PCTech Forums

Not sure if this should go under Hardware or XP
I recently upgraded by BIOS to the higher version. It’s Biostar M7NCG400 based Mobo based on nVidia Nforce chipset. Athlon XP 2000 256 MB DDR, Win XP Pro

As such I did not find option to save earlier BIOS..anyways the upgrade was smooth and later could set most of the BIOS values as expected like FSB, clock etc etc but now I find that somehow the ‘stand by’ power function is not working exactly the way it’s supposed to be. Standby does put the PC in the standby mode but the problem is when it comes out of that mode.

The standby S1 works perfectly fine, but with S3 (STR) the PC starts, but monitor does not turn on and I have to give a cold boot (From mains power) to re-start the PC, defeating the purpose of Standby.

Standby S3 was working fine with earlier version of BIOS !

Would like to know if you can suggest any solution to this.
Thanks..

I have never run into this before. However, check your APM features in XP and make sure there is nothing obvious. Also, go into your BIOS and so a simalar check in the Power settings there.

Is it possible to flash back to the previous BIOS version? Will that cause any issues?
BIOS versions including previous are as such available for download from the vendor website.

Yes it is. Just download the older BIOS and flash it the same way as you did the new one.

I tried that...but to my surprise I got the error message BIOS Checksum error or something like that. What does that mean?

Everything else otherwise seems to be working fine with the new version of BIOS, even S1 standby mode also works perfectly.

Can someone tell me the sequence of steps, how a computer comes out of stand by?
Who initiates all the peripherals like keyboard, monitor etc? Is it the OS or the BIOS?
If all settings in BIOS seem to be ok..can it be something with XP in that case?
Thanks..

If you get a BIOS checksum error after flashing, the flash probably worked fine - you just need to go into the BIOS & select 'load setup defaults'.

Just to add another coal to the fire, of the 200 systems we use to manage, we always disabled the standby feature--there are too many ways a system can lock up in that mode.

Its a great idea, but a lot of software out there has no idea what to do next.

In your case, the bios flash should have solved problems, not created new ones. I suspect that the new flash listed a new option that should have been set and it wasn't.

As for what controls what, the bios runs the boot and XP takes over on transfer and uses its own settings---but disabled items in the bios remain disabled when XP goes on line.

Flashing to the original BIOS finally worked!! Now my S3 STR mode works perfectly.
I really find it very convenient option if I am going to be away from my PC for some time and I don’t want to go through shutdown and restart.
Thanks...