HarryTri

As far as security updates and problem fixing updates are offered I think the best thing to do is to use them.

I think that the quote about non security hotfixes reffers to hotfixes that are released after the time of the mainstream support phase has ended.

Well, it seems that it is an indirect way to deactivate MDM, interesting especially if it can deactivate other MS debuging applications too.

Microsoft has officially stated that they will support Windows XP SP3 (with updates through Windows Update) until April 2014, so they can't remove the relevant updates, can they? Still the updates are already so many that they should release one more service pack (which ofcourse isn't going to happen).

How did you resolve the problem?

MDM (Machine Debug Manager) is an element of Microsoft Office and has nothing to do with Internet Explorer.

From my personal investigation so far in various web sites the problem can have to do with some drivers and especially the ones of the graphics' card, that's why I reinstalled them. I have also reflashed the BIOS and executed a system file check (sfc /scannow) with the Windows installation CD. If it isn't the BIOS and the OS then it must be a program that messes the things up, I have bad experience in this.Or perhaps a Microsoft update (not too possible I think)? The problem is that, even if I find which program it is, just uninstalling it may not be enough to restore things to normal but it would be good to know where to start from. @ponch I don't have the standby option available nor in the control panel neither in the shutdown screen. In fact even the keyboard button combination for standby doesn't work unless Windows haven't been loaded yet. The funny thing is that I can put my laptop to standby before Windows are loaded but then they never load...

I have Windows XP SP3 fully updated on my laptop and some time ago I lost the standby option. I reflashed the BIOS and reinstalled the drivers of the graphics' card to no avail. I suspect that some program that I updated had caused the problem. There are some programs in particular that I haven't installed on my internet isolated desktop, which doesn't have this problem: AVG, Free Download Manager, PC Wizard, FormatFactory. I also have Adobe Flash Player 11, Java 7 and Microsoft .NET Framework 1 and 4 with their updates. Does anyone ever had a similar problem with any of these programs or with any Microsoft updates?