Power Management

[DonJudd]

I have two Win98SE computers. The power management on both worked fine until several months ago when the monitors did not turn OFF. The problem has appeared on both computers but seems more severe on one of them (my wife's). (My main computer is a Dell with XP Pro)

I use the Power Management screen to set the monitors to turn off after 10 minutes and they do for awhile and then they stay ON. With a LOT of experimentation, I discovered that if I changed the shut down time from 10 to 5 minutes, it worked OK for awhile then the problem returned. I then changed the time back to 10 and again it was OK for awhile. I have tried 3 minutes and that works for awhile as well. It seems that it doesn't matter what I change it to as long as I change it.

I have turned OFF the screen saver. The HDD does NOT go to hibernation.

I have used Ctrl-Alt-Del to turn OFF all but Explorer and Systray. Same problem.

I use Norton SystemWorks and Ghost.

I regularly run all kinds of utilities such as SystemWorks, RegCure, RegistryFix, etc.,

The computers both run 24/7.

[Drugwash]

I remember having had similar problems with a machine when screensaver was off. Try setting it to one minute below power off value.

Also have a look in the BIOS, make sure APM/ACPI are enabled (this may impact certain setups so first take note of the current settings before changing anything) and check the Video off setting on the Power management page (depending on BIOS type).

[Sfor]

I've experienced such a problem when doing power related settings from the Desktop properties screen saver dialog. On the other hand when set from the Control Panel power related screen everything worked correctly.

[DonJudd]

Thanks for the tips but so far nothing has worked completely. However, I have discovered a new wrinkle.

If the monitor remains ON, I open the Screensaver window and select the Power Management tab. If the shut down time is set to 10 minutes, I change it to 15 minutes and select OK to take me out of that window. Then I open the same window again and change the time back to 10 minutes. The monitor then shuts down after 10 minutes.

I have also discovered that the problem seems to occur mainly after I reboot the computer. In otherwords, after a reboot, the monitor stays ON unless I go through the procedure that I outlined above. Then it works fine for quite some time.

This must mean something to someone, but it doesn't make sense to me.

[Drugwash]

Do you happen to have the Logitech Mouseware driver installed and running? I have installed v9.79.025 yesterday after (temporarily, hopefully) replacing my old 3 button mouse (also Logitech but using native W98 driver) with a M-S48a wheel mouse (rebranded by Compaq). This morning when I woke up, both monitors were on, staring at me, despite the 14 minutes blank screensaver and 15 minutes monitor power-off settings.

There also was a secondary (disabled) mouse in Device Manager - leftover from my previous attempts of using native Win drivers, trying to avoid Mouseware installation.

Well, it could all be just coincidence, but it's worth checking.

[DonJudd]

Very interesting suggestion. I just checked. The Win98 computer that I am having the most problem with (my wife's) does have a Logitech 3-button mouse and the driver is Ver 19.79.24.0 (1987-2003); my own old Win98 computer also has a Logitech 3 button mouse and the driver is Ver 8.32a (1991-1999). The problem occurs on both computers but is more prevalent on my wife's.

I do like the Logitech mice and particularly the middle button that I use for double click so I hesitate to get rid of them. Perhaps a word to Logitech might be in order.

I'll keep investigating.

[Drugwash]

Yeah, I've been setting middle button to double-click since years ago - it really comes off-hand when I go over to someone else's machine and I have to actually click twice on left button.

Anyway, Logitech mice are not bad at all, actually the internal design ensures a long lifetime, but drivers may be party-poopers. The native Win98SE Logitech driver has a smooth movement and it works great in my dual-view environment. I only installed the wheel mouse and Mouseware for testing some scripts I'm working on but I hope to finish'em soon and get back to my dear old 3-buttoned M-S38.

Until then, I'll keep an eye on screensaver/power-off behavior; if you don't have/need the wheel on your mouse, you may remove Mouseware and revert to native W98 Logitech driver. It supports setting middle button as double-click through a simple registry setting.

The actual registry path may differ a bit, but I hope you get the idea:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Logitech\MouseWare\CurrentVersion\PS2\0000 (may be 0001 or similar)

"DoubleClick"="0010" is the setting you need (default is "0000").

To understand the logic: each zero is a button, in order: Left, Right, Middle, Reserved (?)

Good luck!

Edited April 27, 2009 by Drugwash