Wake timers 10 minutes late on Z690/Z790 boards

[madbrain]

I use Windows 10 Pro and wake timers and have two computers with Asus Z690 and i5-12400, and Z790 with i5-13400 . Wake timers allow the computer to go to sleep, and it then is supposed to wake up at a specific time. This feature is obviously supported by the BIOS/UEFI and firmware.

My problem is that ever since I upgraded to Z690 and Z790, the wake timers appear to be almost exactly 10 minutes late.

This is terrible since one of the PC is used as a DVR to record TV programs, and they need to be on time.

Both machines also are supposed to backup to a NAS that is waken up by WOL at 2am, but the backup actually starts at 2:10am.

I "upgraded" those 2 computers from AMD-based systems, which didn't have this issue. And I have had this problem ever since.

I believe this is is an Intel firmware issue that  needs to be addressed.

I'm not the only one to run into this. Another user reported the problem on a different brand of motherboard, Asrock.

https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/600-series-Chipset-Family-PCH-Wake-Alarm-Device-Timer-problem/td-p/1496663

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello madbrain,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I understand you are having issues with "Wake timers", however, Microsoft determines the features that will be supported and compatible with which processors.

I recommend you to get in contact with Microsoft to confirm if this is a known issue on their side and if needed, they will work with Intel for a possible fix.

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[madbrain]

Deivid,

Thanks for your reply. The "wake timer" function is not unique to Windows. It also exists on other operating systems, such as Linux.

See : https://askubuntu.com/questions/113379/suspend-and-wake-pc-at-certain-time

I just tested this on an older system with Z170 chipset and i5-6600k CPU that is running Ubuntu 22.04, and it worked perfectly  fine with no 10-minute delay, unlike the problem seen on the Z690/Z790 with Windows.

All operating systems rely on hardware functions (BIOS/UEFI/CPU) obviously, since the OS isn't running while the machine is off.

I don't think the failure here is OS-specific. It is a hardware failure.

I will try an Ubuntu live USB stick on my Z790 and see what the result is with the Linux rtcwake command, the equivalent of setting up a Windows wake timer.

[madbrain]

I did a test with Ubuntu 22.04 on the Z790 system. It put the machine to sleep, but it couldn't be awaken, even with the power button. Probably this one is an OS bug. I then tried Ubuntu 23.10. I did a 60-second test with "

sudo rtcwake -u -s 60 -m mem

 That seemed to work fine with no 10 minute delay - the machine woke up on its own approximately one minute later.

I have yet to try a longer time frame. The other posted had specified that the longer the sleep interval, the longer the anomalous delay would be. In my application, I typically have wake timers every 24 hours (for the backup case) or a bit less than that (18 hours maybe for DVR case). I will try again with longer sleep time on Ubuntu 23.10 to see if the machine wakes up late or not.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello madbrain, 

Thanks for your response. In this case, you can (using Windows) run the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool to confirm if there is any issue with the CPU, You can also test with a different CPU supported by the Z790 to make sure if the issue is limited to this processor model or the motherboard.

Tool: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/15951/intel-processor-diagnostic-tool.html

These features (Wake timers and Wake on Lan) and the equivalent on different operating systems (Windows, Ubuntu, Red Hat, Chrome OS, SUSE, etc) and their support/compatibility will be set by the developer team if said operating system. I recommend you confirm with the developer of the operating system to confirm if there is a known issue or compatibility problem with the processor of the motherboard chipset.

If the developer team agrees that the issue is the CPU, please let me know.

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[madbrain]

Deivid,

I already know the issue is not limited to a single processor or processor model, or a single motherboard model.

I see the exact same problem on two different systems:

1. Asus Prime Z690-P D4 motherboard with an Intel i5-12400 CPU, running Windows 10 Pro 22H2

2. Asus Prime ZZ90-P WIFI D4 motherboard with an Intel i5-13400 CPU, running Windows 10 Pro 22H2

So, the issue is not tied to a single processor, processor model, or motherboard.

The other poster in thread https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/600-series-Chipset-Family-PCH-Wake-Alarm-Device-Timer-problem/td-p/1496663 is also seeing the problem on

"ASRock Z690 based boards and also an Asus W680 based board". and he is using Windows 11 Pro 22H2 .

So, we know the issue is not specific to a single brand of motherboard. It's seen on motherboards from both Asrock and Asus.

We also know that both Windows 10 and 11 are effected.

And it's seen on at least 3 different Intel chipsets , the Z690, Z790 and W680 .

The other poster said : "I subsequently obtained some used motherboards just for experimentation and it seems this problem actually started with the 300 series chipsets.  It appears to have something to do with the 'ACPI Wake Alarm Device' that appears under system devices in the device manager, which was not in the 200 series and earlier chipsets, but is in the 300 and later series."

So, it looks like there are many more Intel chipsets affected.

IMO, it is very clearly an Intel-specific issue.

I'm in the process of doing a 6 hours (21600 seconds) rtcwake test under Ubuntu Linux 23.10 . I will know soon how late (if at all) the machine wakes up, as I setup a timer on my phone the second I ran rtcwake. Short tests (60-120 seconds) don't seem to be affected, but in my typical use case the machine is up for about 24 hours before the wake up event.

[madbrain]

My Linux 6 hour test in Ubuntu 23.10 failed also, in a different way. The machine woke back up, but the screen didn't come back on. The OS was hung. I didn't hear the CPU fan come back on, so I don't know exactly when the system woke up. I had to hold the power button for 5 seconds to restart the machine. Seems suspend/resume at a given time is broken in different ways on multiple OSes.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello madbrain, 

Thank you for the information provided. I would like to check this behavior internally, if possible, please provide the report from the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) using Windows.

• Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html  
• Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".  
• To save your scan, click Next and click Save.  

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[madbrain]

Deivid,

Here is the output of the SSU for my Z790 machine. I will try on the Z690 one in a moment also.

[madbrain]

Here is the SSU output for the Z690 machine.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello madbrain, 

Thank you for the information provided 

I will proceed to check the issue internally and post back soon with more details. 

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello madbrain, 

Thanks for your patience. If you are using a scheduled task for Wake Timer, try setting the option under the Settings tab for your scheduled task to enable "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed" and see if that helps.

However, this issue does not seem to be caused by the processor itself and since this feature is controlled by the operating system (in this case Microsoft), I recommend you to check with them if the steps provided did not work.

If Microsoft agrees that there is a compatibility issue, they will work directly with Intel to work on a solution.

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician