Standby doesn't work any more
Another Computer Club members asked. Lately the computer doesn't always go
into the rest mode, so I have to shut it down manually. Is there some way
to check this out and perhaps change the time span for this to happen? Judy
The simple answer is to check the Power Settings in the Control Panel. However, from the way the question is worded, I assume that the setting is correct because Judy implies that it was working before.
My first answer was in a bit of a hurry and not very detailed.
Judy,
Rest or Standby mode is something that tends to get less reliable as times go by, even with Windows XP. This is something I have noticed but not really researched so far because I never found it important. I tend to use Hibernate rather than standby, the recovery time is only slightly longer and it works a lot better.
My personal theory is that as we add more and more software to our machines, more things get in the startup and these eventually prevent standby from working. To test this theory, run msconfig and disable all startup programs except your antivirus and see if the machine behaves properly. It will probably run a lot faster to. There is an article on using msconfig to troubleshoot startup and shutdown problems on my web page and this should help you decide what you want running in the background.
Judy sent me an email the next day - Yesterday you gave me some advice regarding using msconfig to turn off all Startup programs. I then went into Power Options on the Control Panel. Hybernate said, "never" so I changed that to 30 minutes. Under Hybernate tab "enable hybernation" was checked, so I left it. I did msconfig and unchecked everything that was checked. Usually all I had to do each morning was touch the mouse and everything would come back on. This morning I physically had to press the button on the tower in order for it to turn on, the screen was black with white going across the bottom, and I had to sign in first. Then the screen was immediately on the desktop. Is this what is supposed to happen?
Hi Judy, yes, that is how hibernate works. It saves what you were doing to a file on the hard drive and then actually shuts down the machine. I probably should have explained that, but I was in a real hurry the other day and didn’t have time to go into details.
Hibernate saves more power by turning the machine off and it recovers almost as quickly as coming out of standby. It also reduces the wear and tear on the hard drive. I had an article in one of my newsletters about the benefits of using hibernate over standby, but that was one of my early ones and I did not save a copy. I will look to see if I can find the material I referenced it from.
If you disabled everything in startup, you probably do not have any antivirus protection right now so you should go back into msconfig and at least turn that back on. The first two RELATED LINKS below are two articles of mine covering uses of msconfig.
The last RELATED LINK is the original article that i referenced in my newsletter.
RELATED LINK: Question #26.
RELATED LINK: Question #18.
RELATED LINK: The original article from WorldStart.Com.
I hope this helps!
The simple answer is to check the Power Settings in the Control Panel. However, from the way the question is worded, I assume that the setting is correct because Judy implies that it was working before.
My first answer was in a bit of a hurry and not very detailed.
Judy,
Rest or Standby mode is something that tends to get less reliable as times go by, even with Windows XP. This is something I have noticed but not really researched so far because I never found it important. I tend to use Hibernate rather than standby, the recovery time is only slightly longer and it works a lot better.
My personal theory is that as we add more and more software to our machines, more things get in the startup and these eventually prevent standby from working. To test this theory, run msconfig and disable all startup programs except your antivirus and see if the machine behaves properly. It will probably run a lot faster to. There is an article on using msconfig to troubleshoot startup and shutdown problems on my web page and this should help you decide what you want running in the background.
Judy sent me an email the next day - Yesterday you gave me some advice regarding using msconfig to turn off all Startup programs. I then went into Power Options on the Control Panel. Hybernate said, "never" so I changed that to 30 minutes. Under Hybernate tab "enable hybernation" was checked, so I left it. I did msconfig and unchecked everything that was checked. Usually all I had to do each morning was touch the mouse and everything would come back on. This morning I physically had to press the button on the tower in order for it to turn on, the screen was black with white going across the bottom, and I had to sign in first. Then the screen was immediately on the desktop. Is this what is supposed to happen?
Hi Judy, yes, that is how hibernate works. It saves what you were doing to a file on the hard drive and then actually shuts down the machine. I probably should have explained that, but I was in a real hurry the other day and didn’t have time to go into details.
Hibernate saves more power by turning the machine off and it recovers almost as quickly as coming out of standby. It also reduces the wear and tear on the hard drive. I had an article in one of my newsletters about the benefits of using hibernate over standby, but that was one of my early ones and I did not save a copy. I will look to see if I can find the material I referenced it from.
If you disabled everything in startup, you probably do not have any antivirus protection right now so you should go back into msconfig and at least turn that back on. The first two RELATED LINKS below are two articles of mine covering uses of msconfig.
The last RELATED LINK is the original article that i referenced in my newsletter.
RELATED LINK: Question #26.
RELATED LINK: Question #18.
RELATED LINK: The original article from WorldStart.Com.
I hope this helps!