[elmo putney]

I have been stable for a few weeks now, but i am not really sure why. a few things i have done are: ahci set enabled as it was when i installed hd/win7, i also now have noyhing plugged into the usb3 ports....where maybe i did before, the only other thing i can think of is that i now use eventghost to shut down apps (gbpvr) before sleep.
maybee its the usb out of that list?
unfortunatley i have little time to test right now.

[ILAH]

elmo putney, on 03 October 2011 - 01:46 PM, said:

I have been stable for a few weeks now, but i am not really sure why. a few things i have done are: ahci set enabled as it was when i installed hd/win7, i also now have noyhing plugged into the usb3 ports....where maybe i did before, the only other thing i can think of is that i now use eventghost to shut down apps (gbpvr) before sleep.
maybee its the usb out of that list?
unfortunatley i have little time to test right now.

What way do you start your ZBox from S3 Standby? What USB Devices are connected?

[elmo putney]

ILAH, on 03 October 2011 - 11:46 PM, said:

What way do you start your ZBox from S3 Standby? What USB Devices are connected?

Imon remote power button, which I am not sure how it behaves from standby it is either replicating the power button on the case (as it's wired into it so it can power on from complete off) or it might be emulating a keyboard, any other key on the remote also wakes it up as they behave like keyboard strokes. I also have a USB RF keyboard with touchpad which wakes it up.

[supaahiro]

Hi guys,

I got information for the beep codes. You can go here to view or download the PDF.

[Abbath]

Thanks, but the beep code descriptions didn't help much.

I also tried a new CMOS battery today without effect, no surprise there.

I have nothing plugged into the USB3 ports, so this doesn't seem to be related for me.

[ILAH]

I have now reinstalled Win7 with the default BIOS settings (HDD in IDE mode).
I then installed SP1 and all patches, and the latest drivers from the manufacturers for all components.
(HD Audio, LAN, WIFI, Cardreader, AMD Catalyst, USB 3.0) (_No_ AHCI Driver).

:-) For now my Box works well. Standby S3 and Wakeup without any crashes/beeps so far.

Maybe the reason for the beeps has been a driver problem on wakeup?


btw. I have still no answer concerning the Alzheimer BIOS problem from the support.

[elmo putney]

ILAH, on 20 October 2011 - 07:45 AM, said:

I have now reinstalled Win7 with the default BIOS settings (HDD in IDE mode).
I then installed SP1 and all patches, and the latest drivers from the manufacturers for all components.
(HD Audio, LAN, WIFI, Cardreader, AMD Catalyst, USB 3.0) (_No_ AHCI Driver).

:-) For now my Box works well. Standby S3 and Wakeup without any crashes/beeps so far.

Maybe the reason for the beeps has been a driver problem on wakeup?


btw. I have still no answer concerning the Alzheimer BIOS problem from the support.

I see the bios recently moved out of beta d now includes a usb3 improvement, did you apply this bios?

[ILAH]

elmo putney, on 20 October 2011 - 11:59 AM, said:

I see the bios recently moved out of beta d now includes a usb3 improvement, did you apply this bios?

No. I used the last one from the Zotac download page. Version 2K110603 (Beta2)

Where have you seen a new BIOS?

[elmo putney]

In the downloads section

"Version 2K110923
.Improved USB 3.0 Transfer Speed
.Added RTC Alarm Wakeup function"

I am not sure if it is a new bios, it is perhaps that the beta bios has now moved out of beta, certainly the date embedded in the version number would suggest that is the case, but in the comments it now shows USB3 speed improvements. I don't think that was there before

[StgoChile]

Watch flashing the BIOS if not required!! I had a AD02 with the beep problem and updated the flash AS PER instructions and ended up with a brick.
Got a new one, and same problem with the beeps... but NOT flashing this puppy.

ZOTAC ... there is a BIG BIG market for your product now that XMBC Media Center has you on their page with a video of it on a Zotac!

Support us and we will spread the word and get our buddies on one of these... keep up waiting much longer to fix a obvious bios problem....

We may all leave and never buy Zotac again.

[Nibbler]

Yep - having same problem here.

System resumes from sleep (hibernation is disabled) and gets stuck in 4 beep loop and system is dead until reset.

This truly sucks.

On latest BIOS, using defaults in BIOS and have a USB 3 External Hard Drive connected.

The funny thing is that I was using it for a week (staging Media Center and related tweaking) and had no problems whatsoever.

One of the last things I did before the beeping started was load up all the drivers.

I used all the latest drivers off the Zotac website btw.

I think I might blow it away, start from scratch (with BIOS set to IDE mode for when it inevitably drops all BIOS settings) and let windows just do driver updates it thinks are necessary.

All in all super pissed off though.

Looked like such a promising box but think I have to advise people to get a Dell Zino or god forbid a mac mini instead for the time being.

Other things I've read that I'm going to try are:
1) Use hard reset button on underside behind cloth
2) Set BIOS drives to IDE mode if not already set to IDE (pray no rebuild required)
3) Muck around with BIOS sleep settings
4) Muck around with USB and HDD sleep settings

Will post results.
If I find a workaround solution or what the root cause is I'll officially contact Zotac and offer services for an hourly fee to assist (provide debugs etc.) so they can get this sorted to help future customers (be stuffed if I'm going to give up more of my time to help them fix a faulty premium price point product for free).

