Phil Gilmer wrote:


I have a Dell GX-280 that my daughter uses for a video server. It
connects to my LAN via Netgear wireless NIC. She accesses it from
anywhere in the house and sometimes has to transfer very large files
back and forth from her laptop. GX-280 goes into sllep/hybernate mode
regardless of Windows XP SP3 power settings. Power management cannot be
disabled in the BIOS (A08, the latest)--you have only the choice between
S1 and S3. This is a problem with Dell machines in general--I have seen
many models of the Optiplex systems with the issue. We can force the
machine to remain active by playing an mpeg file in an endless loop, but
despite the nominal 2.8 gHz rating the machine is pokey as crap and I
hate wasting the CPU (yes, the machine is scanned and is malware
free--it's just a dog).

Has anyone ever found a way to actually disable power management?

Thanks,
Phil Gilmer

Thanks for all the responses. I will respond to the questions asked.

The power scheme selected is "Always On". I read a suggestion that the
powersave GUI might be at fault. I have modified power options from the
CLI with no difference.

There are no Dell Quickset programs loaded, nor am I using any
"auxiliary" programs, e.g. mouse enhancement programs.

The user is authorized to make the change.

It makes no difference whether any user (authorized or not) is logged in
or not.

I have seen this behavior with Windows XP loaded on Dell GX150, GX240,
GX270, GX260. and GX270 machines. The GX150 A01 BIOS allowed you to
disable power management altogether, which would eliminate the problem,
but subsequent versions of the BIOS allowed only the S1/S3 selection.

There is one other interesting item. This model has accepts USB keyboard
and mouse only--no PS/2 ports at all. When the system emerges from sleep
mode after pressing the on switch, it will not respond to the keyboard
when you try to enter your password. It _will_ respond to a double
Ctl-Alt-Del and pop up the traditional login, when you can then type in
login ID and password. I have only seen one other machine do this.

I don't and never did think that this might be a hardware problem. It
has, however, been reported by many users at the site where I originally
encountered the problem. The problem was reported to Dell at the time,
who was unable to resolve the problem.

Again, thanks for the input.