windows XP keeps going into sleep mode

My Brother has a HP500B with windows XP SP3 installed. It powers up, shows the screen and goes to sleep. The mouse and keyboard will not wake it, rebooting does not help. I have set the power options to never for everything and received an error message "indicates two levels are incompatible. I deleted all the stored power modes and tried resetting under "never" and it is still going into sleep mode. The screen goes black, if I press a button by the power light on the monitor, it comes back on briefly. I tried changing monitors, but the problem persists.

 

tadpole...

Have you tried booting to Safe Mode yet? If you can get into SM, I recommend turning off your startups and then try booting to see if it's one of those. To do this (in Safe Mode):

Start->Run->type msconfig and press enter->General tab->Select Diagnostic startup

This will disable all of your startups. Now boot the PC into normal Windows to see if the problem is persisting.

 

Yes, I booted in to safe mode and it still happened. I selected diagnostic startup and booted into normal mode, it still happens, so I booted into safe mode and it happened there as well.

 

tadpole...

If you can boot in for long enough to turn off the start ups, I would say run sfc /scannow, but if the PC went into sleep mode during the scan that could be other problems I am afraid.

One thing you could do if you can get to it before sleep kicks in is run a chkdsk /r. To do so:

Start->Run->type cmd->in the command prompt type chkdsk /r (space after chkdsk) and then reboot to run the utility.

Do you by chance have a Windows XP SP3 installation disk? If you do, there are some repairs you can run.

 

I managed to enter sfc /scannow and was told that it needed to check windows had the DLL's to run properly. It said to insert a Windows XP professional SP3 disk. I only have a SP2 disk so entered that. The run completed with no messages and sfc /scannow did not proceed to run. I entered it again and was told to insert a disk again. After 4 tries of this I ran chkdsk /r that ran then gave me a message : "List index out of bounds (-1)"

I have now tried to run sfc /scannow in safe and normal mode (while still in diagnostic start up) I get the message :"The specific error code is 0x000006ba [The RCP service is unavailable]

 

tadpole...

If you are able, there is a program I would like you to download...no installation it's just a tiny utility, but it might help short term while you work on solutions. The program is a Microsoft program called Insomnia. Here is the link:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/insomnia.html

This is supposed to override commands from your PC to go into standby mode. Just open it to activate it.

It would be best if you could boot into Windows normal using your normal startups setup, rather than diagnostic. Then maybe we could get some of these utilities to run. Boot and see if you can get enough time to start Insomnia. Then take the icon, and copy and paste it into the Startup folder on the XP Start Menu. Hopefully, it will run automatically on boot.

This should work to override standby, so we'll see.

Need to find you a copy of Windows XP Professional SP3. I'll see if I can find you a download someplace as I have seen them around. I actually got a copy of XP SP3 this way many moons ago.

 

tadpole...

This is the only one I have been able to come up with for Windows XP Pro. There used to be another one on another site that was intended for service technicians, so they could have a copy of XP. I can't speak for the security of this. The person with the .iso up for download says the disk contains sata drivers, but that could be anything.

In spite of this, it's worth thinking through. For sfc /scannow, you won't be actually installing from the disk, anyway. sfc /scannow just finds the files it is looking for and copies them over to replace damaged ones.

Obviously, this is XP Pro 32 bit SP3 that does install normally. Yes, there could be something in the .iso, but I'm not sure why someone would do this in such a conspicuous way who was intending to do harm. It's up to you, but for XP, an XP installation disk with SP3 is like gold.

There are a bunch of comments at the bottom if that will help you decide.

http://getintopc.com/softwares/operating-systems/windows-xp-sp3/

By the way, this individual has .isos up for all of the Windows versions through Windows 7, including both 32 and 64 bit. This is the 32 bit version, so make sure that is what you have currently.

 

Thanks Altbo, I will have to try it as this computer seems to be missing some files.

I was unable to run insomnia.exe, I got the message "the ordinal 380 could not be located in the DLL COMCTL32.dll" I ran chkdsk without the /f and it corrected a few "error in index" and deleted some index entries. I then ran it with the /f and that went ok. I am back on normal startup, but still unable to run sfc /scannow. I am currently running chkdsk /r again.

I am going to download the XP pro SP3, it will take a few hours with my slow internet! I will update when I have it. Thank you.

 

tadpole...

Yes, sfc /scannow will often request an installation disk to copy files from the disk and replace damaged ones.

Strange Insomnia wouldn't open/run. I'll have to think about this one. Not to jump to conclusions, but I wonder if you might have some sort of a rootkit that has taken control of the standby feature command in Windows.

