Power Management Problems and CD-RW malfunction

Hello all:

I am just looking for a bit of advice before I take my computer back in to the shop. The CD died on me this weekend. Simply won't read CD's but I can hear it grinding away trying to. Working fine up until this weekend (I just bought the darn thing a month ago). The other problem I have been having with it is that when it goes idle (like it should after not being touched for a while) it crashes. When I go back and try to jiggle the mouse or whatever nothing happens, it has just died and then I have to hold the power button in for about 10 seconds before it will reboot, and of course it comes up with a "improper shutdown" msg and runs scandisk. Anybody had similar problems. Thanks a lot.
Sheri

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Sheri

My faith in the power management skills of windows has been stored in a closet for some years now. I usually disable everything in the way of power management, both in bios and windows. Instead I use the big button on the front of my monitor - the one below the display.

With respect to your CD-reader: does it have problems with all kinds of CDs - even original ones - or does it only have a hard time reading home burned ones?

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Karl, Denmark
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"..and may The Force be with you - too..."

Hello:

Thanks for responding. I have only tried new audio CD's, don't have any burned ones yet. I haven't tried my games yet tho and will do that tonight. The power management stuff happened on a previous computer I had as well so I like your idea of just getting rid of it all and using the dang button. How would I do that in BIOS (I can figure out the Windows part). Thanks again.
Sheri


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Sheri

If you're not entirely comfortable within the bios, I suggest you restrict yourself to the obvious power management settings. If you find something like manual pw settings, I think you'll find some obvious things to disable. If you're in doubt, leave it alone. First and foremost I think it's windows handling that causes the trouble.

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Karl, Denmark
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"..and may The Force be with you - too..."

You'll find all the Power management disabling tools you need in the Control Panel under Power Options. If you are running ME you can also disable power management in the msconfig. The previous posters are quite right... power management is a monumental pain in the neck. Use the BIG button on your monitor as suggested.