problem Desktop pc freezes after I put it to Sleep a 2nd time

[apairofpcs]

[SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1]M[SIZE=+1]y[/SIZE] desktop pc uses the Windows 7 Ultimate [SIZE=+1]32 bit OS. [/SIZE]When I put [SIZE=+1]it [/SIZE]to Sleep, either with the programmed Sleep key on the Micro[SIZE=+1]soft Internet Keyboard[SIZE=+1] or with the Sleep selection in the Start Menu area[SIZE=+1], the fans and hard drives stop spinning and the monitor's display turns off. I can awaken it by pressing any key o[SIZE=+1]r nudging the mouse. But if I put it to Sleep a 2nd time [SIZE=+1]by either method, the hard drives and fans DON'T stop spinning as they did the first time,[SIZE=+1] [SIZE=+1]In effect, the pc freezes. [/SIZE]The keyboard's lights function. B[SIZE=+1]u[/SIZE]t since the pc didn't[SIZE=+1] go to sleep,[SIZE=+1] the keyboard is ineffective.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE] Nudging the mouse doesn't solve the problem either. My only recourse[SIZE=+1] is to press the case's Reset button and have it Restart. After a Restart, I can put the pc to Sleep one time. B[SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1]ut if I try it a 2nd time, it freezes again.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=+1] I use Sleep mode 99% of the time when I leave the pc unattended[/SIZE].....having been given the OK to do this in one of my previous threads, by some of you forum members[SIZE=+1].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]For the time being[/SIZE], in Control Panel's "Power Options" applet, I've set the [SIZE=+1]keyboard's Sleep button to Do Nothing when I press it.[SIZE=+1] This pre[SIZE=+1]vents me from causing an accidental freeze. [/SIZE]T[/SIZE]he Sleep selection in the Start Menu remains functional, but I still get a freeze when I use it, as I explained above.[/SIZE]

I'd like the keyboard to resume putting my pc to [SIZE=+1]sleep and awakening it[SIZE=+1], [/SIZE]as many times as I wish.[/SIZE] Until about a week ago, I was able to do this.[SIZE=+1] I have the desktop since Apr. 200[SIZE=+1]9. [/SIZE]My current options are to keep it on and use a screensaver, or to place the pc in hibernate mode whenever [SIZE=+1]I leave it unat[SIZE=+1]tended for a few hours.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]My Toshiba and Lenovo laptops, both using Windows 7 Home Prem[SIZE=+1]ium Edition 64 bit, don't have this problem when I use the Sleep selection in the Start Menu. [/SIZE]Any ideas?[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

 

[apairofpcs]

I have an update.....

I restarted the pc into my Win XP Professional 32 bit drive. I was able to put the pc to Sleep 3 times in a row without a freeze. It appears that my Win 7 Ultimate OS has a software glitch. Does this finding help in any way?

 

[Stereodude]

That would likely point to a driver issue.

 

[apairofpcs]

That would likely point to a driver issue.

Can you narrow it down to what device you have in mind, so I can go through Device Manager and either attempt to find an update or disable the driver?

 

[Handruin]

Does this help?
http://www.pixelapes.com/2010/01/15/windows-7-cant-go-to-sleep/

 

[apairofpcs]

Does this help?
http://www.pixelapes.com/2010/01/15/windows-7-cant-go-to-sleep/

[SIZE=+1]Maybe I wasn't clear about my symptoms. The first time I put the pc to Sleep[SIZE=+1] a[/SIZE]fter a restart[SIZE=+1], [/SIZE]everything is fine. The fans stop. The drives stop. Either the mouse or keyboard awakens it. It's when I attempt to put it to Sleep the next time without a restart first, that the pc freezes. Contrary to the writer of the blog post in your link, I don't get a login screen. The pc is truly immobilized, until I restart it with the case's Reset bu[SIZE=+1]tton.[/SIZE].

[SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1]I followed the[SIZE=+1] a[/SIZE][/SIZE]rticle's steps with a command prompt window, with me running it as an administrator. T[/SIZE]yping "powercfg / requests" gets me the following response.....
[SIZE=+1]DISPLAY:
[SIZE=+1]None
[SIZE=+1]SYSTEM:
[SIZE=+1]None
[SIZE=+1]A[SIZE=+1]WAYMODE:
[SIZE=+1]None.

