power management not working on Windows XP Pro.

[H.S.]

Hello,

I am not able to make power management work properly on Windows XP Pro.
running on Dell Inspiron 5160.

I have set the times for the monitor, hard disk shutdown, standby and
hibernate, but except the LCD turning off after the correct time,
nothing else works. The disk does not shutdown (there is a periodic
activity on it), and standby and hibernate also do not work.

I have since uninstalled Dell utility 'Dell Quickset' but nothing
changed for the better.

This problem occurs whether the laptop is running on mains or on battery.

How do I solve this problem? All help is appreciated.

thanks.
->HS

 

[Anando [MVP]]

Hello,

Is this a new thing you are experiencing or you never got the power
management to work on yoru machine ? I would check 2 things

1) Check if any programs are running in the background which might be
preventing your machine to go into standby/hibernate.
2) Check for updated video drivers for the graphics adapter of yoru machine.
Most of the times, standby/hibernate issues get resolved by updating the
video drivers.

--
Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
Microsoft Certified Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org

Folder customizations
http://www.anando.org/folder

 

[H.S.]

Hello,

Is this a new thing you are experiencing or you never got the power
management to work on yoru machine ? I would check 2 things

1) Check if any programs are running in the background which might be
preventing your machine to go into standby/hibernate.
2) Check for updated video drivers for the graphics adapter of yoru machine.
Most of the times, standby/hibernate issues get resolved by updating the
video drivers.

I notice that the laptop was running sshd servcie. I stopped it, but no
luck.

I have also discovered that the laptop goes into standby mode after
around an hour or so, even though I have set it up to go into standby
mode after 5 minutes (for testing purposes).

So, what do you think I should try next?

Also, I am fairly certain the drivers are all up to date.

 

[Anando [MVP]]

Do you have your anti-virus software scanning in the background when your
computer is idle ? Try to disable your anti-virus software (temporarily) and
see if your computer does into standby. Any other programs that you might
have running in the background ?

--
Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
Microsoft Certified Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org

Folder customizations
http://www.anando.org/folder

 

[H.S.]

Do you have your anti-virus software scanning in the background when your
computer is idle ? Try to disable your anti-virus software (temporarily) and
see if your computer does into standby. Any other programs that you might
have running in the background ?

Well, I have Norton antivirus running, but no actuall scan is taking
place (in the sense that it is not scanning any files). I do not see its
icon on the system tray so I am not sure how to turn it off.

I am really stumped by this failure of standby mode.

 

[H.S.]

Do you have your anti-virus software scanning in the background when your
computer is idle ? Try to disable your anti-virus software (temporarily) and
see if your computer does into standby. Any other programs that you might
have running in the background ?

Another thing, I have configured the laptop to go into standby mode when
its lid is closed. That works perfectly. I can also make the machine to
go into standby or hibernation manually. Only the automatic settings in
Power Management are not working.

 

[Anando [MVP]]

I can also make the machine to go into standby or hibernation manually

Which makes me think that there might be some processes going on in the
background, which takes up enough CPU cycles to make the system believe
that its not idle. Which, in turn, would not let standby or hibernate to
kick in.

--
Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
Microsoft Certified Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org

Folder customizations
http://www.anando.org/folder

 

[H.S.]

Which makes me think that there might be some processes going on in the
background, which takes up enough CPU cycles to make the system believe
that its not idle. Which, in turn, would not let standby or hibernate to
kick in.

Okay. How do you suggest I go about trying to determine such processes?

 

[H. S.]

Which makes me think that there might be some processes going on in the
background, which takes up enough CPU cycles to make the system believe
that its not idle. Which, in turn, would not let standby or hibernate to
kick in.

Some progress. I have noticed that if I set the standby time to 1 or 3
minutes, the laptop suspends automatically. But not exactly after these
many minutes, for 1 min option, it goes into standby after around 2
minutes, and for 3 min option, it takes around 5~6 minutes to start to
go into standby mode.

