Suspect PSU isn't Kicking Video Cards enough to Wake From Sleep

dugn

dugn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
398
My computer (specs below - build log here) has been running Win7 SP1 without problem including waking from standby/sleep.

After one of the two GTX 275s started flaking, I upgraded to two GTX 760 SC cards (EVGA Part Number: 04G-P4-2768-KR). Now the computer won't wake the screens (dual Samsung monitors) from sleep. Event Log confirms the computer wakes. I can type and move the mouse and cause events. It's just that the video cards don't seem to recover from standby/sleep and spin up the monitors.

I'm unsure how to troubleshoot further and would rather just fix the problem. Whether it's a PSU upgrade, EVGA card firmware upgrade (?) or anything else, I'd just like to have my rig recover from standby.

Additional Details
My PSU is the same 2009 Modular Corsair HX1000 from 2009. Each GPU requires a 6-pin and 8-pin and gets this from a single cable from the PSU (2 cables total - one 6+8-pin for each card). I plugged in two additional 8-pin cables to the PSU and ran them to the 8-pin on each video card - hoping the startup power from a dedicated 8-pin for each card would do the trick. No change.

Not sure what else to try and/or to confirm where the problem actually lies (PSU, GPU demand, etc.). I'm pretty computer savvy, but this one's got me stumped.
 
Yes that is what I meant. That's usually the problem when the monitor wont display anything. Can you manually turn the monitor off and then back on to see a picture? Check the event viewer see if anything fails when you wake it up.
 
Manually turning on/off monitor doesn't resume display.
Unplugging and re-plugging in monitor doesn't resume display.
Various NVidia driver versions didn't solve the problem.

Event Viewer shows successful resumes from Sleep (S3) with no errors or warnings. It looks just as if the video card(s) are doing what they should be (or, at least aren't reporting an error), but they don't spin back up from sleep.

Any ideas to troubleshoot this further. It clearly started with the switch from dual GTX 275's to dual GTX 760's. Any way to determine whether sufficient start-up power is/is not being provided by the PSU? Any other ideas?
 
What happens when only one of the cards is installed in the PC?
 
Try just one card.

I doubt it is a power issue if you have no problems putting a load on the cards.

Wake problems are typically driver related.....although Prime1 and Xoleras will claim Nvidia drivers are perfect......
 
I went gang-busters to narrow this down tonight. Short answer: The problem only occurs with either of the EVGA GTX 760 cards. Looks like I'll be giving the EVGA guys in SoCal a call in the morning to see how much I can stump them.

Here's what I tried:
  • Single EVGA GTX 760 card
  • Swapped the single with the other EVGA GTX 760 card
  • Swapped monitors
  • Swapped cables
  • Tried DVI-D and DVI-I
  • Various NVidia driver versions

In the end, the moment I plugged back in one of my GTX 275's, video resume from standby worked perfectly. The moment I plugged back in either of the GTX 760's, no video resume.

I wish there was more I could try. A video under-clock, a GPU BIOS change...

I'm thoroughly stumped. Any other good, helpful suggestions or ideas? I appreciate you taking a moment to think about and comment on my dilemma.
 
Try the GTX 760 cards in another PC and see whether or not they cause the same sleep issue?
 
Spoke with EVGA and they had this interesting insight: The 700 series of cards are the first to contain an UEFI BIOS that works perfectly with most modern motherboards (either those with UEFI BIOS's themselves - or at least the latest standard BIOS with the latest BIOS updates).

But my EVGA X58 motherboard (non-UEFI, 3+ years old - without a 'recent' BIOS update for compatibility) won't cut it. When asked if I tried the GTX 760 in another computer, I had - and it failed. But based on what he said, I then tried the 760 in a newer motherboard (a Z87 Stinger w/UEFI) and resume from S3 worked perfectly. They mentioned that older motherboards won't trigger the 'wake' call these 700 series cards are looking for upon S1/S3 resume.

EVGA Support put in a request to their dev team to provide a non-UEFI BIOS I can use to 'update'/downgrade my cards. Waiting to hear back from them on this new BIOS to try.
 
dugn said:
My computer (specs below - build log here) has been running Win7 SP1 without problem including waking from standby/sleep.

After one of the two GTX 275s started flaking, I upgraded to two GTX 760 SC cards (EVGA Part Number: 04G-P4-2768-KR). Now the computer won't wake the screens (dual Samsung monitors) from sleep. Event Log confirms the computer wakes. I can type and move the mouse and cause events. It's just that the video cards don't seem to recover from standby/sleep and spin up the monitors.

I'm unsure how to troubleshoot further and would rather just fix the problem. Whether it's a PSU upgrade, EVGA card firmware upgrade (?) or anything else, I'd just like to have my rig recover from standby.

Additional Details
My PSU is the same 2009 Modular Corsair HX1000 from 2009. Each GPU requires a 6-pin and 8-pin and gets this from a single cable from the PSU (2 cables total - one 6+8-pin for each card). I plugged in two additional 8-pin cables to the PSU and ran them to the 8-pin on each video card - hoping the startup power from a dedicated 8-pin for each card would do the trick. No change.

Not sure what else to try and/or to confirm where the problem actually lies (PSU, GPU demand, etc.). I'm pretty computer savvy, but this one's got me stumped.
Click to expand...


I run 2 GTX 760's in SLI on a Corsair HX850. I have my I7 4770K overclocked to 4.5GHZ as well. Plenty of power. You don't need a 1000 watt PSU unless your pc is packed with 10 fans a watercooling system and 5 hard drives.
 
D1mMaK said:
I run 2 GTX 760's in SLI on a Corsair HX850. I have my I7 4770K overclocked to 4.5GHZ as well. Plenty of power. You don't need a 1000 watt PSU unless your pc is packed with 10 fans a watercooling system and 5 hard drives.
Click to expand...

