Win 7/64+Asrock OC Formual Z77-won't enter sleep mode, and won't shut down

[havasuphto]

Specs;
MB: AsRock OC Formula Z77 LGA 1155
CPU: Intel i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5Ghz
RAM: 32MB G.Skill Ripsaw Dual-Channel(1866)
GPU: 2X Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 Ram in Crossfire
HD1: Intel SSD 520 Series Cherryville 240GB
HD2: WD Black 1TB 64MB Cache Ram 7200
Mouse: Logitech Wireless Trackball M570
Keyboard: Microsoft X4 Sidewinder USB
Monitor: NEC 30" LCD-running@2560X1600-Ultra

Currently running Windows 7/64. Also using Asrock formula drive, X-fast Ram drive, IES turned "on". I have the "power on" feature of the mouse turned to off(so that movement of the mouse does not wake the computer from sleep).
This all started happening yesterday, before I even inserted my 2nd video card to go Crossfire. I had deleted all the HP software/drivers/reg entries, as my HP printer died. Then, after rebooting a few times to clean things up, I tried to put the computer into sleep mode-the screen would flash off-like it was entering sleep mode, then come back onto my desktop, like nothing had changed. Strange!!

So, I used a back-up of the last known good registry, rebooted, and tried it again-same exact results. So then I tried to shut off the computer-windows would shut down, and screen would shut off, but all my fans were still just humming along. I had to hold the off button on my computer for about 5 seconds to shut the computer down.

Also, I have tried using the "default" settings in the BIOS, and only changing my XMP ram settings back to 1.3-like I had the computer before, when everything worked-but still, I can't enter sleep mode, and when I try to shut down, the computer enters some sort of pseudo sleep mode with the fans running. I have the "wake" features of the mouse, and LAN disabled in the BIOS, as well.
Nothing had changed...so, I don't understand why all the sudden the computer won't sleep. I've used Sleep many times since I finished this build-with all the same settings, and it worked perfectly.
Why now, do I have this problem. And, how do I fix it(yes, searched Google, and it's just a myriad of things to try-would take days to try everything).

Any help would be appreciated.

[havasuphto]

Bump.....
I've checked Lan/network wake to "off", and searched for any programs in the "task scheduler" that may be scheduled, and nothing seems to work. i've unplugged the usb 3.0 card reader I had attached, no change.
I can hit sleep in window, and it doesn't. when i hit shutdown, windows closes and shuts down, but the fan's keep spinning and i have to hold the power button on the case for 5 seconds to shut everything down.
i've gone through everything in the bios, and disabled just about everything that would wake the computer, except the usb keyboard-that is enabled. i have the sleep state set to S5, and deep sleep is enabled.
what am I missing here?

I can't figure out what caused the problem to start to begin with........

[parsec]

Try this, which is what I use on my Z77 EX 4 board, although the settings are slightly different. If you can set the Sleep state to S3, do so, that is the normal Sleep state. If no S3, set it to Auto. Deep Sleep should be disabled.

If this seems strange, I can tell you that my board/PC Sleeps and wakes just fine with those settings. It is important to set any of the LAN wake to off/unchecked.

BTW, The S5 System Power State, as the 'S' states are more correctly called, is power off/shutdown. Why that is included as a Deep Sleep state is not obvious, besides a Wake On LAN system boot, which is required from a power off state, obviously. My board has a S5 setting, but I don't use it.

The S4 State is Hibernate, as used on laptops. S4 on a desktop PC is usually the so called Hybrid Sleep, which is S3 Sleep (system/desktop's state saved in RAM memory) plus the system/desktop's state it written to disk, in case of a power loss.

What is actually happening with your current settings I don't know, it sounds like you are in S2 State in some aspects, but who knows?

[havasuphto]

I only have an option for S5, or S4/S5. I've tried both of those, and disabled-same problem. I've also disabled deep sleep state in both the northbridge and southbridge under advanced settings in the bios and still can't enter sleep mode, or shut off the computer without holding the power button for 5 seconds after windows shuts off.
very frustrating.
i even put the windows 7 disk back in and tried to do a repair-but it found nothing wrong.........
and I still don't know why this started. just baffled.

[parsec]

My board (different than yours) has a setting in the ATAPI menu, for Suspend to RAM, which is S3 sleep. Only settings are Auto and Disabled, but Auto works for me.

I only have one Deep Sleep setting, what options does yours have?

I wonder if the cables from the power switch, etc, are not quite right to that annoying little header that all boards have.

[havasuphto]

My board (different than yours) has a setting in the ATAPI menu, for Suspend to RAM, which is S3 sleep. Only settings are Auto and Disabled, but Auto works for me.

