Quieting Windows 7 down....

[CommonTater]

I was poking around in Admin tools -> Performance monitor (the big applet, not the one from Task Manager). Under EVENT TRACE SESSIONS I have a bunch of them enabled/running by default (I didn't change anything). IOW, all that are listed are "running".

NTFSLOG is one that's running. However, the directory that it stores these "logs" is empty so maybe it's not really running. I'm tempted to turn NTFSLOG and see if my $MFT and $LOGFILE writes stop.

Will research more tomorrow when I'm awake.

Interesting I'll have to poke around in there myself... However, my system will now go into standby even with NTFS updates going on. It sleeps as soon as the current one finishes (usually less than 2 minutes delay).

It was the "lastalive1.dat" and "lastalive0.dat" that were keeping it awake... these use file mode access to the disk which I assume was resetting the sleep timer.

I'm attaching a zip with some of what I've come up with... There are a couple of documents and a .REG file... take a careful look at the REG file before you integrate it... edit out the stuff you don't want. On my machines --and YMMV!-- there was a noticeable improvement.

 

[CarlTR6]

Thanks for the info. I have saved it for future reference. My 'puter is sleeping properly with out the registry change. I just have the blinking LED's and I can live with that.

 

[CommonTater]

Thanks for the info. I have saved it for future reference. My 'puter is sleeping properly with out the registry change. I just have the blinking LED's and I can live with that.

I think I've decided I'm stuck with it too. But at least now I know it's harmless.

The desktop machine (ASUS) is still flashing once a second but it sleeps and spins down correctly since I put in the timestamp tweak. I just slid it a bit further under the desk where I don't see it...

The ASRock also stopped flashing when I put in the "timestampinterval = 0" tweak. The drive spins down but it's not going into standby as it once did... But maybe as everyone is saying, that will settle down with time.

The Acer Aspire is back on XP and seems pretty much ok with that... it goes into standby every 10 minutes, regular as clockwork.

So.... Hey, thanks for all your help and patience on this. I was getting PLENTY frustrated for a bit there...

 

[CarlTR6]

Glad to hear it is functioning properly for you - aside from the light show.

 

[CommonTater]

Glad to hear it is functioning properly for you - aside from the light show.

Well, there is a trick for this....

On the pin header where all the wires from the front panel hook to the motherboard are 2 plugs, one for the power LED the other for the Drive LED... I just cut the positive lead in each case, spliced in a 1000 ohm resistor... a couple of drops of solder and some heat shrinkable tubing and no more glaring blinky lights... just a very soft glow you actually have to look to see. Total cost 5 cents per LED.

 

[CarlTR6]

A very easy and inexpensive fix!

 

[CommonTater]

A very easy and inexpensive fix!

Yep... I can usually aford 10 cents and 20 minutes to make the rest of my day better... Got a good install on the desktop now, doing backups before I go after the HTPC with it's final install... And, my Excedrin bill is way down... :shock:

 

[comtecho]

Windows 7 includes a number of power saving features. Go to Start > Run > CMD
Type the following

powercfg -energy -output -C:\powercheck.html

This will run a test for 60 seconds, when it has completed you can open C:\powercheck.html to see which devices are not entering suspend etc.

 

[CommonTater]

Windows 7 includes a number of power saving features. Go to Start > Run > CMD
Type the following

powercfg -energy -output -C:\powercheck.html

This will run a test for 60 seconds, when it has completed you can open C:\powercheck.html to see which devices are not entering suspend etc.

I have it working now... Thanks.

For some reason the system was writing "keep alives" to my hard disk. If you read back a few posts you'll find the registry tweak I used to stop it.

The flashing drive led thing is about early SATA interfaces not managing the drive led properly... that I fixed simply by dimming the lamp.

It wasn't a device that was stuck... it was the system keeping the hard disk spun up for some reason that I don't fully understand... something to do with reliability testing.

 

[CarlTR6]

Windows 7 includes a number of power saving features. Go to Start > Run > CMD
Type the following

powercfg -energy -output -C:\powercheck.html

This will run a test for 60 seconds, when it has completed you can open C:\powercheck.html to see which devices are not entering suspend etc.

I tried this and the program ran; it gave me synopsis; but I cannot find the powercheck.html. It is not in C:\ and search did not find it.

 

[MilesAhead]

Dang!! I was hoping this would solve my issue, but no go. In my case I get the "clock tick" LED but what is different is, if I go into Device Manager and disable the optical drive, it stops. I've seen several posts around the web with the same thing. That's where I got the idea to try disabling the drive. I don't know what it is, but it must be sending some signal to the optical drive for some reason. I have AutoPlay and AutoStart turned off.

