NIC being turned off\sleep

[SNC]

I have a couple new Dells that for some reason refuses to hold the settings that determine that the NIC should not be turned off to save power. Power setting have been turned to max usage, never sleep, hyb is turned off, no hard drive spin down, set to never sleep and the advanced properties of the nic have Green disabled as well as all the other power setting set to off. After an hour or so they are back to being set to on! This is a simple Win7 home box, no security, no AV, nothing. All these boxed do it maintain a connection to an Access DB to show updated info for a shop. When the NIC sleeps the connection to the DB is broken and the app crashes.

I have been researching this for the last 12 hours or so and have found nothing except to turn off the power settings. What would be causing them to reset?

 

[mammador]

Is your user account the Administrator?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is there some sort of Dell power-management app running in the background?

 

[SNC]

Is there some sort of Dell power-management app running in the background?

I have pulled everything out of these PCs I can find that has anything to do with power settings, including everything dell. One even has just an install from my MAPS so I doubt there is any thing Dell except the driver. The thing I do not get is that it reverts back after an hour or so. I am going to throw in a POS NIC and see if that does anything. I haven't slept in 36 hours. I hate when I cant figure something out!!!!

 

[her209]

The setting for enabling the NIC when on battery is in the Dell utility that everyone uninstalls.

 

[SNC]

The setting for enabling the NIC when on battery is in the Dell utility that everyone uninstalls.

It's a desktop not a laptop.

 

[theevilsharpie]

I have a couple new Dells...

Dells makes computers ranging from tiny netbooks to multi-slot blade server enclosures, and each model within that very wide range typically has a number of different options for network connectivity.

In other words, you'll need to be more specific.

 

[SNC]

Dells makes computers ranging from tiny netbooks to multi-slot blade server enclosures, and each model within that very wide range typically has a number of different options for network connectivity.

In other words, you'll need to be more specific.

This is a simple Win7 home box,

Assumed that most people would get it wasn't a laptop. I could see how someone might question what it was, but I didn't think someone would think I was talking about a Laptop.
But thanks for helping out.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Assumed that most people would get it wasn't a laptop. I could see how someone might question what it was, but I didn't think someone would think I was talking about a Laptop.
But thanks for helping out.

Perhaps I was beating around the bush a bit too much, so I'll be blunt: Post the model number of your Dell and/or the name/model number of your NIC if you want anything more than generic troubleshooting suggestions.

 

[SNC]

Perhaps I was beating around the bush a bit too much, so I'll be blunt: Post the model number of your Dell and/or the name/model number of your NIC if you want anything more than generic troubleshooting suggestions.

Ahhh I thought you were just being a smart ass. Perhaps you missed the part about the no sleep for going on 2 days now. (And its not looking good for tonight either.)

They are Dell Vostros 260's. The NICs are onboard Realtek PCIe GB.

 

[rumpleforeskin]

there is also a power setting found in:
control panel > network and sharing > change adapter settings > right click on the adapter > properties > config > power managment > uncheck the box that allows windows to power down the device

 

[JackMDS]

There might be some variations on where the Power saving setting is.
Here are few examples, YMMV, look around in your systems.


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/example/powersave.jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/power_sav_wireless..jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/power_save_win7.jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/adv_power-sav.jpg



http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/adv_power-sav.jpg

 

[SNC]

There might be some variations on where the Power saving setting is.
Here are few examples, YMMV, look around in your systems.


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/example/powersave.jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/power_sav_wireless..jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/power_save_win7.jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/adv_power-sav.jpg



http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/adv_power-sav.jpg

Thanks. All of them were checked. There is even a green setting on tbe nic that was disabled.
I might have found the issue.
Ready for it?.........






The monitor settings. Yep it looks like if the screen is set to blank after a set time the NIC disconnects!! All the other settings remain the same just the display blanking.

 

[theevilsharpie]

The monitor settings. Yep it looks like if the screen is set to blank after a set time the NIC disconnects!! All the other settings remain the same just the display blanking.

My ASUS motherboard has an energy-saving feature they call an EPU that does the same thing. If I activate the EPU, whenever Windows blanks my monitor, the computer seems to enter some type of "lite-standby" where the computer remains on, but processing (including the network stack) ceases.

You may want to see if your Dell has something similar. In my case, it's not only the NIC that stops responding; audio that I'm playing stops as well.