WinXP SP2: Laptop's Power Settings Hosed

[Guest]

I have a new Averatec 5400 series laptop and I installed WinXP SP2 onto the
machine yesterday. Overall, the update seemed to work very well and I
thought that I wouldn't have any headaches--until I tried to put the machine
in standby- or hibernate-mode. These simply don't work as they used to.

I can't get my machine to go into standby by closing the lid: fans still are
on and there's HD activity. If I actually make it hibernate by depressing
the power button briefly, it can't be reawakened--it has to be shut down and
rebooted. And if I actually try to shut it down, the machine goes through
all of the normal motions, except the monitor never goes out--and I have to
physically depress the power-button once more to turn the screen off.

Nothing I do in the "power properties" dialog/control box has any impact on
the behavior of my PC. I do know that uninstalling SP2 restores everything
back to normal operation. And there's nothing on this laptop that's exotic:

MS Works Suite 2003
2004 versions of Quicken and Money
Norton SystemWorks 2004
Norton Internet Security 2004
OpenOffice 1.1.2
Abiword v2
Opera 7.54
Spybot Search & Destroy
AdAware SE Personal (1.03)
SpywareBlaster
RealPlayer
Netscape 7.2
BigFix
Roxio CD/DVD Creator 6
plus a few other apps...

So, what's wrong with my machine? Is there a workaround that doesn't
involve uninstalling SP2? And is MS talking to Averatec's people about
possible issues such as this (BTW the Averatec CS staff is hopeless when
questioned about the impact of SP2)? Will I have to wait for MS to have a
patch for SP2? Is anyone at MS aware of this sort SP2 problem with laptop
power-settings?

Thanks for listening. I will really appreciate some answers.

K

 

[Malke]

I have a new Averatec 5400 series laptop and I installed WinXP SP2
onto the
machine yesterday. Overall, the update seemed to work very well and I
thought that I wouldn't have any headaches--until I tried to put the
machine
in standby- or hibernate-mode. These simply don't work as they used
to.

I can't get my machine to go into standby by closing the lid: fans
still are
on and there's HD activity. If I actually make it hibernate by
depressing the power button briefly, it can't be reawakened--it has to
be shut down and
rebooted. And if I actually try to shut it down, the machine goes
through all of the normal motions, except the monitor never goes
out--and I have to physically depress the power-button once more to
turn the screen off.

Nothing I do in the "power properties" dialog/control box has any
impact on
the behavior of my PC. I do know that uninstalling SP2 restores
everything
back to normal operation. And there's nothing on this laptop that's
exotic:

MS Works Suite 2003
2004 versions of Quicken and Money
Norton SystemWorks 2004
Norton Internet Security 2004
OpenOffice 1.1.2
Abiword v2
Opera 7.54
Spybot Search & Destroy
AdAware SE Personal (1.03)
SpywareBlaster
RealPlayer
Netscape 7.2
BigFix
Roxio CD/DVD Creator 6
plus a few other apps...

So, what's wrong with my machine? Is there a workaround that doesn't
involve uninstalling SP2? And is MS talking to Averatec's people
about possible issues such as this (BTW the Averatec CS staff is
hopeless when
questioned about the impact of SP2)? Will I have to wait for MS to
have a
patch for SP2? Is anyone at MS aware of this sort SP2 problem with
laptop power-settings?

Laptop mftrs. put proprietary power management software on their
machines. Probably your laptop's software needs a patch to work
properly with SP2. Check on your laptop mftr.'s website to see if there
is a patch available. If you don't see one, call their tech support and
ask about it.

Malke

 

[BigGuy]

I have a new Averatec 5400 series laptop and I installed WinXP SP2 onto the

machine yesterday. Overall, the update seemed to work very well and I
thought that I wouldn't have any headaches--until I tried to put the machine
in standby- or hibernate-mode. These simply don't work as they used to.

I can't get my machine to go into standby by closing the lid: fans still are
on and there's HD activity. If I actually make it hibernate by depressing
the power button briefly, it can't be reawakened--it has to be shut down and
rebooted. And if I actually try to shut it down, the machine goes through
all of the normal motions, except the monitor never goes out--and I have to
physically depress the power-button once more to turn the screen off.

