Screen is blank when resume from Standy Mode

Question

I've had this system for only about a month and since the beginning, I've had problems resuming from standby mode. Dell techs told me to use the remote, but that didn't work. I end up having to hit the power button to get my screen back on.

The system seems to be running when I click the remote, but the screen stays black. The monitor button stays yellow.

DELL-Stephen S · Answer

bobbin01,

Thank you for visiting the Dell Community Forum.

One thing to check is to make sure the system is not in hibernate mode instead of standby. Information on this can be found in the following Dell Knowledge Base article:

How Can I Prevent Windows Power Management from Affecting My Scheduled Recordings in Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2004?
http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?dn=1085454

If that does not help, there may be a program running on the system that is interfering with the system coming back from standby mode. If you can recall if/when this function was last working correctly you may want to undo any changes made to the system since then or use the System Restore utility to restore to a restore point dated when this was working.

Information on using the System Restore utility in Windows XP can be found in the following Dell Knowledge Base article:

How do I use the System Restore utility in the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system?
http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?dn=1055856

If still no help, you may want to use MSCONFIG to limit the programs that are starting up automatically and see if that helps isolate if a program is causing a problem with the standby function.

How Do I Use the Microsoft® System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG) to Troubleshoot Errors that Occur During Startup in Windows XP?
http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?dn=1076445

dprezioso · Answer

I have had the same problem. I have tried a number of the KnowledgeBase articles and tried to figure out what is happening, and have not been able to get standby working reliably. As far as I can tell, the problem lies either in the ATI video card or the driver. Many folks seem to have had a similar problem with ATI cards/drivers, and most just don't use standby or hibernation. I have finally given up on making standby work.

Hibernation however, seems to work just fine, so I have set the power settings to never use standby, and to use hibernation instead. The system comes out of hibernation quick enough that I have been happy with that solution...

Now what I would like to find out, is if there is a way to completely disable standby. What I would like, is in both the system shutdown dialog, and the 'turn system off' dialog, where the choices are 'standby', 'turn off', and 'restart', I want the 'standby' option to be replaced with 'hibernate'. I understand that if I hold down the shift key it will switch, but I want 'hibernate' to be the default since it works and 'standby' hangs the system.

Has anyone done this? I know if the system can't support standby, that happens, I just want to force the issue. Is there a registry setting I can change?

Thanks

Don

bobbin01 · Answer

Thank you, Don.  I'm going to try hibernate mode instead.  If I wasn't recording shows in the Media Center every day, I probably would turn the system off more often. Kathy

jborchart · Answer

Here is another thing to try, this is what I do every day:

after the computer goes into standby, do not touch any key on the media center remote. When you want the computer to come out of standby, move the mouse instead. After the computer comes back up, you will be able to use the remote. This works for me about 80% of the time.

This bug does not affect every single Dell user, but I have yet to hear from a 4600C owner that doesn't have this problem.

Windows General

Screen is blank when resume from Standy Mode

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