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Thread ID: 50928 2004-11-06 08:59:00 How do brand name PC's acheive silent standby? george12 (7) Press F1
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288526 2004-11-06 08:59:00 Hi,

My last two PC's (built by me) when on Standby have kept the PSU and CPU fans going. But my 2 PC's before that (Dell Optiplex's) have been silent. Here are the PC's:

Dell Optiplex GX1 - PIII 500Mhz (Slot 1), 256MB RAM, 4GB HDD (105W ATX psu)
Dell Optiplex GX110 - PIII 733Mhz (Sock 370), 256MB RAM, 10GB HDD (105W ATX psu)
Selfbuilt - Celeron 1.2Ghz (Sock 370), 384MB RAM, 30GB HDD (300W ATX psu)
Selfbuilt - Celeron D 2.4Ghz @ 3.0Ghz (Sock 478), 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD (400W ATX psu)

My friend has a Packard Bell Celeron 2.4Ghz, 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD, with an ATX psu, and it is silent in standby.

So, how do they do it? And can I make mine silent in Stand by too? It hibernates fine but Standby is more convenient.

Cheers George 		george12 (7)
288527 2004-11-06 09:07:00 Just to add a little:

To make it clear, the CPU fan is plugged into the correct socket on the motherboard.

Does this mean I need to switch motherboard brand (I use this motherboard for many PC's I sell, and I want them to be able to Standby silently)?

The thread is mainly becuase some of my customers have asked why the PC is nearly as loud in standby as it is when awake.

Also, every custom built PC I have seen except one or two have not Standby'd silently. But a lot of mass-produced models do.

Thanks, George 		george12 (7)
288528 2004-11-06 17:34:00 Hmmm I would say it might have something to do with the BIOS settings. (APM settings).

I just tried it on this (put it on standby), and yup, it shuts down completely (fans turn off), until u press a key on the kb.


And if u use XP go to control panel. Then power options/advanced. Make sure the bottom 2 are on Shut down and Standby.

If that doesnt work, I would say your mobo/bios doesnt support it or the the OS (95/98). It could even be the videocard drivers. 		Spacemannz (808)
288529 2004-11-06 20:33:00 buy a fan controller and turn the fans off via that ApeNz (4220)
288530 2004-11-06 21:57:00 > buy a fan controller and turn the fans off via that

And add a smoke detector? 		R2x1 (4628)
288531 2004-11-07 00:31:00 Look in the BIOS for a setting called S3 standby ... what it does is shuts down everything but the RAM... wintertide (1306)
288532 2004-11-07 02:44:00 I only made the post because everything I tried that should have worked didn't. Here is what I have done:

Ensured S3 (STR) is enabled in BIOS
Set power settings for USB devices correctly (everything set NOT to wake from standby)
Ran 'dumppo.exe AC MAXSLEEP=S3' and the same with MINSLEEP.
Tried a registry fix

All to no avail. It still seems to go into S1 mode. IE. all the power rails are still on.

What is meant to happen is the PSU shuts off just like when you shutdown, but the motherboard keeps the RAM and RTC going with the +5VSB rail. The processor is completely off and so are the fans.

Maybe I need to reinstall Windows (only S1 was enabled when WinXP was installed).

George 		george12 (7)
288533 2004-11-07 02:57:00 i doubt its a software problem, its most likely a hardware problemo, is your hardware compatible with the standby feature?? Prescott (11)
288534 2004-11-07 03:03:00 Yep

Suspend to RAM (STR) / S3 is a listed feature of the board, and it's there in the BIOS, and dumppo tells me it's supported.

George 		george12 (7)
288535 2004-11-07 03:44:00 um..just a noob question ...
if you want your comp to be totally silent and stuff..by using standby
why not just turn it off??

or is there some nice benefit that i'm totally unaware of that standby can give you... 		heni72847 (1166)
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