It is explained in the post above yours.
 
No joy so far.

Although EVGA Support has been great, the problem hasn't been solved. They even sent me an updated customized BIOS to disable the UEFI extensions in the video cards. Although the update applied successfully, it didn't resolve the problem.

For reference, here is everything I've tried so far. I'm waiting to chat with their product manager about possible next steps.

  • Upgraded EVGA X58 SLI LE motherboard from BIOS version 82 to the latest 83 version
  • Replaced all cables with alternate DVI-I, DVI-D cables (I didn’t try any HDMI or VGA-to-DVI converters)
  • Tried 3 different flat screen monitors
  • Provided power (6-pin and 8-pin) from 2 distinct rails on different 1000-watt and 1200-watt PSUs to confirm sufficient wake power was being provided
  • Swapped GTX 760 with GTX 275 to confirm S3 resume works with 275
  • PER EVGA: Changed Windows 7 Power Options settings PCI EXPRESS | Link State Power Management | “Plugged in” to all of the 3 available settings: Off, Moderate Power Savings, Maximum Power Savings
  • PER EVGA: Flashed a single GTX 760 with EVGA-provided firmware
  • PER EVGA: In X58 BIOS, adjusted FREQUENCY | VOLTAGE CONTROL | MEMORY FEATURES | LOW MEMORY GAP from AUTO to 3G
  • Installed stock (un-flashed) GTX 760 card into EVGA Z87 Stinger motherboard running Win7 SP1 – resumed from sleep perfectly
  • Installed updated (EVGA firmware update) GTX 760 card into EVGA Z87 Stinger motherboard running Win7 SP1 – resumed from sleep perfectly
  • Reinstalled each of the two cards independently back into the X58 motherboard – confirmed resume from S3 does NOT work
  • Removed all other cards (which was only a Creative Labs SoundBlaster PCI card) so I was running only the EVGA X58 motherboard, RAM, CPU and a single GTX 760 card
  • Downgraded motherboard to BIOS number 77 (the last version some people used successfully before seeing the problem), erased BIOS (removed battery and reset settings), then upgraded back to the final BIOS released in 2011 (BIOS 83)
  • Spoke with a former NVidia developer who indicated, “EVGA runs reference BIOS/firmware in their cards. So while another brand of card may resolve the issue, it also may not. It seems the combination of the X58 platform with the newest NVidia reference designs have an incompatibility that renders certain older motherboard and new GPU combinations incompatible. If a Motherboard or GPU firmware update cannot solve the issue, it may not be solvable.”
 
I signed up for this forum just to say that I'm experiencing the same problem with my GTX 760 SC. Funny enough, I used to have the 275 too, GT OC.

I wish EVGA would push an update to fix this. I bought their mobo from them FFS.
 
Sorry it's happened to you to. But it seems we're not the only ones. See the threads I've seen on this exact issue; X58 motherboards with EVGA/NVidia reference cards:

http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=2091315 (780 cards)
http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=1526389 (600 and 700 series cards) – thread started 9 months ago.
Click to expand...

After being escalated through EVGA support and product managers, I've landed with the last possible contact in EVGA who has "one more thing he wants to try" before we decide the problem can't be solved - which may end up being the final answer.

On this issue, I spoke with a former NVidia developer and part of the problem is definitely the UEFI extensions in all 700 series NVidia cards. But since disabling these extensions with an EVGA custom firmware update didn't solve the problem, it's likely a known-but-not-discussed general incompatibility with Phoenix BIOS-based X58 motherboards and newer NVidia cards for which there's no fix.

While I could theoretically try different brands of cards (since their firmware, extensions and design may be different) and find a lucky combination that works, it's basically a roll of the dice. Least likely to work are EVGA cards since they stick very closely to the NVidia reference standards.​

So I'm waiting to hear back from EVGA on this "one more thing" (whatever it is) after which I'll definitely report back.

I don't have high hopes.

And since I'm not going to upgrade my entire system due to an S3 resume issue (I've getting used to fully shutting down and restarting - as lame as that is), I'll likely just deal with it.
 
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Yeah that's what I've been doing too... I've created a schedule task that will shut down my rig after 2 hours (my old setting was to sleep after 2 hours), and I've downloaded some WOL app for my iPhone to wake it up when I get home. I still can't figure out how to make it work over the internet though. I know it's UDP port 9 but my router isn't cooperating.

Same as you, there's no chance in hell I'm upgrading my rig just because the sleep mode doesn't wake up correctly. I have the i7-960 with 24 GB of RAM. It's blazing fast for what I do, no need to shell out another 1k just to get the sleep mode to work right. EVGA simply needs to step up their game. I know a lot of folks are still rocking this setup.

Thanks for all your help and tries anyway.
 
NO SOLUTION

The final thing we tried was a heavily revised firmware to disable every aspect of UEFI instructions on the card - an even more dramatic hack than the first modified firmware. Not only did it not solve the problem, but it caused the PC to BSOD after returning from sleep with a hardware error from the video card.

I re-flashed to the original, retail BIOS and we had to admit the problem couldn't be solved. It seems Phoenix-based X58 motherboards aren't happy with EVGA/NVidia reference cards and firmware. They don't wake from S3 sleep.

For what it's worth, EVGA support was really outstanding. From the first call, they were professional, articulate and knowledgeable. They escalated to higher levels techs, their reference card engineer and finally their highest level developer - who created and offered 2 custom firmware revisions to help resolve the issue - all in a timely manner.

While I'm seriously bummed the problem wasn't resolved, I give EVGA Support a AAA+ rating for their support and support processes.
 
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