No STANDBY mode!!!

[taz480]

I have two Dells exactly alike. Windows 2000 Pro, SP4. Both are same model, mobo, everything except for one thing. One has onboard ethernet and the other don't. It has NIC. Everything else spec wise is the same. Drives are different but that shouldn't matter.

Anyway, one has the standby options in Power Management and automatically shuts off after shutting down windows, like most newer computers do and there are four shut down options- Log Off, Shut down, Restart and Standby.

The other one has NO standby options in Power Management and will not turn off by itself. Instead it shows the old "It is now safe to turn off your computer". Also it only has three shut down options, the same as above minus Standby.

I thought it might be a BIOS option but I set both machines side by side and everything is exactly the same on both. I know the old "It is now safe....." window. My old 95 and 98SE machines do that. I always thought it was OS related age wise.

Can anybody help me get my Standby options into the other one???????
Or atleast school me on why it don't???????
Thank you!!!!!!!!! Love this site!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS- I know also it's gotta be PC related because if I remember correctly, it did that with ME and XP on it, too.

[poppy]

Are these two computers networked? Which of the two has the four options on Shut Down, the one with the on board or the NIC?

For the moment, I can only relate to what I have on my system (which is an older system). It is a stand alone computer and I have a NIC to connect to my cable modem and I run W2K w/SP4. Now when I installed it and would shut down, I would get the "It is now safe...." message. When I realized the Advanced Power Management (APM) in the BIOS was set as enabled as default, I checked the Power Options in the Control Panel and saw that W2K reported I had APM capabilities. I checked the box to enable APM and now when I shut down, the system shuts off automatically.

All of my settings in the BIOS for Susp/Stdby are defaulted to Disabled. I cannot honestly say if that made a difference when installing W2K, but I only have 3 options for shutting down, Log Off, Shutdown or Restart.

It is late now, but if I get a chance tomorrow I will play with the settings in the BIOS and see if that makes a difference. If the two are networked, it could be a difference in the two in regard to something like LAN wake on mode in the BIOS or something along those lines.

Double check all your settings in the BIOS and also in Power Options in the Control Panel. I will post back and let you know if I see any difference when I make some changes to my system.

Or someone may come along in the meantime with an answer.

[taz480]

Thank you for your help, I appreciate it!

No they're not networked. I'm building them seperately to start my home computer business on Ebay. I don't think the difference between onboard network or NIC is relevent.
My Dell BIOS versions don't have anything regarding stby or APM. But I did what you said and enabled APM in Windows and you're right! Now it turns itself off automatically. There are still no options for standby. APM is more for situations like if it is a laptop. I don't really care. This was just more of a mystery issue. Like i said, I'm starting a home computer business and one of my selling tools or policies is that I WILL NOT sell it if it isn't right. This situation just bugged me because I have two systems almost exactly alike and acting differently. I like perfection and the fact that the two same PCs aren't set up the same caused some concern with me. I'm gonna research this some more. but thank you!!! You at least got it shutting itself off. I love these web sites!!!
Any other ideas are well appreciated!! Thanx!!

[taz480]

PS- I forgot to say, APM is OFF on the other machine too, the one that DOES HAVE standby. But at least got the other one to turn off automatically, which is what bugged me the most. Kind of a side door fix but worked. Cool! Any other ideas?????????????