Re: Dimension 5150 - Standby Mode problem

"Somewhere in the middle of this I notice the time is wrong and find the date is
Jan 2000!"

Regardless of the age of the computer, if the date and time are off, then the
3.3v C2032 CMOS battery is due to be replaced. I've noticed a tendency toward
cheap no-name CMOS batteries in motherboards lately. In the past, a CMOS
battery could be counted on to last 3 or 4 years. Now, a couple of years would
seem to be the limit.

C2032 batteries are less than $5 ea. at Walmart, Best Buy, etc... Ben Myers

On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:56:42 GMT, "Joe M" <txjoe59@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Some background... Originally XP Home. Installed a/v capture card and 2nd
HDD for video. I typically leave it in standby mode unless I'm going to be
away for more than a day and have always used the keyboard or mouse to "wake
it up"... Used this way with no problems for over a year... A few weeks ago
the a/v software or hardware began to malfunction. A reinstall of those
items did not help, so I decided it would be a good time for a complete C:
drive format. So I did that (leaving the diag and restore partitions in
place), installing XP Pro (mostly because I had it) and all drivers (in
correct order) and software. Flashed bios to A07 (cannot remember if I did
this before or after format). Everything including a/v capture works well...



About a week ago Norton AV suddenly warns that my subscription has expired.
I have about 100 days left, so I waste an hour trying to contact their
support, then decide to just uninstall/reinstall and that fixes it.



Just a few days ago, as usual, I select "Standby", I hear the 2nd HDD spin
down, the monitor goes to low power, but I can see the fan running through
the grill in the front of the case, but at about half speed. After a lot
reading on the net, I check and find the optical drives are still powered.
So this leads me to think the C: drive, etc, is still running ... not the
standby mode I'm used to. Somewhere in the middle of this I notice the time
is wrong and find the date is Jan 2000!



I've tried every setting I can find with no luck. The Dell hardware
diagnostics found no defects.

I've reset the cmos with the jumper and by removing the battery, and
reflashed the bios... all no help.

Setup / Power Management / Suspend Mode offers S1 or S3. The only difference
I can find in the two is that one powers down the keyboard in standby and
other doesn't.



All this trouble is kinda unusual for me as I maintain AV and don't do risky
stuff like file sharing or load a lot of useless software.

So before I restore or reinstall again...

Does anyone know of anything else to try?

Is this a result of the A07 Bios?... Maybe a mobo or power supply issue?



TIA - Joe



.

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