October 10, 2003

Power Management, what is it anyway?  Well, a few years ago the computer manufacturers decided it would be really neat and also improve the speed if the computer would go into a suspend mode when not being used.  This would eliminate the time required to boot up the computer, since all you would do is wake it up. 

Almost all computer BIOS's support power management and Windows has supported it all along.  In theory, this all sounds well and good.  In practical application though, it didn't turn out to be that great of an idea. 

There are several reasons it didn't work out.  First of all, I am a supporter of turning a computer off when not in use.  True, it does make you have to wait for boot up, but the time required is not that great.  The main reason I like a daily boot is to clear the computer memory of any garbage caused from programs not giving all the resources they used back to Windows.  Sometimes programs misbehave and don't return all the memory they used when you close them, and as time goes on, the computer performance suffers.

Another drawback to the power management idea is hardware response.  Let's say you use your computer for answering a Fax.  If it goes to sleep, it needs to wake up to receive an incoming Fax.  A lot of hardware seemed to be less than appreciative of the power management idea.  Even the computers themselves don't seem to like the idea of going in to a suspend mode.  There have been a few computers which seem to work OK using the power management as long as you don't do a lot of things with them.  Most of the manufacturer's recommended turning the feature off.  Most of the new computers now come with the power management features turned off.  PM also seemed to cause a lot of lock up problems and miscellaneous other problems, so I recommend you turn off the feature on your computer.

To change the settings, go to the Control Panel and double click on the Display icon, or just go to the desktop, then put the mouse in an area where there are no icons. Right click and then left click on Properties.

Go to the Screensaver tab and click on the Power Management button.  It's OK to use the Turn off monitor feature if you want, but I recommend to set everything else to Never.  Also, make sure any other sleep or hibernation settings are turned off.  It also is a good idea to save the settings after you're done.  Just click the Save As button, give the configuration a name and save it.

If you have any questions or comments, click