Must Reboot for IE & OE

When I have my Dell Inspiron 5100 Laptop with XP Home plugged in to the house current and it sits idle for 30 minutes or so, the monitor will either go off or the screensaver will come on. (It varies as to what will happen.) The screensaver is set to come on after 30 minutes and the monitor is set to go off after 30 minutes. It is also set to go into the Standby Mode after 30 minutes. This sounds odd but it has always been set this way and has always work fine.
Now when I come back after a delay and either move the mouse or hit a key on the keyboard, everything comes back on but I can’t access the internet through Internet Explorer or my email through Outlook Express without rebooting. From what I can tell, all other programs work fine.
This just started recently. I haven’t changed anything, downloaded anything or added any peripherals. This just started all of a sudden. As a last resort, I went back to a Restore Point that I knew was good but the same problem still exists.
Any help or solutions for this problem would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the reply. I seem to be having trouble following the steps that you describe. I went to Control Panel>System>Hardware Tab>Device Manager. From here, I can’t determine where to go to disable the option that you mention. Maybe I am not following the correct procedure.
If you could help me, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Gary

 

garran, on mine, I have 2 built in NIC's one Ethernet, one Wireless. On the Ethernet "properties" there is an "power management" tab with the option to turn off as Steve suggested. On my wireless adapter there is no power management tab. Are you using a wireless conn? Do you have both wireless and Ethernet? both enabled?

 

In device manager click the plus next to network adapters, then double click on your network adapter (not the 1394 adapter) and then click on the power managment tab. You'll find it there.

 

Thanks Zander for the tip. I unchecked the appropriate box. I'll see if this solves my problem. Thanks for your help.

Gary

 

You're welcome. Let us know if it does the trick.

 

Zander and Steve, I think your tip solved my problem. So far, so good. Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

Gary

 

I was away for a few days and unfortunately when I returned, I discovered that I still have the same problem. Any other suggestions would certainly be appreciated.

Gary