Shutdown Vs Standby

rmg1

Hi all

I'm used to using the standby option when leaving the computer for short periods.
Recently, for no apparent reason, it's been taking ages to go into standby mode (i.e. everything stops and the screen goes blank).

Anyone know the cause of this?

Another problem is the standby button on the keyboard. It seems to have stopped working around the same time. I've been into Power Options in Control Panel, but can't seem to find anything useful in there, either,

All help gratefully received.

[Deleted User]

It's always best to reboot or shutdown a PC every so often. Have you tried this then trying standby?

kwikbreaks

How do you resurrect it from standby now? Do you have to use the power button?

It sounds like it may be hibernating (memory and machine state are written to the hard drive) rather than going into standby (power down of most of the system apart from DRAM refresh etc.) This smacks of settings made by a manufacturers power save utility being changed. Try looking in the programs menu for <manufacturer name> utilities.

busenbust

Often depends on the OS also; it was implemented terribly in ME, 2000. It got far better in XP and Vista.

rmg1

Hi

I'm using XP Home with 1GB RAM.
It's the Standby option under the "Turn off computer" start menu item.
It used to work very quickly (less than 20 seconds) , now it takes upwards of a minute before everything stops and the fan stops whirring. I only use it if I'm going to be away for an hour or less.

busenbust

Just tested mine, using XP Pro with a mere 496Mb Ram: goes into standby within ten secs. Does take slightly longer to come out of standby.

rmg1

Exactly, so why is mine taking ages?

hannoja

Yeah, I was going to say something similar to Gamer. It sounds like it's a bit clogged up and 'tired': is the 'computer says no' light flashing..? (joke ).

Try removing any unwanted software in add/remove programs. Check what's starting up in Run --> MSCONFIG --> startup: untick what you know you don't need starting up. Make sure your anti-virus scanners, cleaners, etc.. are up-to-date. Do a clean with CCleaner or whatever cleanup programs you have. Do a couple of malware scans. Defrag. Power down your machine. Leave it off for a few minutes. Startup. See if it's any better.

rmg1

hannoja wrote: »

Yeah, I was going to say something similar to Gamer. It sounds like it's a bit clogged up and 'tired': is the 'computer says no' light flashing..? (joke ).

Try removing any unwanted software in add/remove programs. Check what's starting up in Run --> MSCONFIG --> startup: untick what you know you don't need starting up. Make sure your anti-virus scanners, cleaners, etc.. are up-to-date. Do a clean with CCleaner or whatever cleanup programs you have. Do a couple of malware scans. Defrag. Power down your machine. Leave it off for a few minutes. Startup. See if it's any better.

I run Ccleaner at least every 2 days as a matter of course. MSCONFIG is down to the bare minimum anyway.
I run Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware and Spybot S&D once a week (after updating them) and do a virus scan about once a month.

I use Defraggler instead of the built-in Windows defragger but can't get to less than 1.5GB of fragmented files for some reason, the biggest being the page file.

ICATQ

I have found that same problem from time to time when using standby. It seems to me to be either a program that is either not responding or running a process, either of which then needs to be stopped first, before it can go to standby.

Been said, keep the clutter down in temp files and make sure you dont have stuff running that doesnt really need to be.

hannoja

rmg1 wrote: »

I run Ccleaner at least every 2 days as a matter of course. MSCONFIG is down to the bare minimum anyway.
I run Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware and Spybot S&D once a week (after updating them) and do a virus scan about once a month.

I use Defraggler instead of the built-in Windows defragger but can't get to less than 1.5GB of fragmented files for some reason, the biggest being the page file.

Hmm.. not that then, by the sounds of it..

I had a quick browse and came across a few possible causes, such as logitech (mouse) software, Adobe 4, etc.. but I suppose you would have mentioned if you'd installed/changed anything..

Does this help at all..? (you've probably already looked..?) If not, hopefully someone more [STRIKE]geeky[/STRIKE] clever will be along soon

Stumbled on this too. Only read first post and saw it's resolved, so might be helpful..

EDIT: Your mentioning the page file prompted me to download PageDefrag, which I'll be trying out later.