Member Avatar for Gantlett

Hi Everyone

I'm running a legal copy of WinXP Pro SP2 with all possible updates on an nForce 3 250 (Gigabyte) Athlon 64 platform.

Lately, every time I've been using Sleep or Hibernate, the computer freezes in the middle of the process.

I do not know where to start looking in order to try and slove this problem. The drivers for the MB and chipset haven't been updated in over a year.

Thanks! :-|

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Dani AI

Generated

Good catch by — the final fix (removing a vendor CPU power‑management driver) is a common real-world resolution. Those utilities often install kernel‑level components that change CPU voltage/frequency and don’t always play nicely with Windows’ ACPI suspend/resume. When a driver or tool fails to quiesce devices correctly the machine can hang partway through S3 (sleep) or S4 (hibernate).

Practical checklist (in roughly the order to try):

  • Test with a minimal hardware set (as Gigabyte suggested): one disk, video, RAM — add peripherals back one at a time to isolate a bad device/driver.
  • Use the BIOS power/ACPI settings: enable ACPI and prefer S3 if available. Update the motherboard BIOS and chipset/northbridge drivers from the vendor only after reading the release notes for ACPI/resume fixes.
  • Remove or disable third‑party power utilities first and rely on Windows power management while testing. If you need the vendor tool, try the latest official version and verify it mentions sleep/hibernate fixes.
  • In Device Manager check the Computer node shows an ACPI entry (e.g., "ACPI Multiprocessor PC"); if it shows "Standard PC" ACPI is not installed and sleep will be unreliable. Also inspect network adapters/USB hubs and uncheck any "Allow this device to wake the computer" options while debugging.

Diagnostics and safety notes:

  • Check the System event log around the time of the freeze for ACPI/Kernel‑Power or driver error entries to identify the offending component.
  • Do a clean boot or Safe Mode test to confirm third‑party software involvement.
  • Back up or create a restore point before BIOS or driver updates; follow vendor instructions exactly.

This approach explains why ’s removal of the CPU power‑management driver worked and gives a repeatable set of checks for anyone seeing similar sleep/hibernate freezes.

Member Avatar for Gantlett

OK

I received a reply from Gigabyte, but I'm not sure what to do with it:

All GIGABYTE M/B support STD (S4) function. However, there isn't any specific item under BIOS to set up. You only have to load optimized and do the setting under O.S. Thereafter, you have to make sure that all of your devices, such as, CD-ROM, HDD, etc. all support this function, if not, you may request the vendor to update the driver for you.

If you still get the negative result, please try first with only HDD, VGA, RAM. And add on other devices to try out.

I understand that I should set my BIOS to "Optimized Settings" (it's a factory preset), but where the heck can I get drivers for my HD, DVD-ROM and RAM ?? :-| Aren't they built into Windows? I'll update my VGA drivers, no doubt there are newer ones, but again, I don't know what to do with the other hardware... :sad:

Thanks everyone!

Member Avatar for Gantlett

OK guys! :)

(I'm starting to get this odd feeling I'm talking to myself here, but nevermind... :cheesy: )

It seems that the AMD "Cool 'n Quiet" driver which was installed (by me actually...) beforehand caused the problem. The minute I removed it the computer's Sleep and Hibernate functions worked again.

It seems that AMD has released a newer version for the driver, I might use it (or not). I didn't see any change in the CPU's clock speed / voltage / temperature when the driver was installed anyway, so I don't know how much it's worth... :-|

Anyway, I hope I helped anyone else here by posting the solution.

Cheers.

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