Good motherboards for hibernation

Question

We're trying to build an HTPC but our current motherboard refuses to reliably go into hibernation - we'll hibernate it last thing at night and come down in the morning to find it running again. I've tried every possible combination of BIOS settings to stop it waking but none seems to work.

Can anyone recommend a good motherboard for this? We use a MCE remote to wake it whose receiver is connected via USB so it needs to wake up from that.

Answer 1

Hibernation problems are most likely caused by a OS/BIOS problem and not a motherboard hardware problem. To the motherboard hardware, Hibernation (Suspend to Disk or ACPI S4) looks just like the system is off (Soft Off or ACPI S5).

The first step in solving Hibernation issues would be to make sure you have the latest BIOS from the motherboard manufacturer.

If an updated BIOS doesn't work try the following from the command line as Administrator (from TechNet):

1. powercfg –lastwake
2. powercfg –devicequery wake_armed
3. If any devices are shown, go into their Properties in the Device Manager, click on the Power Management tab and uncheck Allow this device to wake the computer.

Try to disable Windows Defender automatic updates or any automatic updates you know could be causing the system to wake from Hibernation.

Check Windows Update settings to make sure that isn't causing the system to wake. Turn them off or set automatic update to a time during the day.

Answer 2

Have you contacted the manufacturer? Asked for a replacement? Or flashed a new version of the BIOS? That's especially important if you were one of the early buyers.

Why can't standby work instead? Are you running processes that could lose data if the computer crashed while in standby?

Honestly, it's hard to make an actual recommendation since motherboards are supposed to do hibernation properly. However, I'll suggest any Asus board that uses the Six Engine, which offers significant power savings without entering standby or shutdown.