Also, hibernation seems to be working (partly). I have set the laptop to
hibernate after 4 hours. It went into standby mode last night and this
morning when I switched it on and it started to resume. It seemed to
have hibernated sucessfully. However, it is taking forever to resume!
Its been something like 15 minutes now and after the reboot and Windows
is Resuming message, the screen is just black with an hour glass cursor
in the middle (which I can move with the mouse though).

Also, are the stanbdy and hibernation actions logged to the event
viewer? Anyway to know when exactly laptop started to go into standby
and hibernate mode?

 

[H. S.]

Some progress. I have noticed that if I set the standby time to 1 or 3
minutes, the laptop suspends automatically. But not exactly after these
many minutes, for 1 min option, it goes into standby after around 2
minutes, and for 3 min option,

Okay, since standby does not kick in for any time set greater than 5
minutes, I am suspecting there is some program (or disc access) that
kicks in every few minutes (4, 5 or 6), so that when standby time is set
to 1 minutes, it works, but anything greater than does not since the
program maybe making the computer non-idle. So, the next question is,
how do I find out what programm this may be?

 

[Anando [MVP]]

Hello,

That would be a deductive process. You would have to determine which
programs are loading at startup. This can be determined by the MSCONFIG
utility in the startup tab (Start/Run MSCONFIG).

The whole reason that standby and hibernate do work at all but do not follow
the power options schedule, makes me think that this is not a driver issue,
but some background processes not letting the machine enter the S3 or S4
state.

--
Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
Microsoft Certified Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org

Folder customizations
http://www.anando.org/folder

 

[H.S.]

Hello,

I am not able to make power management work properly on Windows XP Pro.
running on Dell Inspiron 5160.

I have set the times for the monitor, hard disk shutdown, standby and
hibernate, but except the LCD turning off after the correct time,
nothing else works. The disk does not shutdown (there is a periodic
activity on it), and standby and hibernate also do not work.

I have since uninstalled Dell utility 'Dell Quickset' but nothing
changed for the better.

This problem occurs whether the laptop is running on mains or on battery.

How do I solve this problem? All help is appreciated.

thanks.
->HS

Well, looks like I have narrowed down the problem to Norton Antivirus.
It runs a service called rtvscan.exe (listed in the Task manager). If I
"kill this service tree", then suspend works fine.

If this service is not killed, then setting the machine to go into
standby mode after 5 or more minutes does not work. Seems rtvscan is
doing something every 3 or 4 minutes that results in this problem.
Setting the machine to standby after 1 or 2 minutes works fine.

So, next big questions, what the heck is the problem with this rtvscan
from Norton Antivirus? Anybody has any idea? I have Symantec AntiVirus,
Full version: 10.0.2.2020.

thanks.

 

[H.S.]

Well, looks like I have narrowed down the problem to Norton Antivirus.
It runs a service called rtvscan.exe (listed in the Task manager). If I
"kill this service tree", then suspend works fine.

If this service is not killed, then setting the machine to go into
standby mode after 5 or more minutes does not work. Seems rtvscan is
doing something every 3 or 4 minutes that results in this problem.
Setting the machine to standby after 1 or 2 minutes works fine.

So, next big questions, what the heck is the problem with this rtvscan
from Norton Antivirus? Anybody has any idea? I have Symantec AntiVirus,
Full version: 10.0.2.2020.

thanks.

Today I upgraded the symantec antivirus Corporate Edition from our
university software download site. I now have version 10.0.2.2021. But
the problem persists: rtvscan.exe process appears to be preventing the
computer from going into standby mode. Killing this process's tree via
task manger makes the problem go away.

So, Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.0.1 is not compatible with
Windows XP?

 

[Rock]

Today I upgraded the symantec antivirus Corporate Edition from our
university software download site. I now have version 10.0.2.2021. But the
problem persists: rtvscan.exe process appears to be preventing the
computer from going into standby mode. Killing this process's tree via
task manger makes the problem go away.

So, Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.0.1 is not compatible with
Windows XP?

Ask Symantec tech support.