Hopefully, sfc /scannow will run from the disk. That would be ideal. :-D

 

I downloaded the xp SP3 ISO file to my computer. I then burnt it directly to a DVD in its .zip form. Is that correct or should I unzip it first? Reason I ask is that I ran sfc /scannow, I inserted the disc. It seemed to go okay until I received a message that I was using the wrong disc.

 

Have to jump in here and mention the fact that XP is no longer supported by Microsoft. It hasn't been in almost a year. That means no updates, no security patches, no fixes for vulnerabilities. At all.

Basically, it's use at your own risk.

You may want to try burning, and running a Kaspersky Rescue disk (KRD 10) to check for malware before you go any further.

 

This computer has just come back from a repair shop where they checked for viruses, so I don't think that is the problem. They were unable to fix the problem causing the sleep mode. The technicians in this country are not great and often not qualified.

Something appears to be going wrong with the ISO burning. The disk will not boot, yet I can boot off the original XP SP2 disc. That's why I was aking if burning the ISO in .ZIP is correct, or if I should unpack it and then burn it.

 

Hey tadpole...

Did you download from the link I posted earlier? If so, that download should have been an .iso not a zip. Not sure what you have in the zip, but you can open the zip just like a folder and see what's there. Definitely no point in burning a zip folder...

 

Hi AltBo

Yes, I downloaded from the link you gave me, the file I got is an .iso :

Windows_XP_Professional_SP3_Nov_2013_Incl_SATA_Drivers (1).iso When I go my download folder the file is in a winzip folder. When I unzipped it to a folder it has all the files and folders that I would expect to see, Will it work for sfc /scannow if I copy those files and burn to a disc that is not bootable?

 

tadpole...

OK, if you can, it would help if you could post a screenshot of the contents of the zip (or the unzipped) folder. I'd like to see what's in there. According the site, there are Sata drivers in the download, which is fine, but I just would like to see what's there, so I can see what you will need to do.

I think you will just use your burning utility (whichever one you use) to select all the files in the unzipped folder and then select "burn disk image" or the equivalent.

On does the disk have to be bootable, that would be yes. sfc /scannow will require a fully bootable installation disk to complete its repairs (whenever it requires/requests a disk)...

 

Hi AltBo

I have tried 3 different utilities to make a bootable disc from that file I downloaded. Imgburn, WinISO and FreeISO burner. They probably failed because I tried burning the .zip file as an ISO. I usually use imgburn but it is so long since I have made a bootable ISO that I am not sure which file from the snap attached is the image file I should enter.

 

tadpole...

You first just want to unzip the zip folder to a regular folder (I think you said you have done this already). Open your burner software and use the burn selection to burn files to disk. Highlight all the files inside the folder for this burn, and then just select burn to disk.

This is not actually an .iso you have. It's the contents of the XP install image .iso or put another way it's what's actually in the .iso. If you browse an XP install disk, you will see what you see in the folder. Make sure the CD/DVD (only requires a CD btw) disk is empty before you start, but, in this case, you will just be burning files to disk, rather than burning an .iso image to disk.

 

I have been trying different ISO burners, and beginning to think I was ultra dumb, as previously I had had no trouble making an .iso that works. One of the ones I just tried tells me : 'The disc image file you have selected is not valid' On checking the folder where I downloaded the files to, it appears that not all the files were downloaded. I used my laptop with windows 7 and it said the download was complete. So am downloading it again.

 

Before you waste data to download it again, what is the size of all those files and folders? It should be more than 600 MB. You can burn all those files and folders to a CD using the burn Data Disc option.

 

tadpole...

The topic of burning used to confuse me too. Just to clarify, there are different types of burns, but, in the end, what you want is a disk full of files. It's a working disk you are after...not a working .iso.

An .iso is a type of file. The problem with an .iso is that the information inside the .iso is useless if the .iso is just copied to a disk. So burning an .iso has to be a little bit different than just copying the .iso to the disk. During an .iso burn, the PC reads the contents of the .iso (you can't see them unless you have a program like MagicIso, etc.) and then copies the contents of the .iso to the disk. Again, it doesn't just copy the .iso to the disk...contents instead.

This is why it has to be a different kind of burn. In burner software, this type of burn will be called "burn .iso to disk" or something along those lines.

Based on the picture you showed me of the download as an open .zip folder (not .iso), what you need to select is the "burn files to disk" option with all of the files and folders in the .zip folder selected...yes files and folders. That disk will then be bootable.

Again if you had an .iso, you would use the burn .iso to disk option.

BTW, music has its own type of burn, because music contains metadata that works with music players and so is added to the disk, too. It's not just the music that gets added to the disk. The same is true with video. That's why burners have an option to burn music files or burn video files.

