Standby leaves power on?

[Fokke Nauta]

Hi all,

In the days my PC was running on XP, when I chose "Standby" the power
was switched off. When hitting the space tab, it came back to live again.
Now, on W7 64b, when I choose "Standby" the screen goes black but the
power remains on. The keyboard is dead, I need to push the power switch
before it comes back to live.

Is this normal? Or is this configurable in such way that the power goes
off in the standby mode?

Fokke Nauta

 

[charlie]

Hi all,

In the days my PC was running on XP, when I chose "Standby" the power
was switched off. When hitting the space tab, it came back to live again.
Now, on W7 64b, when I choose "Standby" the screen goes black but the
power remains on. The keyboard is dead, I need to push the power switch
before it comes back to live.

Is this normal? Or is this configurable in such way that the power goes
off in the standby mode?

Fokke Nauta

It's generally configurable.

There are some variables, dependent upon such things as BIOS, the
motherboard and processor hardware, and of course the windows power
settings.
Hitting the space tab to resume, and the system does so rather promptly,
is an indication that a fairly mild power saving state is in effect.
Blanking the screen was originally done supposedly to "save"
wear and tear on the monitor CRT. This is perhaps the most mild form
of "standby", since everything else is up and running. Going further,
the processor and memory might be slowed down, and so forth, with enough
power supplied to prevent loss of memory data and processor function.


Actually, most "modern" P/C's have various levels of standby power and
states available, unless the power switch on the power supply is off, or
the P/C is unplugged from the wall. This, at the minimum, is what makes
the P/C capable of "turning on" in response to over the LAN commands and
keystrokes or mouse movement.

 

[Fokke Nauta]

It's generally configurable.

I thought it would be. I can configure many things except that the power
goes off in the standby mode.

There are some variables, dependent upon such things as BIOS, the
motherboard and processor hardware, and of course the windows power
settings.

Nothing changed in the BIOS when I replaced XP for W7.

Hitting the space tab to resume, and the system does so rather promptly,
is an indication that a fairly mild power saving state is in effect.
Blanking the screen was originally done supposedly to "save"
wear and tear on the monitor CRT.

Yes, many times one was able to see specific patterns burnt into the screen.

This is perhaps the most mild form

of "standby", since everything else is up and running. Going further,
the processor and memory might be slowed down, and so forth, with enough
power supplied to prevent loss of memory data and processor function.


Actually, most "modern" P/C's have various levels of standby power and
states available, unless the power switch on the power supply is off, or
the P/C is unplugged from the wall. This, at the minimum, is what makes
the P/C capable of "turning on" in response to over the LAN commands and
keystrokes or mouse movement.

XP certainly handled standby different than W7 does. Unfortunately in
Power options / advanced I cannot find a setting concerning the power
state during standby.

Fokke

 

[Paul]

I thought it would be. I can configure many things except that the power
goes off in the standby mode.


Nothing changed in the BIOS when I replaced XP for W7.


Yes, many times one was able to see specific patterns burnt into the
screen.

This is perhaps the most mild form

XP certainly handled standby different than W7 does. Unfortunately in
Power options / advanced I cannot find a setting concerning the power
state during standby.

Fokke

The basics would not have changed.

Power management is via the ACPI specification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acpi

Global states

S1: All processor caches are flushed, and the CPU(s) stops executing
instructions. Power to the CPU(s) and RAM is maintained; devices
that do not indicate they must remain on may be powered down.

S2: CPU powered off. Dirty cache is flushed to RAM.

S3: Commonly referred to as Standby, Sleep, or Suspend to RAM.
RAM remains powered

S4: Hibernation or Suspend to Disk. All content of main memory is
saved to non-volatile memory such as a hard drive, and is
powered down.

(S5) Soft Off: A full reboot is required.

In the past, about all that S1 did, is turn off the monitor screen
(send black to it). Now, on my old CRT monitor, in fact the power
dissipated, stayed constant, even when my computer went into S1.
So this was hardly a power saving state. It was almost solely
a "screensaver".

Your machine is currently in S1 Standby, and your machine is still
drawing 50 to 150 watts or so. If you hear fans spinning, you're
in S1.

S2 is not something we can observe, and may be covered by
C states instead (C3, C6 etc).

