ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

[schwachs]

Hi there...

I have recently built a new setup with the the Z97 Extreme6 and as a whole I've been very pleased except for issues around sleeping and the "SM Bus Controller" driver.

The short story is the machine either won't sleep or won't stay asleep.

I couldn't find any driver for the either on the CD or on the ASRock website that removes the exclamation mark from the Device Manager. I finally came across a driver from this thread ( http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/5...ontroller.html - third message down, HellsWinter link) but once that driver is installed, the machine will not sleep on its own no matter how long I wait. However, if I disable this device (fully named: Intel(R) PCH SMBus Controller - 8CAS (Intel(R) SMBus 2.0 Driver) - the machine goes to sleep fine.

HOWEVER, The second problem is the machine continues to wake up every 15 minutes. When I check the event log for Windows (8.1) I see the following the information below popping up all the time.

I would appreciate any advice towards solving these problems. I'm pretty close to return this motherboard and getting a different brand but I'd really love to get this one to work. Other than these issues, I'm pretty happy with board but this sleep stuff is literally keeping me awake at night.

Thanks.



Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-EnhancedStorage-EhStorTcgDrv
Date: 1/7/2015 7:44:15 AM
Event ID: 100
Task Category: Driver
Level: Information
Keywords:
User: N/A
Computer: Schwindows8-D2
Description:
The following informational event has occurred (0x0, 0x4, 0x0, 0x0).
D0Entry
Event Xml:
<event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<system>


<eventid>100</eventid>
<version>0</version>
<level>4</level>
<task>1</task>
<opcode>50</opcode>
<keywords>0x8000000000000000</keywords>
<timecreated systemtime="2015-01-07T12:44:15.499925500Z">
<eventrecordid>1327</eventrecordid>
<correlation>
<execution processid="4" threadid="1252">
<channel>System</channel>
<computer>Schwindows8-D2</computer>
<security>
</security></execution></correlation></timecreated></provider></system>
<eventdata>
<data name="Context">D0Entry</data>
<data name="Param1">0x0</data>
<data name="Param2">0x4</data>
<data name="Param3">0x0</data>
<data name="Param4">0x0</data>
</eventdata>
</event>

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Installing a driver for the SM Bus Controller serves no purpose, since after a reboot or two that Device Manager message would disappear on its own. I've seen the same thing in my Device Manager display many times on several boards after a Windows installation. It's related to the Intel IME software, and after the yellow '!' disappears, you won't be able to find the SM Bus Controller device entry in DM.

You'll notice in Windows 8 that the IME and other software don't ask for a reboot after their installation, and when you don't you'll see that DM entry.

So feel free to uninstall the driver you used, and be sure to reboot the PC. If you see the bad DM entry again, ignore it, it will disappear on its own. I had it recently after installing Windows 10 TP, it is now gone and I can't find a DM entry for SM Bus Controller.

Sleep issues are very common currently, and unfortunately have many sources besides a mother board. Did you disable the Wake on Lan capability for the networking device in DM?

Windows and other software are known to cause waking from Sleep. One example is the Samsung Magician software, when I removed it I no longer had immediate waking from Sleep problems.

Diagnosing this problem can be very difficult and in some cases related to the chipset on the board. Since other boards you'd use with your CPU use the same chipset, you would probably have the same Sleep problems with another board.

[schwachs]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Hi... Thanks for your reply and that's great to know about the SM Bus... I will ignore it.

So just waking up every n minutes is just standard operating mode these days? That's a total bummer. I do see items in the event log and despite being somewhat technical, I'm baffled about what that mean. Any suggestions on what I could post or share that may be useful for diagnosing the issue? As I said, other than this random waking, I'm pretty happy with the board.

Installing a driver for the SM Bus Controller serves no purpose, since after a reboot or two that Device Manager message would disappear on its own. I've seen the same thing in my Device Manager display many times on several boards after a Windows installation. It's related to the Intel IME software, and after the yellow '!' disappears, you won't be able to find the SM Bus Controller device entry in DM.

