While logged on with a limited account, I used the machine eight to ten hours. All was normal. When finished, I put the machine in standby. Upon returning several hours later, it was no longer in standby; the power button indicator was no longer flashing, and there was light but repeated disk activity. However, the monitor was still in its low power mode; cycling its power had no effect, as expected since the monitor enters this mode when there is no signal from the video card. The computer could not be restored to normal operation with either the keyboard or the mouse. As I didn't think at the time to turn on the printer, which has a USB 2.0 connection, the only option I saw was to force a shut down by pressing and holding the power button. Upon booting and logging on with an administrator account, all appeared normal.
Examination of the application, security, and system logs revealed nothing useful; however, the scheduled tasks log showed that Symantec NetDetect ran at 08:13:28, ten to fifteen minutes before I noticed the computer was no longer in standby. This task is only scheduled to run weekly at 01:14 on Saturdays, repeating every 6 hours for up to 48 hours; the option to wake the computer to run the task was disabled. I saw no reason why it ran at 08:13 on Wednesday. Also, according to the Avast! Log Viewer, the Virus Chest was accessed at 08:12:59.
I put the computer in standby a second time, checking on it in ten to thirty minute intervals. After about 6 hours, the same as before, I saw that it was out of standby again and had to be forcibly restarted. The scheduled tasks log showed that Symantec NetDetect did not run this time, but again, the Avast! Log Viewer indicated that the Virus Chest was accessed around the time that the computer came out of standby. Having reconfigured the Standard Shield provider shortly before putting the computer in standby the first time, selecting the blocked operations opening file for writing, deleting file, renaming file, and formatting along with the option to deny the operations that should be blocked when Avast! cannot prompt for a response, I changed the latter to allow the operations. I repeated the test for the second time with the same results, including the Virus Chest access. Perhaps coincidentally, 6 hours is the power management setting for hibernation. Since changing the option to allow operations resulted in no joy, I restored its former setting, deny the operations, changed the hibernation power management setting to NEVER, and repeated the test. 8 hours later, the computer was still in standby, and it returned to normal when I moved the mouse.
In addition to the three tests listed here, where I left the computer alone during the test, there were some intermediate tests in which I deliberately brought the computer out of standby.
Theories or suggestions appreciated.
System Configuration:
Intel Celeron @ 2.0 GHz; 256 MB DDR RAM; 60 GB hard drive, two partitions (NTFS bootable partition, FAT32 recovery partition); HP CD-writer/DVD (40x/8x/x8/16x)
HP v70s 17" monitor; HP PS/2 mouse and keyboard; HP Deskjet 3320 printer; HP Scanjet 3500c flatbed scanner
Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 SP1 with all critical and security updates applied, and DirectX 8.1
Agnitum Outpost Firewall free edition version 1.0.1817.1645; Avast! 4 version 4.0.235; Finjan Software SurfinGuard Pro Version 5.70 (Build 281); Script Sentry v2.7.1; Spybot Search & Destroy 1.2
Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 with all updates applied; Outlook Express 6.0 SP1 (version 6.00.2800.1123 with all updates applied
Norton SystemWorks 5.0 (2002)
Phoenix BIOS - core version 4.06, BIOS revision 3.11 09/25/02; Intel i845G chipset, Intel Extreme Graphics, updated with current graphics driver; Lucent WinModem - 56k v.92, updated with current modem driver; Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet integrated NIC
Stand-alone machine with NIC disabled, two modem connections (only one actively used) each with TCP/IP enabled and NetBIOS over TCP/IP, File and Printer Sharing, and Client for Microsoft Networks disabled