The state you wanted to be in, is S3 or S4. S3 allows a relatively
quick recovery, as the disk does not need to be accessed. S4
recovers RAM state from the hard drive - RAM is reloaded from
the drive. The advantage of S4 is, if you unplug the computer
and move it to another location, it will load from disk and
carry on as if nothing happened. If you remove power while
in S3, the session in RAM is lost (open files, etc).

So in terms of terminology, there are two Standby states:

S1 - Standby (but effectively a "screensaver" and that's all)
S3 - Standby Suspend To RAM (fans stop running, RAM uses +5VSB)

The latest versions of Windows, have added additional twists on
all this. Hybrid sleep, can store the session in RAM and on disk,
such that if the computer is not moved between sessions and the
power was maintained, recovery is instantaneous and is done from
RAM. Whereas, the disk is consulted, if power is removed and the
RAM contents are lost.

Windows 8 adds a further twist, by maintaining the kernel and
user space potentially separately. They get fast restoration
of state, by freezing the kernel to disk, so that the OS
can do a "warm start", which shortens the apparent boot time.
If the kernel were to become corrupted, a user may then
wish to "flush" the kernel, and do a proper reboot.

*******

The "dumppo" utility from Microsoft, can list the S states
supported on a computer. It's an ancient utility, but as long
as the clever folks at Microsoft maintain the API used, it'll
continue to work.

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe

Instructions are here. You'd probably want an elevated
command prompt in Windows 7. Then run the examples.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?p=1825058&postcount=31

What typically happens, is a user meddles with the BIOS
ACPI setting, reducing the system to S1. And after you
fix the BIOS setting, so S3 is mentioned, using "dumppo"
can fix the Windows side of things. (Crosses fingers...)
Dumppo is needed, because Windows won't promote itself
to using the more useful states on its own, without
being kicked in the ass. That's what an "administrative
override" amounts to, a kick in the ass.

Good luck,
Paul

 

[Fokke Nauta]

The basics would not have changed.

Power management is via the ACPI specification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acpi

Global states

S1: All processor caches are flushed, and the CPU(s) stops executing
instructions. Power to the CPU(s) and RAM is maintained; devices
that do not indicate they must remain on may be powered down.

S2: CPU powered off. Dirty cache is flushed to RAM.

S3: Commonly referred to as Standby, Sleep, or Suspend to RAM.
RAM remains powered

S4: Hibernation or Suspend to Disk. All content of main memory is
saved to non-volatile memory such as a hard drive, and is
powered down.

(S5) Soft Off: A full reboot is required.

In the past, about all that S1 did, is turn off the monitor screen
(send black to it). Now, on my old CRT monitor, in fact the power
dissipated, stayed constant, even when my computer went into S1.
So this was hardly a power saving state. It was almost solely
a "screensaver".

Your machine is currently in S1 Standby, and your machine is still
drawing 50 to 150 watts or so. If you hear fans spinning, you're
in S1.

S2 is not something we can observe, and may be covered by
C states instead (C3, C6 etc).

The state you wanted to be in, is S3 or S4. S3 allows a relatively
quick recovery, as the disk does not need to be accessed. S4
recovers RAM state from the hard drive - RAM is reloaded from
the drive. The advantage of S4 is, if you unplug the computer
and move it to another location, it will load from disk and
carry on as if nothing happened. If you remove power while
in S3, the session in RAM is lost (open files, etc).

So in terms of terminology, there are two Standby states:

S1 - Standby (but effectively a "screensaver" and that's all)
S3 - Standby Suspend To RAM (fans stop running, RAM uses +5VSB)

The latest versions of Windows, have added additional twists on
all this. Hybrid sleep, can store the session in RAM and on disk,
such that if the computer is not moved between sessions and the
power was maintained, recovery is instantaneous and is done from
RAM. Whereas, the disk is consulted, if power is removed and the
RAM contents are lost.

Windows 8 adds a further twist, by maintaining the kernel and
user space potentially separately. They get fast restoration
of state, by freezing the kernel to disk, so that the OS
can do a "warm start", which shortens the apparent boot time.
If the kernel were to become corrupted, a user may then
wish to "flush" the kernel, and do a proper reboot.

*******

The "dumppo" utility from Microsoft, can list the S states
supported on a computer. It's an ancient utility, but as long
as the clever folks at Microsoft maintain the API used, it'll
continue to work.