You'll notice in Windows 8 that the IME and other software don't ask for a reboot after their installation, and when you don't you'll see that DM entry.

So feel free to uninstall the driver you used, and be sure to reboot the PC. If you see the bad DM entry again, ignore it, it will disappear on its own. I had it recently after installing Windows 10 TP, it is now gone and I can't find a DM entry for SM Bus Controller.

Sleep issues are very common currently, and unfortunately have many sources besides a mother board. Did you disable the Wake on Lan capability for the networking device in DM?

Windows and other software are known to cause waking from Sleep. One example is the Samsung Magician software, when I removed it I no longer had immediate waking from Sleep problems.

Diagnosing this problem can be very difficult and in some cases related to the chipset on the board. Since other boards you'd use with your CPU use the same chipset, you would probably have the same Sleep problems with another board.

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

I wish I could help you, but I'm in the same boat. My Z87 board PC wakes from Sleep in seconds after I try to Sleep, which is what my Z97 board is doing too. I can't figure it out...

[schwachs]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Well apparently I have fixed it but I can't determine what the change was yet but I am going to do a little back tracking and report back. Stay tuned!

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Sounds good... but I seem to have fixed my waking from Sleep instantly problem on my ASRock Z87 OCF board. Allow me to explain...

I use a wireless mouse and keyboard on that PC, a MS Sculpt matched set. The mouse has a power switch on it, and by (OCD) habit, I click on Sleep and quickly turn the power to the mouse off. I do that since any movement of the mouse, even from vibration or bumping the table the mouse is on, can trigger the PC to wake.

While I was playing around with Sleep, I did not turn the power to the mouse off. Instead of waking in under five seconds, the PC remained in Sleep. Tried it again with the mouse power turned off, immediate wake from Sleep again. Tried it again with the mouse powered on, and no spontaneous wake up.

So I assume the wireless USB transmitter/receiver of the mouse is trying to connect to the mouse when it senses a loss of connection when it is powered down. That somehow is also causing the PC to wake from Sleep.

That wake up event is not logged and available to the powercfg command when using the lastwake command.

As I said, waking from Sleep issues can be caused by all kinds of things, which is why I don't immediately start blaming the board. Although, it could be said the board is a contributing factor, because...

[schwachs]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

I wish I could help you, but I'm in the same boat. My Z87 board PC wakes from Sleep in seconds after I try to Sleep, which is what my Z97 board is doing too. I can't figure it out...

How many ethernet ports do you have? I disabled the one I wasn't using and while I'm not convinced it was the only issue, as I disabled my SMBus as well and now it nicely sleeps. Can you try to disable via the bios the one you're not using - I kept the Intel one live and turned off the ASRock cloud one.

Let me know if that works...

(I looked at the event viewer and it seemed like it being live but disconnected was freaking it out - aka waking it up.)

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Actually, I use both network chips, it is possible to team them together with the driver combination I'm using with Win 8.1. They are connected to a simple network switch, teamed as adaptive load balancing. That is the Z97 Extreme 6 board PC.

I'm using the same mouse and keyboard on this PC too (did you notice my last post before your latest one?), and while it stayed in Sleep for about 30 seconds, it then woke on its own. Of course I don't know yet what is causing that.

Even when the PC is shutdown, the network chips are active, and also when in Sleep mode. The unconnected Realtek network chip on your PC must be attempting to connect to a network, which is what it should be doing. If that wakes the PC, in a generally similar way that my powered off mouse does, then I'm not surprised.

I'll need to try what you asked, which is no big deal to do, removing and creating the team again is not difficult.

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Ok, just tried it with the Realtek network chip disabled. Put the PC into Sleep mode, and it stayed in Sleep mode.

My question to you is, did you have the Realtek network chip driver installed? I did not install it, I was using the default Windows 8.1 network driver. That driver does not allow power configuration of that chip, such as turning off WOL, etc. So having the driver installed might make a difference.

