Help - Computer problem

Hello all,

I am having problems with a computer, I bought it for the neighbour next door (They have been exceptionally good to me this past year) but I/they are having problems with it,

Problem 1 - When they go to use stand-by the machine closes down and the power light blinks wihich is normal however there is a system fan still operating, which in my eyes is wrong, so I contacted the manufacturer and they say that stand-ny is only used on laptops(?) which I don't beleive.

Problem 2 - The daughter (15) tried to plug in a usb device in the two slots in the front of the computer but when she did the computer went off, as so thre was no power, now I don't know what happened(I am going in tonight to try and find out what exactly happened) but I think I have got a dodgy computer.

I know it was cheapish (£500) but it should still operate correctly. It is running on Windows XP home edition sp2.

So the question is how many of you can use the stand-by mode withot problems and does anyone thing that I may have a dodgy computer.

Thanks for any input you have - good or bad.

Ian

P.S. I have added a poll to help me determine if it is a problem with most computers or not. I may use this data to face the manufacturer with if I have any more problems.

I havent answered yet H
By standby do you mean the screen goes blank if unused after a while- or do you mean something else?

Hi Lel,

Standby is when the computer goes quiet and everything goes off, (No fan noise etc) but if you hit a key the machine starts up and you can continue using it without having to touch the power button.

I am running Windows XP home edition service pack 2 and I use the ports in the front of my pc with no problems.

It closes down and goes on standby with no problems.

my home PC (and the works one) does this and so does my laptop- although at work and the laptop I have to relog in my password to gain entry
If thats what you mean my home is a Dell (with XP on), and work and lappy are Hewlett packard

Mine works fine..................for now, but I shouldn't speak too soon

Its called 'hibernation' on my PC how sweet is that , it thinks its a hedgehog

I don't think that you have a problem at all it sounds like typical tech service that they don't know what they are talking about.

If you check the power optoons in the control panel then you will be able to see what shuts off and what dosen't.

Stanby is better than hibernation as the hibernation feature takes up hardrive space.

The only power saving feature i have is tha my vdu swithes off after a few mins.

When I put my computer in stand by mode it all goes quiet etc and does all it should but then in about 1 ,minuet or so it fires back up without being touched at all so I can't get mine to stay in stand by mode but then it's an old pile of crap!...Most new computers at £500 now a days are all quite powerfull so you shouldn't expect them to perform any worse than any other. Hope you find out what's going wrong soon.

Hi myschievous, thanks for you input, I think they have built the computer on the cheap, I have triecd putting fairly basic programs on it and it refuses to play them, the problem I have found is that the graphics memory is too small and also it is shared with the main memory which was advertised as being 256mb which in actuall fact is only 224mb with the graphics taken the rest, so I think that once the year is up, I may suggest getting a graphics card and extra memory to bring it up to my specs.

Ian