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe

Instructions are here. You'd probably want an elevated
command prompt in Windows 7. Then run the examples.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?p=1825058&postcount=31

What typically happens, is a user meddles with the BIOS
ACPI setting, reducing the system to S1. And after you
fix the BIOS setting, so S3 is mentioned, using "dumppo"
can fix the Windows side of things. (Crosses fingers...)
Dumppo is needed, because Windows won't promote itself
to using the more useful states on its own, without
being kicked in the ass. That's what an "administrative
override" amounts to, a kick in the ass.

Good luck,
Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your comprehensive answer.
My PC came in the S1 state indeed. Whereas I would prefer the S3 state -
or hybrid, even better. Used dumppo to set min sleep to S3. After
rebooting min sleep came back to S1 again, so perhaps I missed out
something in the BIOS.

BIOS ACPI was auto. Perhaps I should change that.
I will search further. Keep you posted!

Fokke

 

[Wolf K]

Hi all,

In the days my PC was running on XP, when I chose "Standby" the power
was switched off. When hitting the space tab, it came back to live again.

You're mistaken, power is always on, o'wise the machine could not wake
up when you hit the space tab. Think about it....

Now, on W7 64b, when I choose "Standby" the screen goes black but the
power remains on. The keyboard is dead, I need to push the power switch
before it comes back to live

The keyboard is not dead. The machine is set to ignore keyboard input as
a wake-up signal, is all.

Is this normal? Or is this configurable in such way that the power goes
off in the standby mode?

Yes, this is normal. It's the default Standby condition. Configure
Standby like this:

Start button > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Change when
the computer sleeps > pick the wake-up condition(s) you want

If you haven't set W7 to show you the complete Control Panel, get to it via:

Start button > Run > type "control panel" (no quote marks) > hit Enter

HTH

 

[Wolf K]

On 26/10/2012 4:45 AM, Fokke Nauta wrote:
[..]

XP certainly handled standby different than W7 does.

I'm afraid your puzzlement and irritation arise from an incorrect
interpretation of "standby". "Standby" is a misleading term/concept,
because it refers to three states:

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/Sleep-and-hibernation-frequently-asked-questions

Actually, XP's handling of "standby" states was flaky. W7's version is
much more stable.

Unfortunately in
Power options / advanced I cannot find a setting concerning the power
state during standby.

Standby _is_ a power state: Minimal power consumption. Only those parts
receive power that are needed to restart the machine (ie, to switch
power to the other parts).

If the power were completely switched off, you couldn't wake up the
machine. If Standby switched off all power, then the machine would be in
Standby condition when you unpacked it. Really!

BTW, in standby state, the computer will consume 5 watts or more. All
devices on "standby" in your house consume power. In a typical house, it
amounts to 100 watts and up. 24 hours at 100 watts --> 2.4 KWh (kilowatt
hours). Here, that costs about $1. Or about $30/month. A not
inconsiderable sum. ;-(

HTH

 

[Fokke Nauta]

On 26/10/2012 4:45 AM, Fokke Nauta wrote:
[..]

XP certainly handled standby different than W7 does.

I'm afraid your puzzlement and irritation arise from an incorrect
interpretation of "standby". "Standby" is a misleading term/concept,
because it refers to three states:

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/Sleep-and-hibernation-frequently-asked-questions


Actually, XP's handling of "standby" states was flaky. W7's version is
much more stable.

Unfortunately in
Power options / advanced I cannot find a setting concerning the power
state during standby.

Standby _is_ a power state: Minimal power consumption. Only those parts
receive power that are needed to restart the machine (ie, to switch
power to the other parts).

Indeed. The main +5V and +12V are cut off, only the +5V standby voltage
is there.

If the power were completely switched off, you couldn't wake up the
machine. If Standby switched off all power, then the machine would be in
Standby condition when you unpacked it. Really!

I meant to say that the main power is switched off. In standby mode (S3)
only the +5V standby voltage is available. That's how it was in the
standby state of XP. Wich obviously was S3.

BTW, in standby state, the computer will consume 5 watts or more. All
devices on "standby" in your house consume power. In a typical house, it
amounts to 100 watts and up. 24 hours at 100 watts --> 2.4 KWh (kilowatt
hours). Here, that costs about $1. Or about $30/month. A not
inconsiderable sum. ;-(

In The Netherlands 1 kWh costs approx. 0.23 €. You obviously pay more :-(

Fokke

 

[Fokke Nauta]

You're mistaken, power is always on, o'wise the machine could not wake
up when you hit the space tab. Think about it....