Worst case scenario I'll just set it to never sleep until these issues are resolved by BIOS or Driver update.

This post has been edited by Nibbler: 28 October 2011 - 04:53 AM

[ILAH]

I am using a AD03 and there is no new BIOS in the download section.

I am wondering wether Zotac is not able to reproduce our problems and to comment it here . Win 7 with this boxes should be a common setup.
I think this is really bad support.

[Nibbler]

Sorry - I should clarify.

The BIOS I'm using is the latest available from the website, which is 2K110603 (Beta2).
I don't like the word "Beta" in there to be honest...

FYI Version 2K110923 is an AD02 BIOS, not an AD03 BIOS.

Just saw they've put a Halloween theme on the site which has screwed up menu navigation.
Animated bats are definitely one of the key things that affect my decisions at purchasing time.
Excellent work there.

Maybe they could dedicate some resources to fixing their products instead...

This post has been edited by Nibbler: 28 October 2011 - 01:26 PM

[Nibbler]

Ok everyone.

I'm having some success.


I don't want to count my chickens before they've hatched but it looks like the problem might be fixed.

Originally I put the latest BIOS update on there:

Version 2K110603 (Beta2)
.Fixed CMOS Setup data loss issue
.Added RTC Alarm Wakeup function

I saw that the previous update to the one I put on there had the following description:
Version 2K110422 (Beta)
.Fix BIOS items modification lost issue

Zotac don't provide a link in the download section any more but you can get it from:
http://downloads.zot...s/pa176beta.zip

I had a theory that despite the description for the latest saying "fixed CMOS Setup data loss issue" that Zotac engineers may have in fact re-introduced the problem in the latest BIOS update.

I've just changed it back to the previous version (2K110422) and have successfully slept and re-booted it about 7 times in a row and have left it off for short and long periods of time when sleeping with no problems.

I'll test it over the next week to make sure it continues to behave but I think it may be sorted.

To confirm that it's not dropping settings, I also went into the BIOS and changed some random values, saved, re-booted and then powered off the system with power cable unplugged.

I left it for a good 20 mins., re-connected the power, booted and checked the BIOS settings and they all had stuck, so no CMOS battery issue there.

I then defaulted all settings back after the test and set the IDE mode to AHCI.

Also, I did find the CMOS battery.
It looked a bit different to a standard one in that it was in a plastic casing with a cable coming out which connects to a header on the board.

It's a little different but at least I know it's there

Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

This post has been edited by Nibbler: 29 October 2011 - 10:12 PM

[elmo putney]

Sorry my post about new bios versions caused some confusion. I forgot that the thread title is AD03 related but the thread is being used to discuss AD02 also, i was refering to an AD02 bios for an AD02 box just to be clear not flashing an ad03 with an ad02 bios or any other brickmaking activities.

[Nibbler]

Also just found something VERY interesting...

You may have noticed that the board inside the AD03 looks VERY much like a laptop motherboard.

Well, if you go into Power Options in Control Panel and Advanced Sleep settings, scroll down to Power Buttons and Lid and you'll see there's actually an option there to change what happens when the lid closes!

Being that it doesn't have a lid, I set this do "do nothing".

[Nibbler]

Message sent to tech support:

Hello. I was wondering if you are aware of some problems with BIOS version 2K110603 (Beta2) relating to loss of BIOS settings. It appears through testing this issue was resolved in version 2K110422 (Beta) but seems to have made its way back in in the latest version. I found this amazingly frustrating to encounter when I have just paid a premium price for a mini ITX computer and would like some reassurance something is being done to resolve the issue before I recommend this system to any more customers. Thanks, -

Will be good to see reply...

This post has been edited by Nibbler: 30 October 2011 - 01:14 AM

[ILAH]

I think we are going round in a circle. BIOS data loss is a known problem. The support is not able to fix it, they say: Change the battery or send the Box back for exchange.

So i tired to get the box to standby and wakeup with the BIOS defaults. I recognized that changing the USB devices has an effect on the 4 beep error. I tried to setup an HTPC. So i do configuration with mouse, keyboard and IR-Receiver attached to USB. When i remove mouse and keyboard the 4 beep error comes sometimes on wakeup.

I had it working for a few days but now the stupid 4 beep error is back again.

[Nibbler]

Try BIOS version Version 2K110422 (Beta) using the following link:

http://downloads.zot...s/pa176beta.zip

The good news is this version resolves (for me anyway) the settings loss issue.

Been trying all sorts of different things to try and make it have the notorious "four beeps of death" issue but haven't been able to make it do it

I've also set scheduled events with "wake pc to run this event" enabled and that works too

Looks like this may be resolved.

To ILAH - I highly recommend you try the BIOS I have linked as it has worked for me and I hope it does the same for you

This post has been edited by Nibbler: 30 October 2011 - 01:13 PM

[Nibbler]

ILAH, on 30 October 2011 - 05:07 AM, said:

So i do configuration with mouse, keyboard and IR-Receiver attached to USB. When i remove mouse and keyboard the 4 beep error comes sometimes on wakeup.

I had it working for a few days but now the stupid 4 beep error is back again.

Bugger. Hope this doesn't happen to me...

Just out of curiosity, what type of Remote and IR Receiver are you using?

I'm also going to be doing the same thing - removing KB and Mouse and just leaving Remote IR receiver connected.

I'm wondering if the issue is related to simply a change in USB devices or the presence of a specific USB device.