I only have one Deep Sleep setting, what options does yours have?

I wonder if the cables from the power switch, etc, are not quite right to that annoying little header that all boards have.

I have supsend to ram enabled in ATAPI. Also, I tried changing the Wake setting from USB keyboard enabled, to disabled, and USB Mouse to Enable-for wake, and also PS2 keyboard-any key. Still same problem.
I've also gone back to one of my original registry back-ups(last know good configuration), installed that and re-booted-same thing-can't shut down the computer fully, and it won't sleep.

On the plus side, since I have an SSD, my power off, and boot times are only around 20 seconds each-so it's not that big of a deal. But, there are a lot of times where I have a bunch of work opened up, and just want to take a break, and come back to it-I either have to leave the computer running, or save and shut down everything and turn the computer off, with the power button, after windows shuts down.

[parsec]

That sounds like something that was removed when you removed the HP drivers, etc, and was not replaced automatically is causing the problem, obvious really, I missed that earlier. You apparently deleted something that should not have been, or something related to Sleep mode.

The Windows Registry is a database, that the OS and software check in order to make certain decisions. If information is missing or partially intact, results of running programs can be wrong. Going into Sleep mode or shutting down the PC is caused by running a program in Windows, and that program is now not working correctly, due to missing data of some kind. You're lucky that more has not gone wrong.

All you can do now is try to track down what in general is missing, and do what you can to get it back. That is, short of a new installation of Windows. If you had a backup of the registry before you edited it, restoring that would most likely fix your problem.

Check Device Manager for any issues, if any of the main entries are expanded, and you see yellow '!' symbols, something is wrong.

You can try running a Windows Repair, from your Windows installation media, or a recover disk if you made one. To late to make one now.

You could try running the INF file installation program again, to replace anything that is missing, or uninstall and install the Intel IME software. That is the Intel Management Engine driver ver:8.0.10.1464 on your board's download page.

[havasuphto]

I think I got it fixed today. I had another issue, which basically caused me to reset the cmos. that fixed one of my problems, but still had the shutdown problem.
so I finally got the windows system restore to work(back up still doesn't work-but maybe it fixed itself too). I restored the system to the day before I removed the hp drives-which was the 29th. that means that all the programs I installed after that date, and all changes, were lost.
no big deal really.....but, it fixed the problem.

I was able to go in and carefully delete all the HP stuff, and stop the HP services that were running, and basically clean my system of anything HP related. rebooted, and now I can shutdown/sleep normally. I was also able to install the ATI video drivers that I could not install(long story), and everything works. So, the moral of this story is; never, ever buy an HP printer!!! they are total junk!!! If you do, let windows install the drivers-do NOT install any printers software-ever!!!!

I think it was a hung driver from an incomplete un-install of the HP stuff. If you miss one thing-that's all it takes.
And, when adding new devices to your computer(windows 7), let the computer install the driver...and then stop!!! Throw the disk that came with the device away-there is nothing on them but headaches.
So, I'm happy I'm back to where I started-with a working system. And, I learned along the way what not to do, and what not to install. I will have to re-install some programs and drivers-but that's a whole lot easier than a fresh install-which was what I was heading to do. And, I didn't lose anything on my D drive.

OH, and never, ever, push the CMOS reset button......completely hosed my video drivers, and killed my internet. windows would only boot in safe mode, and it took me about 3 hours to finally get the system restore to work(even though I got an error saying it didn't work-it did).

thanks for all the help and suggestions. Computer can be so frustrating sometimes, and seriously, I think windows has a mind of it's own. it's like it has a build-in, "we're gonna mess with this guy" timer-and after 3 hours, and magically fixes itself.

[havasuphto]

Spoke to soon. I can now enter sleep mode, and the fans shut off, and the computer sleeps-if I touch the keyboard or the mouse(even though the mouse is disable as a wake device in the OS), the computer wakes up.
However, after disabling the onboard video(I had 2 Sapphire/ATI 7970 Ghz running in Crossfire-found that onboard graphics was causing a slowdown), I can't shutdown without holding the power button. windows will shutdown, but the light and fan stay on......
I thought it might be related to the fact that after everything was working, I changed my ram drive size, and made it X instead of G. So, I went back in and re-did my ram drive, with everything checked like it was before, but back to the original drive letter when I was able to shutdown the computer this morning. No dice....that didn't work.
tried with IES on, and with it off-no change.

I haven't touched anything in the bios-and the only thing that changed(besides the size of the ram drive and letter), was that I disabled onboard graphics........I still don't understand why that would prevent the computer from shutting off.