[SIZE=+1]The P[SIZE=+1]ixelApes blog [/SIZE]artic[SIZE=+1]le refers to a Windows Media Player connection, but in my case there is none.[SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1]

[SIZE=+1][SIZE=+1]A little background info, since the article has references to streaming data between pcs in a network. My network consists[/SIZE][/SIZE] of a[SIZE=+1] desktop pc with an ethernet cable to the router, and two laptops[/SIZE] with wireless connections to the router. I removed the desktop from the Homegroup I created at some point. I blocked s[SIZE=+1]treaming of data between all pcs. All I want is the ability to read the shared folders on each pc, from each other pc.[SIZE=+1] All pcs are in my apartment.

I[SIZE=+1] think that Stereodude was right, that I have a device driver issue.[/SIZE]....
I reinstalled the latest Logitech Mouse Setpoi[SIZE=+1]nt program. I reinstalled the the latest Microsoft IntelliType Pro program[/SIZE]. I wonder why I have so many HID-compliant devices within the Human Interface Devices folder in Device Manager[SIZE=+1]. I enabled all of them, but don't know whether this was the right action. All devices are working properly. [SIZE=+1]In the Keyboard folder, I have [SIZE=+1]HID Keyboard Device and PS/[SIZE=+1]2 keyboard.[/SIZE][/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]In the Mice and other pointing devices folder, I have [/SIZE]HID-compliant mouse and Logitech HID-compliant Unifying Mouse. In all the other folders, each device [SIZE=+1]is enabled and "working properly."[SIZE=+1] What more should I investigate?

[SIZE=+1]By the way,[SIZE=+1] I[SIZE=+1]'ve always has "Prevent idling to sleep" when sharing media, [SIZE=+1]as the setting in Multime[SIZE=+1]dia settings in my High Performance power profile.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE] I've seen a reference to "Allow the computer to sleep" to solve a sleep problem in the article, but so no reason to change my setting to this. My freezing problem is no more than a week old.
[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

 

[Stereodude]

Does it freeze on the way into sleep the 2nd time or out of it?

 

[apairofpcs]

Does it freeze on the way into sleep the 2nd time or out of it?

It doesn't go to Sleep the 2nd time, evident by the fans and drive still spinning. It freezes, which is why neither the keyboard nor the mouse can awaken it.

 

[apairofpcs]

In a post in the same blog that Handruin offered me above, I found a 2nd reference to the powercfg command line. It's powercfg /energy. It traces the drive for a minute, looking for efficiency errors. It found some. I attached the txt file, because I'm not sure if it hints at a possible solution.

 

[Bozo]

Just doing a quick scan of the text file, I would guess you have a USB driver issue.

 

[apairofpcs]

Just doing a quick scan of the text file, I would guess you have a USB driver issue.

You and Stereodude think I have a driver problem. I agree, but have no idea what to do about it. Could either of you give me a list of actions to take, from the most probable to succeed to the least probable to succeed, or from the least invasive to the most invasive? I've already made countless adjustments to the USB driver entries in Device Manager, modified my profiles in Power Options, adjusted my settings in Network and Sharing Center and tweaked my wireless router via the configuration website.

 

[apairofpcs]

Just doing a quick scan of the text file, I would guess you have a USB driver issue.

Why does the attached file list as an Error, some of my High Performance power option profile settings? Aren't they my decision? By the way, I haven't changed the settings for a very long time, meaning that the freezes had to come about as a result of some other change in the pc.

As for the Error regarding the USB Root Hubs and USB Composite Device, none of the eight USB Root Hubs and the USB Composite Device are entering the Suspend state even though I Enabled this action in the power profile.

As for the Error "Platform Power Management Capabilities", I've chosen IDE not ACPI as the Storage Configuration in BIOS setup. So why is there an ACPI reference?

As for the Warning "Power Policy:802.11 Radio Power Policy is Maximum Performance (Plugged In)", I've been using the same Verizon FiOS ActionTec router settings since July 2012, and sleep mode worked until recently.

 

[Stereodude]

You and Stereodude think I have a driver problem. I agree, but have no idea what to do about it. Could either of you give me a list of actions to take, from the most probable to succeed to the least probable to succeed, or from the least invasive to the most invasive? I've already made countless adjustments to the USB driver entries in Device Manager, modified my profiles in Power Options, adjusted my settings in Network and Sharing Center and tweaked my wireless router via the configuration website.