As it is I just try to ignore it since it's not really the HD being accessed.

 

[CommonTater]

Dang!! I was hoping this would solve my issue, but no go. In my case I get the "clock tick" LED but what is different is, if I go into Device Manager and disable the optical drive, it stops. I've seen several posts around the web with the same thing. That's where I got the idea to try disabling the drive. I don't know what it is, but it must be sending some signal to the optical drive for some reason. I have AutoPlay and AutoStart turned off.

As it is I just try to ignore it since it's not really the HD being accessed.

I can stop it that way too... that's how I verified what it was.

What I discovered was that it's a flaw in some older SATA controllers. There is no hardware signal for disk insertion on the SATA interface so the system has to poll the Optical drive (or any hot swap drives) asking repeatedly "are we there yet?". On some of the older controllers this was seen as a disk access so the chassis LED is turned on. Blip...Blip...Blip...

On Win2000 and XP the answer is to disable CD Autorun but on Vista and 7 this tweak doesn't seem to work. So we're stuck with it... but it doesn't stop the HDD from spinning down... it's just an annoyance.

The problem of the drives not spinning down is solved, at least in my case, by the "TimeStampInterval" tweak I found and described earlier in the thread.

 

[MilesAhead]

Thanks for the info. I never spin my drives down until shutdown. To me the only problem is the LED flicker.

 

[CommonTater]

Thanks for the info. I never spin my drives down until shutdown. To me the only problem is the LED flicker.

It's kind of funny (and a little embarassing) but way back at the beginning of all this someone suggested I just put a piece of black tape over the LED. He gave no reasoning just made a flippant comment... and now look where we are....

You could try the resistor trick, if you feel like a little DIY, at least then it's not bright enough to be distracting... Works on those blue laser beam power LEDs too.

 

[MilesAhead]

Thanks for the info. I never spin my drives down until shutdown. To me the only problem is the LED flicker.

It's kind of funny (and a little embarassing) but way back at the beginning of all this someone suggested I just put a piece of black tape over the LED. He gave no reasoning just made a flippant comment... and now look where we are....

You could try the resistor trick, if you feel like a little DIY, at least then it's not bright enough to be distracting... Works on those blue laser beam power LEDs too.

My PCs are on the floor under the table. Makes it easier to ignore it. My new PC had a different issue. For some strange reason brilliant designers at HP decided to put a dim green HD access LED right below a bright purple power on LED. Esp. at the angle looking down, when I wanted to check the HD access, the purple LED wiped out the dim green.

My brilliant solution was to cut a black cardboard rectangle from an old shoe box and tape it over the purple LED. It does the job. The weird thing on the new PC is it has an internal red LED that now and then flickers when something decides to poll the memory stick slots. If it ain't one thing it's another.

 

[CommonTater]

My PCs are on the floor under the table. Makes it easier to ignore it. My new PC had a different issue. For some strange reason brilliant designers at HP decided to put a dim green HD access LED right below a bright purple power on LED. Esp. at the angle looking down, when I wanted to check the HD access, the purple LED wiped out the dim green.

I see that a lot with the new Blue power LEDs... man those things are like laser beams, twice as bright as any other LED on the machine. That's where the resistor trick came from... I actually get paid to cut the wires inside people's computers

My brilliant solution was to cut a black cardboard rectangle from an old shoe box and tape it over the purple LED. It does the job.

So would a little bit of black electrical tape... but you really should think about dimming it down instead of hiding it...

 

[MilesAhead]

If I open that box it's going to be to stick a USB 3.0 card in. Unless I get some big benefit, the cover stays on.

edit: besides, electrical tape is sticky if I peel it off. Cardboard and clear tape works for me.

 

[CarlTR6]

Seems like folks are obsessed with LED's, especially blue.

 

[CommonTater]

Seems like folks are obsessed with LED's, especially blue.

LOL... Are we hinting at something Carl?

Actually if you go to anyplace where they have electronics on display, check out the stuff with blue pilot lights vs the stuff with amber or red... those @$#^%@ blue LEDs are easily twice as bright.

 

[MilesAhead]

Seems like folks are obsessed with LED's, especially blue.

LOL... Are we hinting at something Carl?

Actually if you go to anyplace where they have electronics on display, check out the stuff with blue pilot lights vs the stuff with amber or red... those @$#^%@ blue LEDs are easily twice as bright.

The worst are the oncoming LED headlights at night. Those things give you a headache.