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stevecrissi · Guest

I have windows XP and recently changed my computer power setting to;

turn off monitor; after 10 min
turn off hard drives; after 10 min
system standby; after 10 min

However my comcast modem is still on.

Will phonetray free still work and zap callers?

I was curious if so, because lately all my calls on my call log have been showing N/A.

I am trying to save a little bit of money on my power bill as my computer is about 5 yrs old and running 24/7 is probably costing a lot.

Thanks for any help!

Michael · Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:38 am Post subject:

Some modems can wake up computer from standby but the caller id will be lost. You should disable standby if you want to use PhoneTray. If you have old hard drive I wouldn't recommend turning it off frequently because old drives are more likely to fail if they spin down/up often. Set Windows to turn off hard drive after 1 hour or so. It will still turn off at night but it won't have to spin up many times per day.

Just to give you some idea about power consumption, your old computer probably draws no more than 120-150 watts, an equivalent of 2-3 regular light bulbs, and even less when processor is idle.
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Michael,
Traysoft Inc.
support@traysoft.com
www.traysoft.com

lwc · Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:02 pm Post subject:

That's not nice to hear as standby mode solved my "bluetooth mouse+keyboard are disconnected while the HD is stopped" problem. In standby mode I can simply click the power button and everything goes back. In "HD off" mode the power button shuts down the computer instead

Maybe I should listen to you and just turn off my monitor and that's it. I thought it would bring more life to my HD if I turned it off too.

Michael · Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:36 pm Post subject:

Hi lwc,

I read several times that it's actually better for the hard drive to run all the time instead of turning it off/on many times per day. I always set "Turn off hard drive" to Never in Windows. It depends on your usage pattern of course, but I work on the computer all day long and it doesn't make sense to turn off hard drive while the computer is on during the day.
_________________
Michael,
Traysoft Inc.
support@traysoft.com
www.traysoft.com

lwc · Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 7:10 am Post subject:

So why is it on by default for the Portable scheme? At least in my case portable computers are much less frequently turned off, so according to your theory, "on" would be much is more dangerous for them.

Also, does it give anything not to enable it but still enable standby? I guess I never understood what does standby actually do (while monitor turns off the monitor and HD turns off the HD).

Michael · Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:44 pm Post subject:

"Turn off hard drive" is enabled by default to save power, it's especially useful when notebook is running on batteries. In standby mode monitor and HDD are turned off, processor is in low-power state, most peripheral devices like network cards are off, programs are not running but the memory is preserved, so computer can go to normal state very quickly. Standby mode has very low power/battery consumption.
_________________
Michael,
Traysoft Inc.
support@traysoft.com
www.traysoft.com

lwc · Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 10:31 am Post subject:

Michael · Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:46 pm Post subject:

When computer goes to standby it turns off HD and monitor even if "monitor off" and "HD off" is disabled. Yes, PhoneTray should work with "HD off" without standby.
_________________
Michael,
Traysoft Inc.
support@traysoft.com
www.traysoft.com