Start removing hardware temporarily from the system one by one until the problem goes away. It's the process of elimination. If you get it down to where you can't remove anything else and still use the system but the problem persists it gets a little more complicated.

 

[Bozo]

Didn't you just flash the BIOS in this computer??

 

[apairofpcs]

Start removing hardware temporarily from the system one by one until the problem goes away. It's the process of elimination. If you get it down to where you can't remove anything else and still use the system but the problem persists it gets a little more complicated.

What hardware do you mean? I have a PS/2 Microsoft Internet keyboard. I have a USB based Logitech cordless / optical mouse. I have two Altec Lansing speakers and a sub-woofer. There's nothing else. If I haven't changed anything or modified any of these items for years, how could they have started my current problem?

Perhaps you mean disable device drivers one at a time in Device Manager?

 

[apairofpcs]

Didn't you just flash the BIOS in this computer??

You have a good memory, but you're confused about the current type of freeze. Yes, the BIOS update stopped the sudden pc freezing that was the result of a glitch with the ASUS MB supplied Q-Fan Control program. Now I've enabled it in BIOS, and I haven't had a freeze since the update.

My current freezes happen when I "manually" put the pc to sleep a 2nd time, the first time being successful. The keyboard lights are active, but the keyboard can't awaken it, because the pc never went to sleep. The fans and drives continue to spin, which is not what happens when a pc is put to sleep. As I stated in a previous post, I have to restart the pc using the case's Reset button. I did the same thing when I had the freezes before the BIOS update.

By the way, the sleep based freezes didn't happen for a long time after I did the BIOS update. Right after the update, I was enjoying the peace and quiet of a totally stable pc. I have no idea why the sleep based freezes are occurring.

 

[Howell]

Have you checked MS update to see if there are any updates available? Particularly driver updates.

 

[Howell]

After you flashed the bios did you reset the bios to defaults and then customize from there?

 

[apairofpcs]

Have you checked MS update to see if there are any updates available? Particularly driver updates.

Yes Sir, I do this manually several times a day. The January 12, 2014 monthly update didn't appear ( ?? ) to deal with my issue. I know that it's rare, but a Windows Update module can create a problem instead of solve one. What do you think? How can I check if this is true?

 

[apairofpcs]

After you flashed the bios did you reset the bios to defaults and then customize from there?

The BIOS automatically reset to factory defaults after the update, at which point I customized them. But my problem is more recent than the time I did the update. My pc was purring along after the update, until the sleep issue appeared. I started this thread, because I've exhausted every reasonable approach to a solution. In fact, I may as well ask this. Since I've improperly shutdown my pc 50 or more times as a result of the freezes, can this activity do damage to my two hard drives? I did a chkdsk with the /R and /V parameters ( the one with five steps ) on the boot drive, and it found five files with bad sectors. It fixed them. I still have no bad blocks after many years of loyal service. I used HD Tune's full error scan, and no bad blocks were found. Anyway, I've stopped putting the pc to sleep.....for now.

 

[P5-133XL]

Never auto-update drivers using Microsoft. This is exactly the type of scenario that can happen and it is a bear to diagnose and fix because you don't know what driver was fiddled with or even when. At least when you manually do updates then you can say it was working and now that the update occurred it doesn't so you can roll-back that specific set of of updates. Even better never update drivers unless you need to fix a specific driver problem because the only change that can happen when you fiddle with a working system is you break it and it no longer works properly and then since you explicitly did it, at least you know what to fix.

Improper shut downs do not cause bad sectors on your HD. They are a sign that your the parts of the surface of your HD's platters are now unreadable (probably aging). I would recommend that you run a full diagnostic from the drives manufacturer. In the best case It will have the benefit of blocking out the sectors and replacing them from the spare list (low-level format). Microsoft just blocks them at the upper-level file-system format level. In the worst case it will tell you that you need to replace the drive now before inaccessibility.

If you have just a few bad blocks then the normal fixes are fine but you need to monitor your HD very regularly and if you start getting more you need to replace it immediately before the HD outright dies and your data becomes inaccessible. Most people, now days, just replace at the first sign of a bad block.

