How to get the slickest booting htpc (1 Viewer)

[Taipan]

44W - on standby mode

This doesn't seem right... :?

It is my understanding that during Standby, the main power supplies are shutdown (the +12V, +5V & +3.3V) and only the "standby +5V" output is still alive to power the RAM, NIC and USB. The "standby +5V" is usually rated at 5V and 2A max (=10W), and other tests results that I have seen show a power consumption of around 5W in Standby mode.

Could you repeat that test and verify that your PC is really in true S3 (Standby) mode? The main +12V, +5V & +3.3V rails should be at zero volts during S3.

 

[jawbroken]

Yes, this is a strange result indeed. If you look at the ratings of various power supplies, almost universally the +5VSB will be rated at only 2amps. So unless your power supply is less than 25% efficient, the results seem incorrect.

 

[MJGraf]

Looks like this is only S1 and not S3. I've got similar problems here and I think my problem is a very old PSU. I'll try a new one today...

Is your cpu-fan or your PSU-fan still working in stand-by modus? If yes, I read somewhere that it's only S1...

Cheers, Michael

 

[trailboy]

I will do again the test this weekend, but it was definitely showing 44W when set my computer to standby mode.

I do not know the difference between S1 and S3. To put my computer in standby mode I pushed the standby button on my MCE remote and read the result on the killawatt when it stabilized. I did it as well with start/shut down/standby and got the same results.

My killawatt is quite accurate in the sense that I have plugged into it energy efficient light bulbs rated as 11W and it was showing exactly that. Halogen lamps rated as 50W and it was showing 48W... It is quite reliable.

If you tell me how can I set my computer to go in standby S3 mode and not S1 mode I will try it and come back with the results.

By the way, my PSU is not even a year old. It even has a temperature sensor to slow down its own fan when not needed at full speed. It is not a known brand but it has given me very good results. It is very silent too! Energy efficient or not, I sort of like it...

Give me some hints on how to change the standby mode from S1 into S3 and I will re-test.

I will open the box to see which fans are spinning and which are not (CPU and system fans).

trailboy

 

[Roberdin]

All this talk of electricity bills makes one wonder how much you're all being ripped off by your electricity providers.

In the UK, an average price is about eight pence (~ 14 US cents) per kilowatt-hour. So even if your PSU consumes a rather ridiculous 44 watts in Stand-by mode, that's about 8.448 pence per day of stand-by operation. For an entire year's worth of standby mode, that adds up to roughly £30, or maybe US $50.

To be honest, if I can turn on my PC in ten fewer seconds each time, I'm willing to pay the premium.

 

[jawbroken]

If you don't need to use the power then why would you? Seriously, even with financial reasons aside, environmentally it is important to reduce your power consumption also. For me, hibernate is only slower than standby by a few seconds, so it is not a big deal. (It takes you ten seconds longer to load from hibernate than standby? that seems a little long to me).

 

[MJGraf]

Trailboy:

As I read somewhere in the internet you can determine if it's s1 or s3 by the following facts:

1. Is your psu-fan working in stand-by?
2. Is your cpu-fan working in stand-by?
3. does your cd-tray open when you press the open button in stand-by?

If you answered only one question with "yes" then it will therefore be s1 and not s3.

There can be several reasons why a pc does not use s3 but s1 instead.

1. you have to enable "suspend to ram" in the bios (can be found in "power settings" or something like that).

2. every peace of your hardware including the respective drivers must support s3 (Mainboard, cards, usb-devices,...). If there's only 1 device that doesn't support s3, it won't work.
BTW: Does anyone know if it makes sense to check for every device in the device manager what powerstates are supportet? And what exactly should I look for to find that out? Is it "S3 -> D3"?

3. make sure in the device manager that your pc is displayed as something like "ACPI PC" and not "ACPI compatible PC" (If it's only "compatible" you can't change that anyway... as far as I know only a bios-update and a complete re-install of windows may help...)

These were the hints I found in the internet. Finally someone wrote that a PSU that is not able to provide enough Power on the 5V line will prevent the PC from S3. Although I don't know how the Mainboard or the OS can determine if the PSU is capable of S3 this is my last resort in trying to get s3 to work. After that there's only a mainboard change, which won't be cheap - but i'm considering that anyway because of some compatibility issues with my asus a7v266-e and my Hauppauge PVR 500MCE...

Cheers, Michael

 

[chili]

There is usually (most newer mobo's) a setting in the bios to define what state to enter when standby is selected.

 

[MJGraf]

Just tried with a brand new PSU... No luck...

My Asus A7V266-E seems to be to old for S3. Has anyone got this MB to go to S3?

 

[chili]

nothing in this area?