Yes, the +5V standby voltage, but I mean the main +5 and +12V supply.

The keyboard is not dead. The machine is set to ignore keyboard input as
a wake-up signal, is all.

Isn't that the same? If the machine ignores the keyboard, the keyboard
is dead. Or at least it behaves dead. Or doesn't it?

Yes, this is normal. It's the default Standby condition. Configure
Standby like this:

Start button > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Change when
the computer sleeps > pick the wake-up condition(s) you want

Well, I want my standby to be the S3 state. Above options are too limited.

If you haven't set W7 to show you the complete Control Panel, get to it
via:

That's one of the first things I changed after installing W7.

Start button > Run > type "control panel" (no quote marks) > hit Enter

Fokke

 

[Bob I]

On 26/10/2012 4:45 AM, Fokke Nauta wrote:
[..]

XP certainly handled standby different than W7 does.

I'm afraid your puzzlement and irritation arise from an incorrect
interpretation of "standby". "Standby" is a misleading term/concept,
because it refers to three states:

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/Sleep-and-hibernation-frequently-asked-questions



Actually, XP's handling of "standby" states was flaky. W7's version is
much more stable.

Unfortunately in
Power options / advanced I cannot find a setting concerning the power
state during standby.

Standby _is_ a power state: Minimal power consumption. Only those parts
receive power that are needed to restart the machine (ie, to switch
power to the other parts).

Indeed. The main +5V and +12V are cut off, only the +5V standby voltage
is there.

If the power were completely switched off, you couldn't wake up the
machine. If Standby switched off all power, then the machine would be in
Standby condition when you unpacked it. Really!

I meant to say that the main power is switched off. In standby mode (S3) the
only the +5V standby voltage is available. That's how it was in the
standby state of XP. Wich obviously was S3.

BTW, in standby state, the computer will consume 5 watts or more. All
devices on "standby" in your house consume power. In a typical house, it
amounts to 100 watts and up. 24 hours at 100 watts --> 2.4 KWh (kilowatt
hours). Here, that costs about $1. Or about $30/month. A not
inconsiderable sum. ;-(

In The Netherlands 1 kWh costs approx. 0.23 €. You obviously pay more :-(

Humm, that must be due to paying for that "sustainable" electricity the
enviro-whacks insist on forcing on the rest of us. You can get 10 kWh
for about a buck around here. Mixture of coal and nuclear.

 

[Fokke Nauta]

On 26/10/2012 4:45 AM, Fokke Nauta wrote:
[..]
XP certainly handled standby different than W7 does.

I'm afraid your puzzlement and irritation arise from an incorrect
interpretation of "standby". "Standby" is a misleading term/concept,
because it refers to three states:

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/Sleep-and-hibernation-frequently-asked-questions




Actually, XP's handling of "standby" states was flaky. W7's version is
much more stable.

Unfortunately in
Power options / advanced I cannot find a setting concerning the power
state during standby.

Standby _is_ a power state: Minimal power consumption. Only those parts
receive power that are needed to restart the machine (ie, to switch
power to the other parts).

Indeed. The main +5V and +12V are cut off, only the +5V standby voltage
is there.

If the power were completely switched off, you couldn't wake up the
machine. If Standby switched off all power, then the machine would be in
Standby condition when you unpacked it. Really!

I meant to say that the main power is switched off. In standby mode
(S3) the
only the +5V standby voltage is available. That's how it was in the
standby state of XP. Wich obviously was S3.

BTW, in standby state, the computer will consume 5 watts or more. All
devices on "standby" in your house consume power. In a typical house, it
amounts to 100 watts and up. 24 hours at 100 watts --> 2.4 KWh (kilowatt
hours). Here, that costs about $1. Or about $30/month. A not
inconsiderable sum. ;-(

In The Netherlands 1 kWh costs approx. 0.23 €. You obviously pay more :-(

Humm, that must be due to paying for that "sustainable" electricity the
enviro-whacks insist on forcing on the rest of us. You can get 10 kWh
for about a buck around here. Mixture of coal and nuclear.

So - you pay less. 10 kWh here would cost you € 2.30.
But at least environmentally clean electrons keep the wires clean.
When I strip off the isolation of the mains wires in the house, the
coper shines more brightly than it did years ago, when we had our
electricity from coal.