What you risk with an improper shut down is potential file-system corruption and even that is a limited risk unless you have write-caching enabled because normally Microsoft will automatically logs changes (Assuming NTFS) before they are made. When you restart, Microsoft will normally check those logs and fix anything that didn't get written. If you have write caching enabled, then all bets are off because then not only is it possible that file changes didn't get written (Potentially messing up the file system) but the logs are potentially not updated either that leaves your file system in an unknown state.

 

[apairofpcs]

Never auto-update drivers using Microsoft. This is exactly the type of scenario that can happen and it is a bear to diagnose and fix because you don't know what driver was fiddled with or even when. At least when you manually do updates then you can say it was working and now that the update occurred it doesn't so you can roll-back that specific set of of updates. Even better never update drivers unless you need to fix a specific driver problem because the only change that can happen when you fiddle with a working system is you break it and it no longer works properly and then since you explicitly did it, at least you know what to fix.

Improper shut downs do not cause bad sectors on your HD. They are a sign that your the parts of the surface of your HD's platters are now unreadable (probably aging). I would recommend that you run a full diagnostic from the drives manufacturer. In the best case It will have the benefit of blocking out the sectors and replacing them from the spare list (low-level format). Microsoft just blocks them at the upper-level file-system format level. In the worst case it will tell you that you need to replace the drive now before inaccessibility.

If you have just a few bad blocks then the normal fixes are fine but you need to monitor your HD very regularly and if you start getting more you need to replace it immediately before the HD outright dies and your data becomes inaccessible. Most people, now days, just replace at the first sign of a bad block.

What you risk with an improper shut down is potential file-system corruption and even that is a limited risk unless you have write-caching enabled because normally Microsoft will automatically logs changes (Assuming NTFS) before they are made. When you restart, Microsoft will normally check those logs and fix anything that didn't get written. If you have write caching enabled, then all bets are off because then not only is it possible that file changes didn't get written (Potentially messing up the file system) but the logs are potentially not updated either that leaves your file system in an unknown state.

Thank you for the assignment.

I disabled automatic Windows Updates a very long time ago. I manually check daily, which is probably a waste of time. When updates appear, I look over the titles and uncheck those that I don't think are necessary and hide them. If there are multiple modules I check, I have them installed all at once.

I ask you to observe the attached file, a screen capture of my latest Windows Updates. Starting from the bottom, you see a Windows Defender update. You don't see any more above it, because I removed it from my pc. Above that is the typical monthly MS offering, a malicious software removal tool. This can't cause my problem. Above that is an ethernet driver update, which by the way was offered as a replacement when I uninstalled the driver from within Device Manager. Windows Update detected it missing, searched online and found the replacement. My sleep initiated freezes didn't start until the beginning of January, so THAT ethernet update couldn't cause the problem. Above that are two more malicious software removal tools, one in Dec. 2013 and one in Jan. 2014. Neither could cause my problem. The last update was another ethernet card driver, to replace one I replaced. I have a few drivers in the drivers list, and I thought I deleted the one that wasn't replaced in the Nov. 23, 2013 update. So the Jan. 16, 2014 update was probably the same file as the one I removed in Device Manager. Also, not the cause of my problem. By the way, since the ethernet card is integrated on the ASUS MB, and the MB was made in late 2008, the driver update is the latest one and I don't expect any more of them.

I elaborated on the updates, because I wanted you to see that since the freezes started early in Jan., NONE of the updates since then could have caused them.

Regardless of the method I've used to scan my boot drive, none of them reported any bad blocks. The HD Tune program can list many Health Status parameters of a drive. If you'd like me to make a screen capture of that information, say the word. I should tell you that HD Tune rates the status of my drive in ALL areas as "OK." Maybe you'll be able to find something wrong by looking at it. I've had drives in the past that used up their spare sectors, leading to a number of bad blocks. My two drives don't list any bad blocks.

My boot drive is functioning perfectly as of now. My only problem is the freezing after "trying" to put it to sleep.

Is there anything else you need, to help you nail the cause of my problem?

 

[P5-133XL]

I assure you, I have no good process to help you find an errant driver that doesn't identify itself but is causing lockup problems. The best I've got is disabling drivers, one at a time, till you can find the problem child.

Just as a side question does the behavior still happen from within safe-mode?

 

[apairofpcs]

I assure you, I have no good process to help you find an errant driver that doesn't identify itself but is causing lockup problems. The best I've got is disabling drivers, one at a time, till you can find the problem child.

