How to get the slickest booting htpc (1 Viewer)

[MJGraf]

Thank you very much chili!

Unfortunately already set "suspend to ram" to "enabled" but doesn't work...

I hat a look at all the devices in the device manager and their capability regarding ACPI power states. Every device has a "S3 -> D3" entry and I guess that's what it's supposed to have to support s3.

There was only one exception. My (onbaord) Gameport doesn't seem to support it. Because I had no possibility to disable the Gameport without disabling the onboard pci sound device (which I need) I downloaded the latest drivers for my CMedia Onboard sound. With these I could disable MIDI and gameport from the driver side and now there is no more gameport in my device manager.

Result: The device manager tells me that all my devices support s3 but it's still S1 when I go to stand by...

Any help appreciated...

 

[MJGraf]

IT WORKS!!!

And the reason why it didn't work until now is - what a surprise - microsoft...

Here the guide to make an Asus A7V266-E Mainboard (and perhaps a lot of others) use S3-mode instead of S1 when going to stand-by:

1. Make sure that "Suspend to Ram" and "wake up by USB devices" is enabled in your BIOS. (Both under "power settings" in my BIOS).

2. On my board there are 3 jumpers called USB01_PWR, USB23_PWR and USB45_PWR. They are set to "1-2" by default (called "+5V"). These default settings prevent USB-devices waking up the PC from S3; USB-devices can therefore only wake up a PC from S1 by default. You've got to change these jumpers to 2-3 (called "+5VSB") to let USB devices connected to the respective USB-ports wake up your PC from S3. Changing these jumpers is only recommended when our PSU gives at least 2A on the +5V line (Even my very old 250W PSU is able to do so...)

3. Make sure that all the devices in your Windows device manager under "details" / "Energiestatuszuordnungen" (sorry this is terrible MS-german.. I can hardly translate this - should be something like "energy status assignment" in the english version) have an entry like "S3 -> D2" or "S3 -> D3". If there's only something like "S3 -> not assigned" I guess that your computer will not go to S3 -> Find newer drivers or remove the device from your PC, throw it away and go shopping for a newer one... ;-)

3. And now MS comes into play...
Windows XP assumes by default that if there is only one USB device that is allowed to wake up your PC from stand-by (you can see this in the device manager for every device under "energy setting" or something like that - "Energieverwaltung" in German...) this USB-devices won't be able to wake up your PC from S3-status. Therefore it will send your PC only to S1 and not S3. I don't know why MS always assumes things without explaining why and how to change this...

You can now disable this for every USB device that had it enabled before. Then the PC should already go to S3 instead of S1. But this was not what I wanted because I want to wake up my PC with my MCE remote which is connected... right to the USB-port!

So here's my second approach: Add the following registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usb
"USBBIOSx"=DWORD:00000000

For an explanation: see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841858/en-us

The key does not exist after a standard installation of Windows XP. You've got to create it!.

Then reboot and enjoy!!!

Cheers, Michael

 

[Tech Geek]

Warning - this caused my system to stop booting. Make sure you create a system restore point before you try it!

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Most motherboard manuals state this quite clearly about the +5vsb, so if in doubt read manual supplied or download from manufacturers website.

Also i've found if i want a program to run or not run on startup I use a nice little program called Winpatrol available here http://www.download.com/WinPatrol/3003-8022_4-10475114.html
have had the plus version for about 5 years now, and its great for finding out what services are running, also if something nasty tries to write to the registry, you can say no.
This is the way I run MPtray on a clean install as its so easy instead of running commands I just tell winpatrol to add as service. Hope someone finds this usefull.

8)

 

[spoco2]

trailboy I am very interested to know whether your tests show whether the pc really was in full standby or not when you got the 44W, as I've just switched my machines over to hibernate based on these findings, but they do take longer to startup which is annoying my wife a bit... so if Standby and Hibernate use the same amount of power I'll go back to standby!

 

[trailboy]

hey spoco2,

since i posted my wattage readings i started looking around for what S1, S3 and S4 meant.

i found pretty much all the info that has been posted by other forum members on this thread. read it and then go to your motherboard manual to find out how to set up S3 mode on your computer. not all computers can go in S3 though since it depends on the rest of your hardware as well...

S1 is the default standby mode and this is how your computer will go if you do not do any changes on your setup. i have two computers, one now goes in S3 but the other doesn't...

in S1 mode, the system, cpu and psu fans are still spinning and the optical drives can be opened.

in S3 mode no fans are spinning and optical drives will not open. if you have changed the correct jumpers (see other posts) you can resume your computer from any usb or ps2 device. leds on my keyboard are on and optical mouse is lighting.

i have not taken any reading yet, but for what i read on my researches, S3 mode should consume between 4 and 6 watts.

i did not want to go too technical on this post. other members have done the techie side, i have done the fan spinning or not one... hehehe

read the rest of the posts to find out how to put your computer under S3.

your wife wil love it.

good luck.


(i have to revise mi signature, i have gone crazy and just purchased a new computer. i love it. new specs very soon.)

 

[johncl]

Sorry to disappoint you all, it looks like we will have to hibernate or shut it down if we want to cut the bill down.

Interesting numbers. I also have one of these things so i can measure the power drawn from an outlet. Gonna try that too some day.

About those watts drawn in standby mode, think of it like a small heater in your home. Watts drawn = less watts needed by your oven to heat your home. Same applies for lights. You can buy those low watt powersaving lights, but they dont generate any heat either. Obviously this heat isnt needed if you live in a hot place, but in my country its cold a lot!

 

[lebrija]

PC comsumption

I checked my PC (Cavalier 2 with standard PSU and A8N-VM CSM). The PC consumes 60W at idle, 90W at full load and 16W when I turn the PC off, without disconnecting the cable from the outlet. The ASUS mb has a green led but I don't think that the mb need 16W to turn this led on. Does anyone know how this could be possible?

 

[Taipan]

Re: PC comsumption

Does anyone know how this could be possible?

It depends how you were measuring the power consumption - does the instrument you use take into account the "power factor" of your PC's power supply? For example, if it simply measures the current being consumed and multiplies that by the mains voltage, then it will significantly over-estimate the "standby" power consumption, as there is a significant phase difference between the current flow and the applied voltage. I can go into the maths of this, if you wish...

The "real" power consumed (which is what you would be paying for) when the PC is in standby or shutdown, should be around 5W to 10W, depending upon how many devices are still powered by the +5V SB. The +5V SB usually powers any devices that are required to wake the PC - the network card, the mouse, keyboard, remote control receiver, etc.

HTH....?

 

[Marcusb]

Also remember that switchmode (PC, TV etc) power supplies are way more efficient than linear (big heavy iron core) power supplies, but they will still be lucky to reach aound 80% efficiency.

This means that whatever power level you work out for your PC will also need at least 20% more from the power outlet to maintain.

For example if you work out that your PC needs 100W (nice round number) to operate then you will draw at least 120w from the outlet and 20w will be dissapated by the power supply as heat.