Windows – How to diagnose the cause of a freeze after resuming in Windows XP (SP3)

freezehibernatesleepwindows

I have just built a new computer from parts. Whenever I resume from any sleep mode (S1, S3 or S4) the computer freezes within about 60 seconds of the welcome screen appearing. At this point the computer is completely non-responsive and the only recourse is to reboot.

I have updated the BIOS and all drivers to current from the motherboard manufacturer's site. I have reset BIOS settings to default, including disabling AMD Cool n Quiet.

The windows event logs are not helpful at all. Other than immediately after resuming, the system has been absolutely stable for a couple of months (as long as AMD CnQ is disabled; with Cool n Quiet active I did experience periodic freezes).

The system is:

Mobo       : MSI 790GX-G65
CPU        : AMD Phenom II 965 BE at 3.6 GHz
Memory     : Corsair DDR3 1600, at 1333 MHz and 9-9-9-21
HDDs       : 1 EIDE (System - O/S, Programs, etc), 2 SATA in RAID-0 (Data)
DVD        : 1 LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1673S
Card Reader: 1 multi-card reader

Keyboard is attached via PS2 and mouse is USB.

Any thoughts or pointers would be most welcome.

EDIT

It appears that the computer may not freeze if a program is left running which puts it under significant load. I left a stress test running which keeps all cores under 85% load, and my son put the computer to sleep – while this program is running it I have been able to resume from S3 successfully 9 out of 10 times, compared against about 20 tests with the computer idle which have all frozen. So this may be related to being in an idle state when it resumes.

Best Answer

As suggested in the other thread, you can configure (slightly different way for USB keyboards) and use a method to manually force a BSOD to dump the memory to investigate and find out what the heck is hanging your system (*now with great, though kind of lengthy video to help!*—requires SilverLight).

Since your problem is coming out of resume, one thing you could try is running BootVis, and doing a trace of the Next Standby & Resume. Then you should be able to clearly see what is causing the problem—likely one of the third-party drivers is getting hung. (Microsoft has long since removed the file download for BootVis from their sites since people were incorrectly using it to try to speed up or “tweak” their systems instead of using it for what it was actually designed for. However the last known version, 1.3.37.0—aka the leet version—is still available around the Internet.)

Related Question