Incomplete wakeup from standby on scheduled task

[terbos]

I recently upgraded my home desktop from 2k to XP Pro and have developed a really strange behavior.

I leave the machine in Standby during the day. It wakes itself up at 5PM to record a TV show every weekday. The TV hardware is a Hauppauge PVR-250 and the software is SnapStream's Beyond TV.

The machine does wake up and record the show reliably every day. However, one or two days a week, the CPU powers up and starts recording, but the monitor, keyboard, and mouse stay powered off. I cannot wakeup the machine from this limbo state using the keyboard, mouse, or front panel power button. I have to do a hard reset to get it back (reset button or hold power for 5+ seconds). After that, the machine behaves normally.

If I manually wake the machine from standby using the front panel button, it always wakes up correctly. The limbo state only occurs when it wakes itself up.

I have the latest BIOS, MoBo, and video drivers.

I was wondering if anyone has seen a problem like this before so I could know where to start looking for a solution.

System details: WinXP Pro SP1 fully patched; ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (bios 1.07); nVidia GeForce 3 Ti200 (driver 53.03); DirectX 9.0c; Hauppauge PVR-250 tuner; Beyond TV 3.4 (899)

I built this machine so I'm very familiar with all the parts. Let me know if you need more details than I've included.

Thanks,
Terry

ps: I also have the problem where the machine won't put itself back to sleep after it wakes up, but that looks like it's pretty common, so I'll worry about that after this one's solved.

 

[bcastner]

for USB devices some of this behavior has been addressed:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en;822603

 

[linney]

Check your settings for the various Wake on events.

I just built a new system for mysel
thread779-738769

 

[terbos]

Thanks for the tips. I reviewed the MS Patch list and found that I already had that hotfix installed.

It did get me thinking, though about what I had plugged into the system. I only have two USB devices: an internal flash media drive (USB 2.0) using the XP bundled drivers; and an old IBM webcam using the original IBM drivers.

I had trouble with the flash drive when I put XP on the system. It was confusing the drive lettering in Setup. I had to unplug it to complete the installation correctly. I left it unplugged for the first several days of operation and had the wakeup problems then, so I doubt that it's the cause.

That leaves the webcam. I tried unplugging it and rebooting this morning to see if that changes anything. I haven't tried to wipe out the driver yet, but I'm thinking that the driver won't load without the camera plugged in. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'll let you know if anything miraculous happens.

Thanks for the tips.

Terry

 

[PenguinPal]

Dunno if this will help you, but here's a bit of data I collected while resolving a similar problem concerning a friend's XP box:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283270

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;239696

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;258680

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318355&Product=winxp

 

[terbos]

Just a final followup...

I never did figure out what was causing the limbo problem when auto-waking up from standby. But it was happening as much as 3-4 times a week near the end.

My final resolution was to stop using Standby and use Hibernate instead. That seems to work perfectly.

The only remaining power control issue I have is that the machine does not want to power down the monitor or hibernate by itself. I always have to do it manually. I find this particularly odd since the screen saver works normally.

Question:
- If the system is idle enough to go to screen saver, what additional type of system activity is keeping the machine from powering down? How can I identify this activity and possibly eliminate it?

Thanks,
Terry

 

[linney]

To automatically put your computer into hibernation. (from Help and Support)

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

Open Power Options in Control Panel.
Click the Hibernate tab, select the Enable hibernate support check box, and then click Apply.
If the Hibernate tab is unavailable, your computer does not support this feature.

Click the APM tab, click Enable Advanced Power Management support, and then click Apply.
The APM tab is unavailable on ACPI-compliant computers. ACPI automatically enables Advanced Power Management, which disables the APM tab.

Click the Power Schemes tab, and then select a time period in System hibernates. Your computer hibernates after it has been idle for the specified amount of time.