Help! Random forcing of standby mode

Hi Folks,

I've had a quick search of the posts and haven't found any help yet so I'm throwing myself at your collective mercy.

My (7 year old) HP pavilion (Pentium III, 852MHz, 512M RAM) has started to randomly throw itself to the blue 'users logged on' screen then, after a few seconds will go into standby. It will sometimes revive for an hour but mostly reverts from desktop to users' screen or sometimes straight to standby.

I first thought that as we'd had a spell of fine weather that it was getting hot but i've vacuumed the dust out and checked the fans all work but it's still occuring.

I can use the pc ok in safe mode (the next port of call after the vacuum) so i'm suspecting something viral?

A full virus scan (AVG Free) revealed no threats other than it was unable to scan the boot sector.

Does anyone have any ideas?? Please help.

 

First look in control panel and dble click power options. In the power scheme tab, change all three slots below to never. On the advanced tab, make sure that the box is not checked, and in the top slot set it to shutdown, and the bottom slot, to do nothing. MAKE SURE THE BOX IN THE HIBERNATE TAB IS NOT CHECKED. Unless you have an UPS, ignore the last tab.

 

Thanks for the info...

My settings were pretty much as you described, but I noticed that on the bootup check cycle it was reporting my 64Mb PCI graphics card as having 0Mb RAM! I've swapped this for an older card in the graphics slot.

What's happening now is it's just shoooting to the Windows logon screen (It would then start the screen saver but i've now turned that off)

 

Do you mean that you can't get past this to the desktop?

 

No, sorry that wasn't very clear. It goes to desktop for, at most a minute or so but usually just for a few seconds then jumps to the (blue) Windows screen that displays which users logged on.

NONE of this happens in safe mode, which is how i'm managing to make these posts.

 

Have you ever reinstalled windows on this computer? The reason I ask is that a 7 yr. old machine has had lots of time fo the OS on the hard disk to deteriorate, as happens to all magnetic media, and it sounds to me like that's what's happened to your windows. I suggest you back up all files containing material you wouldn't like to lose, and re-install the windows as directed by the manufacturer's manual.

 

I have re-installed Windows on several occasions since new (I'm now on XP Pro) and the harddrives are relatively new (ie not original with the PC)

Out of interest, I've tried a Restore too but that was unsuccessful

I'll do a re-install and see where that leads me.......

Thanks again & I'll let you know what happens

 

An alternative is to run msconfig in safe mode and uncheck all the boxes in the startup tab and then, if it boots normally, add them back one at a time to see if that identifies the problem. A better program ia mike lin's startup.exe in one of its incarnations - lists more software that's starting when you boot.

If you've re-installed several times you know how much better the computer runs afterward; it always amazes me.

 

I did try to take some of the startup items out that weren't needed, but nothing as radical as unchecking them all so I'll give it a go. I've not heard of startup.exe, do you have a URL that I can download it from?

I know a guy that regularly reinstalls his OS, like it's some sort of detox but it's too much of a pain for me until I really have to. like now I suppose.

Oh, and if you want an idea of purgatory, try using your PC in Safe Mode for a day!

anyway, thanks again for your help. i'll let you know what's happening.

 

Click here.

 

I'm back.
The problem appeared to be a file HpMmKbd.exe (Hewlett Packard Multimedia Keyboard)

On your advice i used MSconfig to individually isolate files.

It's also given me the opportunity to get rid of some junk - all without having to re-install windows.

Only one small problem though. I'd managed to persuade the Wife that we needed to invest in a new machine, but now that this one's fixed........

Ah well.

Thanks for all your help.

 

You probably need his and hers machines like we have.