my desktop is suffering from intermeitent, apparent boot failures, usually after I wake it up from being suspended (not hibernation). When I click the power button on the front to turn it back on (I can't use the keyboard/mouse to wake it up from sleep), when the problem occurs the system fans spin up to max speed (which is rather loud so I know something's wrong because usually the fans go into optimal mode which is much slower, they only run at full speed like that when the system first boots up) the screen stays off and there's no hard drive activity. I left it once for ages but nothing happened. I have to restart the computer to get it back. After restarting a boot failure message comes up telling me to reset the bios to avoid any problems. I did that before but the boot failures still occur. The only other thing that occurs is sometimes when I first turn the computer on all of a sudden the boot process goes from being a few seconds long to being upwards of 20 seconds long, the ASUS full screen logo comes up, and stays up, for this duration before it finally loads windows. The only way I've been able to rectify that problem was resetting the CMOS using the jumpers on the mobo. Going into the bios and resetting everything from there doesn't fix it. Anyway, I can only see this being caused by something like the following; 1. The CMOS battery is on the blink and is probably causing corruption? 2. I recently upgraded my graphics card and sound card (grfx to a PCI-E 9600GT and sound card to a PCI X-Fi Prelude), I don't get any hardware conflicts in windows device manager though. Never had any errors from the bios or windows relating to those two bits of hardware either, though I suppose there's still the possibility one or the other, or both, are causing the crashing because it only started to occur after I upgraded. I would change the battery without even needing any opinions just to see if it goes away but... It means disassembling the entire computer to get at it (so, want second opinions before I go rambo on it). I also upgraded the bios revision to the latest version today to see if that would fix it, but it doesn't.

1. standby & hibernate are energy saving features which were designed for mobile devices/laptops. It's best to disable them on a desktop system & simply configure the Power Options. 2. the CMOS battery really only comes into play when the power is cut (either by unplugging the cord, switching off the power strip, power failure, etc). It's purpose is to maintain power to the CMOS chip so that the BIOS settings are retained in memory under "no-power" conditions. If the system is shutdown normally but power isn't switched off, there's still +5v standby power going to the board & the BIOS settings *should* stick, even if the battery is weak. Batteries are cheap though. 3. you upgraded the graphics & sound. Did you confirm that your power supply could handle the added load before doing so? And just out of curiousity, the X-Fi Prelude is ridiculously expensive...what is the primary use of this system that prompted that kind of "investment"? 4. after you flashed the BIOS, did you clear CMOS, run thru the menu & configure the settings for best performance? Or at least select of of the "defaults"?

Personally I like using standby and/or hibernate on my desktop computers, but I would not want to go to the lengths that you did(or might do) to make them work, particularly since you don't have problems with hibernation. Besdiaes what jam suggested, I would check the following: (1) Make sure you have updated video card drivers. You didn't say whether you updated those DRIVERS. (2) In the BIOS, do you have options for S1 and S3 sleep mode, and which one is selected there ?

Why would you need to disassemble the computer? Anytime I have attempted to suspend harddrive activity I have had issues with bringing the computer back. With my current rig I wanted the graphics to suspend and attempted to set as such. Most times I couldn't get a graphics signal back. I now shut off my monitor if leaving the computer for an extended period of time and use a screen saver after 5 min. I don't think it is worth the hassle. The amount of AC saved is minimal. If using a CRT monitor that is probably using the most AC. When using any power settings at all I recommend S1 and user defined. Don't suspend the HDrive at all.

I agree with the above. Standby and hibernation are very 'iffy', depending on which motherboard you have.

Just to clarify, when I said "not hibernation" I meant the crash occurs with standby since that is the only sleep mode I use. I do not use hibernation. That I have had trouble with in the past so I never use it. If I did use the crash may very well occur, or not, I don't know. I'll have to try. 1. standby & hibernate are energy saving features which were designed for mobile devices/laptops. It's best to disable them on a desktop system & simply configure the Power Options. Indeed, though I do use standby simply because of that fact. I use the computer all the time, for work and play, I just don't like leaving it running for extended periods unless is necessary. I feel it would be an added annoyance to have to wait for it to start up each time I use it though so I stick it into standby instead. 3. you upgraded the graphics & sound. Did you confirm that your power supply could handle the added load before doing so? Well it is a 500watt supply, a dual rail Antec. The prelude shouldn't be much more thirsty than my previous card which was an audigy 4. Not sure about the 9600GT though. The thought did cross my mind but I have used the system under load for hours when playing UT3 and STALKER and so on - I also have a AM2 6000+ CPU which is pretty power hungry - but the system hasn't crashed or blinked out or anything when under load. the X-Fi Prelude is ridiculously expensive...what is the primary use of this system that prompted that kind of "investment"? I don't see why you think that. It was 100% cheaper than the X-FI Elite Pro... Now that thing's expensive. Added to which the Prelude is of much higher grade component and build quality so it was worth it in my opinion. I wanted the bitter best sound card so I would never ever have to upgrade it ever again, and since the audigy 4 I had lacked eax 5 support and an x-fi processing chip, I just dumped some big bucks and got the prelude. I got it slightly cheaper than normal retail too which was a plus. My system I use for various sound ventures, I'm not into audio creation myself but I do have a makeshift surround system I installed. It lacks a decoder so DVDs don't benefit but the stereo surround feature of the drivers make mp3s and music cds pretty awesome. The games I play usually use eax5 or x-fi to some extent too these days though i haven't played any of th emore recent games aside from UT3 so they generally sound damn good too. Well, except for UT3, which crashes now because I have an X-FI card (known problem that epic haven't bothered to fix, nor have creative). My only beef with the prelude is that it uses creatives drivers. 4. after you flashed the BIOS, did you clear CMOS, run thru the menu & configure the settings for best performance? Or at least select of of the "defaults"? Yes. I always do when I upgrade the bios. Didn't make a difference though. Tried it on defaults to begin with, aside from a few minor alterations (like turning off the firewire and second lan port and adjusting the qfan controller to optimal speeds so it doesn't sound like a vacuum cleaner). Still crashed after standby a while later. (1) Make sure you have updated video card drivers. You didn't say whether you updated those DRIVERS. Oh, yea sorry I forgot about them. Both sound card and grfx are using 175.15 and the soundcard has the latest ones too. (2) In the BIOS, do you have options for S1 and S3 sleep mode, and which one is selected there ? Yea, standby is set to both S1 & S3 in the BIOS by default. I've never bothered to change that. Why would you need to disassemble the computer? Case is a bit clustered. Well, I say a bit, it is a lot clustered really. Drive bays are just that little bit too long for what is needed, it hangs just over where the battery is at that point on the mobo but cuts way underneatyh (luckily, otherwise the graphics card wouldn't go in). And because the hard drive is in the bay directly under where the card is sticking out (because the sata ports are right under it, the plug sticking out of the board prevents me from putting the HD in any other bay without some sort of squishing occuring to the sata cable. If I want to get at the battery I first have to take the graphics card out, then the hard drive, then slide the motherboard just enough to stick a screw driver into the battery slot and prise it out. Not total disassembly but it is bad enough. I can only just get at the cmos reset jumpers with narrow nose pliers. I agree with the above. Standby and hibernation are very 'iffy', depending on which motherboard you have. Well, it always worked before fine.

"Yea, standby is set to both S1 & S3 in the BIOS by default." You could try setting it to just S1-that might work better, though S1 is not as deep a sleep mode as S3.