 

Thanks to you both for your replies. The folder of files I downloaded was considerably smaller than 600 MB, that's what made me realize that lots of data was missing. Thanks for the explanation on the different types of burning.
This time I am going to use a download manager and not the windows 7 software and will make sure I check the size of the download when it is complete!

 

If possible, check the file size prior to downloading. Also, when the download starts, you'll be asked if you want to open/run or save the file, and the name & size of the file will be shown.

 

tadpole...

I have a different link for you to try for this download. This one will be for an .iso this time. Just enter the username and password on the password pop up:

http://dreamsupport.us/downloads/windows-pc/-WindowsXP/

This site is here to help PC technicians be able to have access to programs and so on that help them with their jobs. They burn through installation disks fairly rapidly, so this is a nice thing.

I have this exact .iso on my PC, and I know it works for installations and repairs. The one you are looking for is XP Professional SP3 and then it says for CLIENTS.

This is an .iso, so you will need to choose the "Burn .iso to disk option". I think sometimes this may appear as "Create a bootable disk" or something like this. ->:-o more confusion I know

EDIT: I just realized that I am assuming you are using XP Professional. There is an .iso here for XP Home if that is what is on your PC.

 

AltBo, is this Windows XP ISO free to install on my PC? Also,the username and password, do I just choose any? Usually one has to sign-up.

 

Thanks Altbo, I have begun downloading from the new link. I have not had a problem in the past making .iso discs with imgburn, I think had the previous one downloaded in full , there would not have been a problem.:-o I am sure I will have better luck when I do it with a completed download!

Yes, Windows XP Professional SP3 is the OS on that desktop.

 

Eldon...

The username and password are on the username/password dialog. This is a site that I picked up here at MGs from one of the long time regulars. Not sure where he got the link. I forgot I had the link and then I was looking on my second HD, and I noticed the notepad there with my XP and W7 isos.

Honestly, an installation disk is valueless without an installation key. The benefit of owning the disk is primarily in being able to run repairs like sfc /scannow or chkdsk, etc. It is, of course, also, very handy when a full reinstallation of Windows is necessary.

It's free to install as long as you have the working key for your PC. It would be wise to keep a notepad with the keys for you installations inside and then also to make sure it matches the key on the side of the PC. Usually, the key on the box will work. If not, then many times the key in the PC should work (use a keyfinder like ProduKey to obtain this), but, the way I understand things, there are times where it might be the case that neither will work. I'm not sure about this.

This reminds me, Tadpole. You will need the installation key for the copy of XP on your PC currently IF you later run a repair installation. Try sfc /scannow with the disk in the drive first. The XP Pro SP3 disk should work fine for that, although sometimes sfc /scannow will still not be able to repair every error it finds, even with the disk in the tray.

 

Thanks AltBo.
The username and password are the same, that's what confused me. It's not going to help me as I have the Windows XP Professional SP3 disc but, Microsoft tells me my version is not valid and doesn't want to axtivate XP.

BTW Why does the site list AntiWPA? That's illegal...

 

Eldon...

I have no idea why the program you mentioned is there, although I am sure it's useful for a tech to be able to do that at times. Honestly, I never noticed that program as I was only downloading the XP SP3 .iso. I already had an XP SP2 disk, but it wasn't usable for repairs on a SP3 system.

Seems I recall reading of some uses for this program, but it's been many many moons ago, and I don't think I could document where or what the uses were. I think it's IT guys for companies who may have been requiring the program back when XP was in its heyday.

I have no idea why your disk did not work for you. If you had a valid/working key, it should have activated fine. I haven't ever had a problem installing XP SP3 from the disk I have.

MS had the .isos for Vista and 7 up for years at Digital River for anyone to downlaod freely. Now the Windows 7 ones are up on the Microsoft site itself. This tells me all I need to know about downloading an .iso of Windows from anyplace at all. There isn't anything wrong with doing so. With XP, I think the best way to look at it is that it's even more legal to have an .iso ot that OS than with W7 if anything. I have no qualms having the disk I burned from this site.

If you have a moral objection or if you are unsure of its authenticity, I recommend you stay away from the download, but I think MS' posture on this is clear for anyone to see. They do not object to users having installation disks of their OSes. Makes sense to me, and it's good policy for .isos to be available.

 

We're going a little off-topic. I'm going to message you. Check in 10 minutes time.

 

AltBo

I got the Windows XP Pro Sp3 downloaded and burnt as a bootable disc. It works fine. I tried to run sfc /scannow, I inserted the disc when asked and all seemed fine. It finished with the disc, but when I tried to get the scan going it just asked for the disk again. Although I know that XP is no longer supported, I found a heap of updates available that my brother said kept failing to install. I have them downloading now and will try to do a scan when everything is updated.