Fokke

 

[Fokke Nauta]

Global states

S1: All processor caches are flushed, and the CPU(s) stops executing
instructions. Power to the CPU(s) and RAM is maintained; devices
that do not indicate they must remain on may be powered down.

S2: CPU powered off. Dirty cache is flushed to RAM.

S3: Commonly referred to as Standby, Sleep, or Suspend to RAM.
RAM remains powered

S4: Hibernation or Suspend to Disk. All content of main memory is
saved to non-volatile memory such as a hard drive, and is
powered down.

(S5) Soft Off: A full reboot is required.

So in terms of terminology, there are two Standby states:

S1 - Standby (but effectively a "screensaver" and that's all)
S3 - Standby Suspend To RAM (fans stop running, RAM uses +5VSB)

The latest versions of Windows, have added additional twists on
all this. Hybrid sleep, can store the session in RAM and on disk,
such that if the computer is not moved between sessions and the
power was maintained, recovery is instantaneous and is done from
RAM. Whereas, the disk is consulted, if power is removed and the
RAM contents are lost.

The "dumppo" utility from Microsoft, can list the S states
supported on a computer. It's an ancient utility, but as long
as the clever folks at Microsoft maintain the API used, it'll
continue to work.

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe

Instructions are here. You'd probably want an elevated
command prompt in Windows 7. Then run the examples.

What's an elevated command prompt?
I use TCC LE X64 with admin rights. Should be OK?

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?p=1825058&postcount=31

What typically happens, is a user meddles with the BIOS
ACPI setting, reducing the system to S1. And after you
fix the BIOS setting, so S3 is mentioned, using "dumppo"
can fix the Windows side of things. (Crosses fingers...)
Dumppo is needed, because Windows won't promote itself
to using the more useful states on its own, without
being kicked in the ass. That's what an "administrative
override" amounts to, a kick in the ass.

I got it sort of working.
Used dumppo to change min sleep to s3.
W7 settings:
Put the computer to sleep = 5 hours
Allow hybrid sleep = on
BIOS settings:
Suspend mode (was Auto) = S3 only
ACPI APIC support = enabled

When I put the machine in standby, the main +5 and +12V go down. Means
s3 state. When I hit the space bar, the system comes back.
Wonderful, that's how I want it.
But after a reboot the min sleep is s1 again instead of s3.

Anything else I can do? Did I miss something?

Fokke

 

[Wolf K]

In The Netherlands 1 kWh costs approx. 0.23 €. You obviously pay more :-(

Fokke

Thanks for making me do more careful analysis. ;-)

Per current exchange rates your price is:
23 Eurocents --> ca. 30 Canadian cents at exchange rate. 2.4 KWh at
$0.30 --> $0.72. Plus tax --> ca. $0.82 cents. Not exactly $1, but
fairly close.

Actually, according to the latest bill, I paid an average of $0.157 per
KWh, or roughly half what you pay. I'm in Ontario, Canada. The latest
average US price I could find was 9.9 cents (before taxes) in 2009. It's
gone up some since then.

Thus, my calculation of $1 worth of standby power per day "here" is too
high by a factor of two. Sorry, my bad, I used my head, not my
calculator. ;-(

OTOH, even at 50 cents a day, it's not insignificant. Here's the
Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power

Here's the most interesting statistic:
"In the US the average home used an average of 11,040 kWh of electricity
per year in 2010.[9] Each watt of power consumed by a device running
continuously consumes about 9kWh (1W × 365.25 days/year × 24 hours/day)
per year, a little less than one thousandth of the annual US household
consumption. Unplugging a device constantly consuming standby power
saves a yearly 9kWh for each watt of continuous consumption."

That's $1.50CAD per year per standby watt. A quick sum of all the
standby watts in this house is about 100. We also run the radio 10+
hours/day, the computers 8+ hours/day.

H'm.

 

[Paul]

I got it sort of working.
Used dumppo to change min sleep to s3.
W7 settings:
Put the computer to sleep = 5 hours
Allow hybrid sleep = on
BIOS settings:
Suspend mode (was Auto) = S3 only
ACPI APIC support = enabled

When I put the machine in standby, the main +5 and +12V go down. Means
s3 state. When I hit the space bar, the system comes back.
Wonderful, that's how I want it.
But after a reboot the min sleep is s1 again instead of s3.