Just as a side question, does the behavior still happen from within safe mode?

Considering the "probable" damage to my two drives as a result of repetitive restarts when my attempts at putting the pc to sleep end up with a systemic freeze, I'm NOT willing to experiment with the many device drivers in Device Manager unless somebody can guide me further after reading the contents of the various panels below.

Universal Serial Bus Controllers panel: There are 8 Host Controllers, 8 Root Hubs and 1 Composite Device. Possible restarts = 17.

Human Interface Devices panel: All entries being USB port based, there is 1 HID-compliant consumer control device, 5 HID-compliant devices, 2 Logitech HID-compliant Unifying devices, 1 Logitech USB Unifying receiver, 1 USB Input Device and 1 USB Input Device ( Logitech Download Assistant ). Possible restarts = 11.

Mice and other pointing devices panel: There is the Logitech HID-compliant Unifying Mouse.

Keyboards panel: There is an HID keyboard device and a PS/2 Keyboard. My keyboard is a year 2000 Microsoft Internet Keyboard, with every key still working like a charm and 10 key programming still operational. One of the keys puts the pc to sleep. The KB plugs into the PS/2 keyboard port.

As you all know, the above panels are 4 of the many other panels. Since some of you have suggested that I have a USB device driver problem, I listed the panels with drivers in them that are USB based.

So, can anybody guide me to the panels and entries within, that seem suspect to you? Otherwise I'm not going any further because I'll be moving blindly from one driver to another.

Just for you, P5.....
I went to Safe Mode and Safe Mode with networking to see if the symptom exists there. "Sleep" is not available in the Start Menu's list of actions in either mode.

 

[Bozo]

Maybe something in here will help.

 

[LunarMist]

Why do you need a sleep mode? I find they are often problematic in desktops.

 

[apairofpcs]

Maybe something in here will help.

I read the entire article, which by the way has nothing to do with Windows 7, but I was able to find similar locations on my pc. I saw nothing that pertains to my problem. In fact the article is about the inability to wake a pc from a sleep, not preventing a freeze when attempting to put a pc to sleep. But something good came of the article, although it didn't stop the freezes. Read on.....

I was poking around Device Manager's System Devices to see if something will catch my eye. I know that my BIOS setup allows me to choose between IDE, ACPI or RAID Storage Configurations. I'm using ACPI for my two SATA drives. I saw an entry in System Devices called "ATK0110 ACPI Utility." I looked at the date of the driver. It was in 2004. I had the pc look for an update online. It didn't find any. I went to the ASUS website and found a 2009 version of this driver and installed it. I was told to restart for it to complete the install. When the desktop appeared, my mouse pointer was locked at dead center on the screen. Navigating with my keyboard inside Device Manager, I found that when I wanted to expand a section, there were no driver contents. The boxes were empty. I never saw anything like this before. I managed to restart the pc with the KB as before. The same happened. This time, I navigated to Shutdown the pc, and everything was normal when the desktop appeared. The install told me to restart, so needing to Shutdown to stabilize the pc made no sense to me. But was absolutely necessary to recover my stable pc.

So here I am with a stable pc, but no solution to my problem. I'd like to state, once again, that my desktop pc was working like a charm and the sleep induced freezes "seemingly" came from nowhere. I've been looking for changes I made to the pc just before the problem started, and I reverted any such changes back to the previous condition, per the advice of the forum members. No matter what I do, the freezes continue.

 

[apairofpcs]

Why do you need a sleep mode? I find they are often problematic in desktops.

I refuse to believe that keeping a pc running indefinitely doesn't shorten the life of EVERY energized component. I use Hibernate for when I'll be away from the desktop for half a day or so. But when I'll be gone for a few hours, Sleep is so much more convenient. Either my KB or mouse is set to awaken my sleeping pcs. I keep telling everybody here that I've never had a problem putting any of my pcs to sleep.....or awakening them, for as long as I've owned pcs. My first pc clone was in 1992.

I don't know from where all the bad PR about sleep mode is coming, but I respect this method of letting a pc get some R&R. The show must go on.....

 

[apairofpcs]

In my post above, #27, I used the wrong term when referring to my desktop pcs Storage Configuration setting in BIOS setup. I meant AHCI. In Device Manager's "System devices", my recent update was for the ATK0110 ACPI Utility. I don't know if the two terms have anything to do with each other. At least I have the latest ACPI driver offered by ASUS!

