[Z390-F Gaming] "Above 4G decoding" kills wake up from sleep

[N2G-WarMaster]

Hi folks,

This post is a conclusion of a loooong search for the culprit why my Windows 10 system will not resume from sleep mode successfully .
In short; the system would go to sleep and "turn on" when tried to be woken up but never got to a working state. Fans, RGB lighting, etc. etc. all turn on but basically the system just hangs/is frozen. In every other sense the system is stable as a rock! I never ever experience issues with stability.

I've been through all the usual suspects regarding these kind of issues like Windows itself, iffy drivers, BIOS versions. I even found some references that a 2080 Ti could have compatibility issues with the Samsung 970 NVME drives. All of those trails did not end up solving the problem. As it turned out it was one little ostensibly innocent option in the BIOS called "Above 4G decoding". Given the fact I've got Asus ROG-STRIX-RTX2080TI-O11G-GAMING with 11 GB of video RAM enabling above 4 decoding seemed like a plausible setting to enable (although to this point I am not sure what it does EXACTLY).

When this option is enabled the system just will not wake up successfully. When it's disabled; no problem!

So this boils down to a few points/questions (in order of relevance):
- If you're pulling your hair out and can't find the cause of the same issue; try this! I hope it will save you time and frustration.
- How does disabling the above 4G decoding affect my system? (I am in no way a miner or something. Just gaming)
- Are other people having this issue?
- What could cause this behaviour?
- Should Asus be made aware of this, and if so; How?

[no1yak]

I tried the "Above 4g" on my Hero XI Wi-Fi and no problems with sleep mode. Made no difference to the performance of the PC. Leave it disabled, as far as I can tell it does nothing for one GPU.

[zxspectrum]

Hi,i assume you have samsung nvme on first m2 slot.I have samsung 970 evo plus 1T ... and my computer never resumes from sleep no matter what i tried . ASUS Support replied that the motherboard ROG STRIX Z390-H GAMING was not tested with that model of ssd...and proposed a series of windows tweaks... which were already unsuccessfully tried by me.I never had that problem with my sata ssd ...so the problem is related to m2 ssd . Personally i suspect it has something to do with the power and sleep mode given by mobo/bios to m2 slot.I already have the "above 4g decoding " option disabled and my computer still cannot wake up.So, if you or anyone else have any other suggestion...it will be much appreciated.
P.S. The level of frustration is so big right now... that i want to sell my newly aquired mobo+cpu (9900k) and switch to AMD

[N2G-WarMaster]

zxspectrum wrote:
Hi,i assume you have samsung nvme on first m2 slot.I have samsung 970 evo plus 1T ... and my computer never resumes from sleep no matter what i tried . ASUS Support replied that the motherboard ROG STRIX Z390-H GAMING was not tested with that model of ssd...and proposed a series of windows tweaks... which were already unsuccessfully tried by me.I never had that problem with my sata ssd ...so the problem is related to m2 ssd . Personally i suspect it has something to do with the power and sleep mode given by mobo/bios to m2 slot.I already have the "above 4g decoding " option disabled and my computer still cannot wake up.So, if you or anyone else have any other suggestion...it will be much appreciated.
P.S. The level of frustration is so big right now... that i want to sell my newly aquired mobo+cpu (9900k) and switch to AMD

You are right! You could've seen my specs in my profile 😉 Anyhoo, I've got a Samsung 970 EVO 1TB in M.2 slot 2.
I've found several issues online regarding the combination of the Samsung EVO NVME drive with Z390 motherboards. All the issues seemed to be related to wonky Samsung drivers that have since been updated and thus the issues are moot. Also the symptoms were slightly different to "not waking up" as some people were able to gather a crash dump which only occurs when certain types of BSOD's happen. However this could be the case in your situation. Not sure if it's a stupid suggestion or not as I figured you'd already tried it, but that's where you probably should start. Either update your Samsung NVME drivers or use the generic Microsoft ones (which will automatically be installed as you uninstall the Samsung drivers). Also you might want to update your NVME firmware through Samsung Magician if you haven't already done so. Have you also tried to move the NVME drive to the second M.2 slot?

[Jesseinsf]

Update your Intel MEI and Chipset and all other drivers here: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/index-all-my-firmware-drivers-software-threads.11360/

That link is for ASUS products only. If that doesn't work, then install Samsung Magician and see if there are any firmware updates. I have the 980 Pro and there are power and performance settings in Samsung Magician. I also have the 970 Pro and there are no power settings in the Magician software.

[zxspectrum]

Hi, thanks for the interest.I have already tried samsung drivers, updated latest firmware (2b2qexm7) through magician, tried it manually before magician detected it but failed cause of bad samsung utility of flash., tried microsoft drivers.still cant properly wake up from sleep.
i didn.t move it to second m2 slot cause its already used by intel 660p 2t ssd.
P.S. i.ve seen your specs in your profile BUT there is no mention of which slot your storage #1 is... also there is no storage #2 mentioned...
Also, why is your fastest ssd on m2 slot 2?

[zxspectrum]

Hi, thanks for the interest.I have already tried samsung drivers, updated latest firmware (2b2qexm7) through magician, tried it manually before magician detected it but failed cause of bad samsung utility of flash., tried microsoft drivers.still cant properly wake up from sleep.
i didn.t move it to second m2 slot cause its already used by intel 660p 2t ssd.
P.S. i.ve seen your specs in your profile BUT there is no mention of which slot your storage #1 is... also there is no storage #2 mentioned...
Also, why is your fastest ssd on m2 slot 2?

[aussiekendoll]

N2G-WarMaster wrote:
Hi folks,

This post is a conclusion of a loooong search for the culprit why my Windows 10 system will not resume from sleep mode successfully .
In short; the system would go to sleep and "turn on" when tried to be woken up but never got to a working state. Fans, RGB lighting, etc. etc. all turn on but basically the system just hangs/is frozen. In every other sense the system is stable as a rock! I never ever experience issues with stability.

I've been through all the usual suspects regarding these kind of issues like Windows itself, iffy drivers, BIOS versions. I even found some references that a 2080 Ti could have compatibility issues with the Samsung 970 NVME drives. All of those trails did not end up solving the problem. As it turned out it was one little ostensibly innocent option in the BIOS called "Above 4G decoding". Given the fact I've got Asus ROG-STRIX-RTX2080TI-O11G-GAMING with 11 GB of video RAM enabling above 4 decoding seemed like a plausible setting to enable (although to this point I am not sure what it does EXACTLY).

When this option is enabled the system just will not wake up successfully. When it's disabled; no problem!

So this boils down to a few points/questions (in order of relevance):
- If you're pulling your hair out and can't find the cause of the same issue; try this! I hope it will save you time and frustration.
- How does disabling the above 4G decoding affect my system? (I am in no way a miner or something. Just gaming)
- Are other people having this issue?
- What could cause this behaviour?
- Should Asus be made aware of this, and if so; How?

My pc doesn't wake from sleep after enabling above 4g decoding with same MOBO and WD SN720 BLACK nvme ssd

[Jesseinsf]

Have you unplugged the electricity from the monitor and plugged it back in? Also, are you talking about the whole PC going to sleep or just the monitor?

[aussiekendoll]

you have to enable SR-IOV under PCI subsystem if you turn on 4g-degode to get rid of this problem!