Vista - Sleep/network/task scheduler issue

[David Qunt]

While using XP Pro, every night I hibernated my machine while logged in
as a limited user and scheduled a task to play an mp3 under that user at
7am each morning, and repeat the task every ten minures for an hour, to
wake me up for work. To do this I had to set the task to wake the
computer, and run even if not logged on.

I am now using Vista Home Premium (OEM, hence why I'm posting here) and
cannot replicate this functionality.

I tried to set what I thought was the same task, only to find that you
need to be logged on as a user with rights to run as a batch job. However
standard user cannot do this, and in Home Premium you cannot set local
security policy to allow a standard user to log on as a batch job. I
thought I could work round this by running the task as administrator,
even if not logged on. However, this doesn't work - the task is
triggered, but fails to run. Nothing in the Event Viewer sheds any light
as to why this is. I have disabled WakeonLan in my BIOS.

Furthermore, the sleep and hibernate functions do not work properly,
insofar as I can send the machine into sleep/hibernate mode, only to find
that the machine then resumes before the task is due to run, goes to
sleep again, and resumes spradically in a continuousloop.

Also, on waking from sleep the network adapter loses connection and needs
to be reset. I have BIOS set to S3 as it should be and believe this is
due to the powermode coding in Vista rather than anything else - the fact
that NVidia haven't released any chipset divers other than those included
in Vista (which I'm currently using) seems to support this.

Has anyone any idea how I can send my machine to sleep last thing each
night in Vista, and have it wake up and play an mp3 at the time of my
choosing, just as I was able to do very easily in XP Pro?

This is the only remaining problem with Vista. I've solved the rest, and
have my hardware issues otherwise sussed (printer, scanner, webcam,
bluetooth and cabled mobile phone comnection all working) and am stumped
with this - and it's really frustrating!

 

[Sharon F]

While using XP Pro, every night I hibernated my machine while logged in
as a limited user and scheduled a task to play an mp3 under that user at
7am each morning, and repeat the task every ten minures for an hour, to
wake me up for work. To do this I had to set the task to wake the
computer, and run even if not logged on.

I am now using Vista Home Premium (OEM, hence why I'm posting here) and
cannot replicate this functionality.

I tried to set what I thought was the same task, only to find that you
need to be logged on as a user with rights to run as a batch job. However
standard user cannot do this, and in Home Premium you cannot set local
security policy to allow a standard user to log on as a batch job. I
thought I could work round this by running the task as administrator,
even if not logged on. However, this doesn't work - the task is
triggered, but fails to run. Nothing in the Event Viewer sheds any light
as to why this is. I have disabled WakeonLan in my BIOS.

Furthermore, the sleep and hibernate functions do not work properly,
insofar as I can send the machine into sleep/hibernate mode, only to find
that the machine then resumes before the task is due to run, goes to
sleep again, and resumes spradically in a continuousloop.

Also, on waking from sleep the network adapter loses connection and needs
to be reset. I have BIOS set to S3 as it should be and believe this is
due to the powermode coding in Vista rather than anything else - the fact
that NVidia haven't released any chipset divers other than those included
in Vista (which I'm currently using) seems to support this.

Has anyone any idea how I can send my machine to sleep last thing each
night in Vista, and have it wake up and play an mp3 at the time of my
choosing, just as I was able to do very easily in XP Pro?

This is the only remaining problem with Vista. I've solved the rest, and
have my hardware issues otherwise sussed (printer, scanner, webcam,
bluetooth and cabled mobile phone comnection all working) and am stumped
with this - and it's really frustrating!

Guess: I wonder if you're running into the "cannot run with a blank
password" that we also saw in XP?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310715/en-us

Also, in general and for a variety of problem scenarios, the MS Knowledge
base recommends using the Scheduled Task interface in Vista to create and
tweak tasks instead of creating them with the Task Wizard.

 

[David Qunt]

Sharon F in

Guess: I wonder if you're running into the "cannot run with a blank
password" that we also saw in XP?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310715/en-us

Also, in general and for a variety of problem scenarios, the MS
Knowledge base recommends using the Scheduled Task interface in Vista
to create and tweak tasks instead of creating them with the Task
Wizard.

No, that's not it.

All my accounts have passwords, and I entered the password when prompted.
And, I used the scheduled task interface, not the wizard.

Thanks anyway!

 

[David Qunt]

David Qunt <[email protected]> squirted these wordjisms deep
inside the bumtube of the newstwat in

Sharon F in


No, that's not it.

All my accounts have passwords, and I entered the password when
prompted. And, I used the scheduled task interface, not the wizard.

Thanks anyway!

I may have resolved this, using workarounds.

I can now set the task to run in standard user context, as I have granted
the user account rights to log on as a batch job (I would have liked to
have done this in native Vista applications by using the Local Security
Policy snap-in, but that's unfortunately not available in Vista Home
Premium, so I downloaded a trial version of a program called Local Account
Manager, which allowed me to set this. It gave error messages a couple of
times, but I can now edit the task and input the password.

I have also been through the tasks which come pre ssceduled with Vista and
edited them by changing the settings so that tasks don't run at times when
I want the machine to slep, and removing any unnecessary ones altogether.

The machine woke and ran the task scheduled for a couple of minutes away
without errors.

Next test is to leave it sleeping for hours and see if it stays asleep. I'm
going to use it for the next few hours so will see if it wakes up in the
morning as planned, or resumes earlier and report back for anyone else that
might be interested.

Unfortunately, I still haven't solved the problem of the network being
unavailable and requiring reset when the machine wakes up, despite checking
all of the settings for the network adapter and being absolutely 100% that
they leave no scope for the machine to wake up on its command.

I have a horrible feeling that like thousands of others I'm waiting on
chipset and ethernet drivers being written by NVidia. The ones I tried for
my board off their website generated a BSOD anytime I tried to edit their
properties and were promptly uninstalled in favour of the generic MS ones
that came with Vista.

Ho hum.....