 

[ddrueding]

Why do you need a sleep mode? I find they are often problematic in desktops.

It doesn't solve your problem, but I'll second this. While I agree that it likely have some negative effect on the hardware that would be impossible to quantify, my gut instinct is that it is very small. My machines turn off the display and that is it. If I had a drive that wasn't an SSD I'd have that spin down after a while as well.

 

[jtr1962]

Just a suggestion here in case you haven't tried it-boot using the Ubuntu disk you created when your machine had problems a few months ago. Try sleep mode in Ubuntu. If you have problems using sleep mode in Ubuntu then we can assume this is a hardware problem, not a software problem. The PC has to do lots of things to go in and out of sleep mode, and if the hardware isn't working properly, the result could be freezes when you come out of sleep mode.

 

[Mercutio]

If I had a drive that wasn't an SSD I'd have that spin down after a while as well.

I'd rather eat the cost for leaving the drives running all the time than have them do anything but run 24x7. Servers I manage have had very few disk problems over their lifetime, something I'm thankful for, and I attribute that in part to not bothering to spin down drives.

 

[Bozo]

I'd rather eat the cost for leaving the drives running all the time than have them do anything but run 24x7. Servers I manage have had very few disk problems over their lifetime, something I'm thankful for, and I attribute that in part to not bothering to spin down drives.

I agree. All the computers/servers that I build run 24/7/365 and I have more monitors and power supplies (usually the fan dies) fail than hard drives.

 

[P5-133XL]

It has always been my understanding that electronics are harmed much more by the power-up/power down process (Heat cycling) than continuous running while mechanical items like HD's and anything with florescent tubes like monitors are better served by turning them off. Do note that there are limits to the frequency of turning on/off because both continuous running and turning them on/off do significant wear and different devices wear at different rates for both. So the frequency you turn off HD's should be different than monitors but I have no idea how to determine the optimum.

 

[Mercutio]

That's one of those things that makes some people proper Engineers with the rest of us are just IT guys.

 

[P5-133XL]

Personally I've had a lot more HD's fail (Dozens) than monitors but I also have a lot more HD's. The only personal monitors I've had fail were because water pored down inside it (A leak from upstairs) and a power button wore out (was replaced under 5Y warranty).

 

[LunarMist]

I'd rather eat the cost for leaving the drives running all the time than have them do anything but run 24x7. Servers I manage have had very few disk problems over their lifetime, something I'm thankful for, and I attribute that in part to not bothering to spin down drives.

Most people don't want noisy, hot, power hungry computers running night and day. I turn mine off at night and during the workday, unless they are busy doing sonething useful, which is perhaps two days per week.

 

[P5-133XL]

Fold and they will be doing something useful all the time...

 

[Mercutio]

Lunar, if your computers are noticeably louder or hotter than other normal office equipment, you need better computers.
People have slept in the same room with my big file server and never noticed it.

 

[jtr1962]

I refuse to believe that keeping a pc running indefinitely doesn't shorten the life of EVERY energized component.

Here is an interesting read of the subject. Of note here is this:

Zone III, is termed the Wearout period and is characterized by an increasing failure rate as a result of equipment aging and deterioration. Because modern electronic equipment is largely made up of semiconductor devices that have no real short term wear out mechanism, the existence of a Zone III for electronic systems is sort of a gray area.

The only components in a modern PC which follow the classical bathtub curve failure rate are the hard drives, power supply, and monitor. The hard drive wears out like any other mechanical device. The backlights in monitors eventually degrade. At one time electrolytic capacitors were used in motherboards and they would also experience wearout. You still have this wearout mechanism in power supplies because most still use at least some electrolytic capacitors. The only degradation mechanism for the vast majority of electronics in a PC is heat. If not properly cooled, heat generating components like CPUs can experience drastically shortened lifespan. However, I wouldn't consider heat a wearout mechanism because it can be avoided with proper system cooling.

It's worth noting that even the components in a PC which wear out typically become obsolete long before they wear out. I've had hard drives running 24/7 outside of the rare times I'm gone for the day for over 5 years. I've yet to have one fail. In fact, the only PC components I've had fail was one CPU, and the caps on my A7N8X-E motherboard.