If you're not using that network chip, keep it disabled (wow, that's brilliant... ), and I'll try the Realtek network driver and see how it goes.

[schwachs]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

I definitely have the realtek driver installed. and then disabled it. I'm glad I was able to help such a seasoned TweakTown veteran - and also that I don't need to swap boards. :D

What kind of application are you doing that you found the dual network connection was helpful? I mean it's wicked cool as we say in Boston - but not sure any of my applications would need it.

-- Joshua

Ok, just tried it with the Realtek network chip disabled. Put the PC into Sleep mode, and it stayed in Sleep mode.

My question to you is, did you have the Realtek network chip driver installed? I did not install it, I was using the default Windows 8.1 network driver. That driver does not allow power configuration of that chip, such as turning off WOL, etc. So having the driver installed might make a difference.

If you're not using that network chip, keep it disabled (wow, that's brilliant... ), and I'll try the Realtek network driver and see how it goes.

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

First, I installed the Realtek network driver, with the Realtek network chip enabled of course. Created the team again, and configure the Realtek to not wake under any circumstances.

Tried Sleep, and it stayed sleeping, so I assume setting the Realtek chip to not wake was the key, at least in my case. The default MS driver did not allow the same configuration.

I don't use Sleep very much, so never really tried to figure out the problem. Plus I was not sure the Realtek driver would allow the teaming of the two chips, but it does. But your info was key, so thanks for that!

Why do I use teaming? Basically because it is wicked cool, and because I can and it works. All it takes is a simple network switch, a Gigabit switch with five ports can be had for ~$25 or less. I use an eight port model so I can have multiple PCs connected to one network cable, works great and is super simple to use, plug and play.

Not the greatest example, but I can have multiple things in the network happening at once with both chips in use:



That's Adaptive Load Balancing in use, one chip is downloading, the other can upload. Is it really faster in actual use? Seems to be subjectively a bit, but to me it's just something I can do for free, and I can use all the extra network cables I have.

[schwachs]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Ok, this is helpful... Question... How did you config the Realtek not to wake under any circumstances?

Thanks!

First, I installed the Realtek network driver, with the Realtek network chip enabled of course. Created the team again, and configure the Realtek to not wake under any circumstances.

Tried Sleep, and it stayed sleeping, so I assume setting the Realtek chip to not wake was the key, at least in my case. The default MS driver did not allow the same configuration.

I don't use Sleep very much, so never really tried to figure out the problem. Plus I was not sure the Realtek driver would allow the teaming of the two chips, but it does. But your info was key, so thanks for that!

Why do I use teaming? Basically because it is wicked cool, and because I can and it works. All it takes is a simple network switch, a Gigabit switch with five ports can be had for ~$25 or less. I use an eight port model so I can have multiple PCs connected to one network cable, works great and is super simple to use, plug and play.

Not the greatest example, but I can have multiple things in the network happening at once with both chips in use:

[ATTACH]7483[/ATTACH]

That's Adaptive Load Balancing in use, one chip is downloading, the other can upload. Is it really faster in actual use? Seems to be subjectively a bit, but to me it's just something I can do for free, and I can use all the extra network cables I have.

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

Ok, this is helpful... Question... How did you config the Realtek not to wake under any circumstances?

Thanks!

I hope we are thinking about the same thing here, configuring the Realtek network chip to not cause the PC to wake from Sleep or a WOL signal.

In Device Manager for the Realtek chip:



There are also two or three option in the Advanced tab related to WOL, but unchecking Allow this device to wake the computer should stop all wake up events from working.

[schwachs]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

sweet. i will try that! seems a lot better than having to disable it from bios.

[schwachs]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme6, Sleep Issues, and SMBus Controller

sweet. i will try that! seems a lot better than having to disable it from bios.

yup... works like a charm... btw, i was able to track this issue down originally by combing thru the event viewer logs and saw some stuff related to the network.