Anything else I can do? Did I miss something?

Fokke

Maybe it's something the BIOS passes during boot ?
The BIOS ACPI setting is passed in some table, to the
OS during boot.

I'm not an authority on ACPI. I'd just heard of the
dumppo tool and passed it on.

Paul

 

[Fokke Nauta]

Maybe it's something the BIOS passes during boot ?
The BIOS ACPI setting is passed in some table, to the
OS during boot.

I'm not an authority on ACPI. I'd just heard of the
dumppo tool and passed it on.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Well, it's been solved after all.
Even though min sleep reverts back to s1, and remains s1, the system
still goes in the s3 state! I think that's due to the change I made in
the BIOS (Suspend mode = S3 only, was Auto).

So - I'm happy!
And I learned a lot again. Wasn't really familiar with the power states.

Fokke

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Hi Paul,

Well, it's been solved after all.
Even though min sleep reverts back to s1, and remains s1, the system
still goes in the s3 state! I think that's due to the change I made in
the BIOS (Suspend mode = S3 only, was Auto).

So - I'm happy!
And I learned a lot again. Wasn't really familiar with the power states.

Fokke

I'm not sure I learned a lot *yet*, except that I've come to be more
aware of the nature of the problem - but that's a great start!

This is relevant to me because I'm about to try to set up a computer to
wake from sleep to do a task (such as backup or record TV). This thread
will keep me from making too many mistakes - maybe...

Thanks, all.

 

[Fokke Nauta]

I'm not sure I learned a lot *yet*, except that I've come to be more
aware of the nature of the problem - but that's a great start!

This is relevant to me because I'm about to try to set up a computer to
wake from sleep to do a task (such as backup or record TV). This thread
will keep me from making too many mistakes - maybe...

Thanks, all.

Interesting issue.
I guess from the s1 state the system will wake up by a scheduler.
However, in this state the main 5 and 12V supply is on, so your system
will draw all the current. I don't know whether a scheduler will run
when the system is in a s3 state. Give it a try and keep us posted!

Fokke

 

[Fokke Nauta]

I'm not sure I learned a lot *yet*, except that I've come to be more
aware of the nature of the problem - but that's a great start!

This is relevant to me because I'm about to try to set up a computer to
wake from sleep to do a task (such as backup or record TV). This thread
will keep me from making too many mistakes - maybe...

Thanks, all.

Well, now you mention this ...
I have a PC which I use to play audio and record TV films. I tried to
put it into a standby mode and wake it up by WOL from my workstation. I
couldn't make it to work. Perhaps with the current knowledge I should
have another go at it.

Fokke

 

[Paul]

Well, now you mention this ...
I have a PC which I use to play audio and record TV films. I tried to
put it into a standby mode and wake it up by WOL from my workstation. I
couldn't make it to work. Perhaps with the current knowledge I should
have another go at it.

Fokke

That requires configuring the NIC chip in Device Manager.
And enabling PME or equivalent in the BIOS (some setting
"near" the PME one).

PME stands for "Power Management Event" and is used by NIC
cards that receive +5VSB derived power while the computer
is asleep. The NIC sends PME, when a magic packet (or
other significant event) happens. For example, some NICs
can be triggers on "carrier sense", which is a stupid setting,
because any burp or fart on the Ethernet cable, wakes up
the computer. The computer basically is always awake.

The Magic Packet, on the other hand, only happens if you
specifically craft one, and those don't happen "by accident".
The Magic Packet is a more reasonable choice.

Paul

 

[Fokke Nauta]

That requires configuring the NIC chip in Device Manager.
And enabling PME or equivalent in the BIOS (some setting
"near" the PME one).

PME stands for "Power Management Event" and is used by NIC
cards that receive +5VSB derived power while the computer
is asleep. The NIC sends PME, when a magic packet (or
other significant event) happens. For example, some NICs
can be triggers on "carrier sense", which is a stupid setting,
because any burp or fart on the Ethernet cable, wakes up
the computer. The computer basically is always awake.

The Magic Packet, on the other hand, only happens if you
specifically craft one, and those don't happen "by accident".
The Magic Packet is a more reasonable choice.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks. I'll give it another go and dive into the BIOS of that PC.
I used the magic packet. But the system did not wake up.
It's an XP system though. But I'll give it another try.
I will come back on this one ...

Fokke