desktop appears to go into sleep mode, but actually crashing

[shirles78]

View attachment 27796Hello everyone. This is my first time posting so I apologize if I've done anything incorrectly.
I have a problem with a desktop computer that appears as though it's gone into a sleep mode after it sets idle for a decent amount of time (not sure of exact time). However, when I move the mouse or press buttons on the keyboard, nothing happens. The blue power light on the monitor just continues to flash as if there is no signal. I have checked and rechecked to make sure that I have turned off all settings related to sleep or hibernation modes. The only way to get it out of this state is to do a hard reset and then everything comes back up and it works fine. It does throw the message that "windows was not shut down properly" when it starts back up. When it goes into that "sleep mode," the fans are all still running and the lights on the keyboard are on. I went through your tutorial on uploading my dump file as a zip and I have attached that to this post. I recently upgraded the processor in this computer from an athlon II and updated the video card drivers from nvidia. As far as I know, the bios on the motherboard and all other drivers are up to date. I have posted my complete system specs in my profile. I would very much appreciate any help or advice that anyone may offer. Thanks

 

[richc46]

Welcome
Files are not attached, please try again and you will be helped.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/289032-screenshots-files-upload-post-vista-forums.html
http://www.vistax64.com/crashes-debugging/282419-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[shirles78]

View attachment 27798Sorry, trying to attach dump zip again

 

[wither 3]

It didn't work.

 

[shirles78]

View attachment 27809

 

[wither 3]

It turns out that your .zip file is shown at the start of the first line of your initial post. I think that the attachment system is still messed up. I reported this several weeks ago but never heard back from support on it.

I don't think your system is in any kind of sleep mode. It is confusing because you say the blue light for the monitor is flashing. One would think that perhaps the monitor or graphics card are suspect. On the other hand, the keyboard is not responding. It sounds like there is some other process going on. Does this happen in Safe Mode?

Edit: does your monitor controls have the option to restore the factory defaults?

 

[shirles78]

I put the computer in safe mode and let it set over night. In the morning it came right back on with no problems. I reset all the settings on the monitor to factory at the same time I updated my video card drivers right before I started this thread but neither seemed to help. When the computer freezes, the processor activity light is dull and not blinking. If I hit Ctrl+Alt+Del there is still no activity. The number lock light on the keyboard will turn on and off, but no other response that I know of. I was suspecting video card also, but you would think that the processor light would be active if the computer was running and just the video card or monitor was acting up. Since it didn't happen in safe mode, does that mean it's a driver of some sort causing the problem? I do have another video card that I could try.

 

[wither 3]

My comment about it not being in a sleep mode may not have been a good one. There have been problems getting Vista out of hibernation. I assume you have SP2 installed.

Since the problem doesn't happen in Safe mode, obviously it's a Windows issue be it drivers or whatever.

Have you run Malwarebytes and your anti-virus to make sure that's not an issue?

You mentioned that the cpu was replaced recently and that the light for it is not doing anything when the freeze occurs. I wonder if it is not functioning correctly. Edit: I assume the fan is clean and running. What type of cpu did you install.

 

[shirles78]

Just upgraded the processor to an AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.40 GHz. Fan was completely cleaned and in good working order. I have run malwarebytes and McAfee with no viruses or otherwise found. I have been trying to narrow down what the problem might be. I had tried switching to a new screensaver (factory vista) in the past and made sure that the "ask for password on resume" option was not checked, but it didn't help. Oddly enough, I tried completely disabling the screen saver altogether and have been crash free for almost an entire day now. It even sat overnight with no one using it and that's when it has been freezing every time. I know screensavers have caused some problems with Vista in the past, maybe that's my problem. Sounds too good to be true, but we'll see.

 

[wither 3]

Keep us updated.

 

[shirles78]

Well, it's been three days with no crashes so disabling the screen saver appears to have fixed the problem. The only other thing that I did was reset the bios to factory settings, but I don't believe that I had ever changed anything in the bios to begin with. I have come across many mentions of screensaver "bugs" with Vista on the internet, but I have not ever found a concrete cause as they tend to affect different computers in different ways. I'm not sure if it's the OS, the video card, or something else causing the problem. Anyway, thanks for all of your help. It is appreciated.

 

[wither 3]

I'm glad you're up and running now.

 

[shirles78]

Haven't had a single problem since disabling the screensaver. I'm gonna call it good as I don't care about using the screensaver on that computer anyway. Thanks for the help.