Sounds exactly like my issue, same model Averatec 5428 notebook. I
hope someone finds a fix I really hate to not be able to standby.

 

[Tom G]

UNINSTALL SP2 i di it sucks

Sounds exactly like my issue, same model Averatec 5428 notebook. I
hope someone finds a fix I really hate to not be able to standby.

 

[Malke]

UNINSTALL SP2 i di it sucks

You both need to go to Averatec's website and see if there is updated
power management software for your laptops. If you don't see any, then
call their tech support and explain the problem.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Malke,

Your advice is sound and reasonable; however, the folks at Averatec are
USELESS when it comes to answering any and all questions related to WinXP
SP2. The one fellow I talked to who was a bit more informed said they were
just in the process of evaluating the after-effects of the patch.

Uninstalling WinXPSP2 doesn't solve any of the problems with the laptop's
power settings--they're screwed up totally and for good. I've now 1:06 of
battery life even in Max battery mode.

The only advice I've heard is "use the recovery CD-ROMs" -- which means
everything on the laptop gets toasted.

For me, personally, this is an inconvenience, for I just use the laptop as a
backup PC. But there are folks out there who are really in a pickle, for
their machines serve as a primary PC. WinXP SP2 should've come with a major
warning for laptop users....

 

[Malke]

Malke,

Your advice is sound and reasonable; however, the folks at Averatec
are USELESS when it comes to answering any and all questions related
to WinXP
SP2. The one fellow I talked to who was a bit more informed said they
were just in the process of evaluating the after-effects of the patch.

Uninstalling WinXPSP2 doesn't solve any of the problems with the
laptop's
power settings--they're screwed up totally and for good. I've now
1:06 of battery life even in Max battery mode.

The only advice I've heard is "use the recovery CD-ROMs" -- which
means everything on the laptop gets toasted.

For me, personally, this is an inconvenience, for I just use the
laptop as a
backup PC. But there are folks out there who are really in a pickle,
for
their machines serve as a primary PC. WinXP SP2 should've come with a
major warning for laptop users....

Thanks for the information, Kamster. It is a shame when mftrs. of such a
proprietary device like a laptop offer such crappy support. All major
mftrs. have known about SP2 for a long time and should have looked at
their software's interoperability before SP2 came out.

I agree with you that many, many users wouldn't think to plan ahead for
a major Service Pack installation. Yes, it probably would have been
better if Microsoft had put a big red warning on the upgrade at the
download site. However, it really does fall to hardware and software
mftrs. to make sure their products work with Service Packs. And of
course, most home users never think about going to their computer
mftr.'s website regularly to check for drivers until there is a real
problem.

Thanks again for the heads up about Averatec. Maybe Averatec customers
should fire off a few angry letters/emails to the marketing dept.

Malke

 

[CS]

Malke,

Your advice is sound and reasonable; however, the folks at Averatec are
USELESS when it comes to answering any and all questions related to WinXP
SP2. The one fellow I talked to who was a bit more informed said they were
just in the process of evaluating the after-effects of the patch.

Uninstalling WinXPSP2 doesn't solve any of the problems with the laptop's
power settings--they're screwed up totally and for good. I've now 1:06 of
battery life even in Max battery mode.

The only advice I've heard is "use the recovery CD-ROMs" -- which means
everything on the laptop gets toasted.

For me, personally, this is an inconvenience, for I just use the laptop as a
backup PC. But there are folks out there who are really in a pickle, for
their machines serve as a primary PC. WinXP SP2 should've come with a major
warning for laptop users....

Kamster:

Laptops for the most part are proprietary machines. That's why when
it comes to installing a major update such as SP2, a call to the
maker's support or visiting their web site should be accomplished to
find out if they condone the update.

To say SP2 should come with a major warning for laptop users would
probably cause more trouble. Use common sense and for goodness sake
make a backup of everything prior to installing any update. I had no
problems whatsoever updating my Toshiba notebook to SP2. And I'm sure
thousands of other notebook owners have successfully upgraded to SP2.