The first possibility can be found in the power options of the computer system. Hard drives can be set to enter power saving mode after a certain time. Turning that option off might fix the problem on the computer system.

The second possibility is that the power saving mode is hardcoded in the external hard drive. There is no way of turning that mode off in the Windows operating system. The only possibility are third party tools that prevent these external hard drives from going into power saving mode.

XSleep is a portable computer software program that can prevent power saving mode of up to four external hard drives. The hard drives can be selected by path in the main program window. The method used to prevent power saving mode is to keep the hard drives busy in regular intervals. The default interval is set to two minutes. The setting can be changed in the interface as well.

It can also disable autorun and disable itself outside working hours. It has been designed by the software developer as a customized alternative to No Sleep HD

Related posts

• Prevent External Hard Drives From Entering Sleep Mode (8)
• Automatic Sleep Mode Wake Up (9)
• Youtube Video Search Is A Barebone Youtube Downloader (2)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Networking Software Homedale (13)

Sleep Talking, a new system that is called internally Somniloquy has been designed by computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research, combines the energy saving benefits of sleep mode with the responsiveness of awake mode. An USB prototype has been created that acts as a low end computer system impersonating the host computer on the network. The prototype comes with the ability to wake the host computer system if necessary. This can be an incoming call using voice over IP or a P2P download that filled the internal flash memory of the USB prototype so that the contents have to be written to the host computer system.

Tests that the researchers conducted resulted in power savings between 60 and 80 percent depending on the use model compared to idle state which is

Related posts

• Automatic Sleep Mode Wake Up (9)
• What You Should Do After Buying A New Computer System (18)
• Use Caffeine To Keep Your PC Awake (1)
• Shutdown, Restart Or Logoff PCs With Twitter (23)
• Refresh yourself with power-nap sounds (0)

The developer of No Sleep has created a simple program that writes a blank text file every x minutes to the external hard drive effectively preventing it from entering sleep mode. The same can be done with a simple batch file or Autohotkey program but No Sleep is a solution for users without the knowledge to create a program of their own.

The software program is portable and comes with a graphical user interface that can be used to configure some of the program’s settings. The gui can be used to select the external hard drive that should be prevented from going into sleep mode and to define the write interval of the blank text file.

The interval can be set between 1 and 15 minutes. NoSleep mode can then be started with the click of a button. It is furthermore possible to place the software program in the Windows system tray to make it as unobtrusive as possible.

No Sleep should work on all versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system and with all kinds of hard drives that are connected to the computer system.

Related posts

• Windows Timer (10)
• Windows Software To Create Multiple Folders At Once (13)
• Windows Registry Watcher (5)
• Windows Live Messenger Content Retriever (2)
• The Only Batch File Renamer You Ever Need (11)

This tool can be interesting for users who regularly use sleep mode or hibernation instead of turning off their computer completely after work. That’s only one possibility though. The software program can also be used to run system updates, system optimization or other tasks that are best executed when no one is accessing the computer.

Wake Up On Standby is a portable utility compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and additional former Microsoft operating systems. It uses a five step configuration procedure to exactly time and configure the automatic sleep mode wake up procedure:

Specifies the exact time the computer should wake up from sleep mode. It contains additional settings like turning on the computer monitor and resuming the screen saver, repairing network and performing the tasks if the computer wakes up early.
Specify programs, batch files or websites that should be executed after waking up the computer from sleep mode automatically.
Specify the action to be performed after finishing the tasks. This includes putting the computer back into sleep mode, shutting down the computer, logging a user off or waiting and doing nothing. Wake Up On Standby can execute another application or batch file before performing the action.
Specify the days and weeks the task should be performed.
Activate the process

The configuration can be saved as a bat file which is useful if Wake Up On Standby should be run with the same settings again or if the settings should be copied to another computer with a similar setup.

Related posts

• Windows Software To Create Multiple Folders At Once (13)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)
• Windows Explorer Alternative Snowbird (32)
• Test Your Internet Speed With Down Tester (7)
• Svchost Process Analyzer (9)

Computers can go to sleep as well as we all know. They can fire up a screensaver or go to sleep by turning off the monitor completely and Caffeine is a software that can prevent this from happening by simulating a keystroke every 59 seconds.

The default value can be changed to a keystroke every x seconds instead. To prevent problems with running applications the software simulates a shift-down, shift-up keystroke in Windows 98 and a shift-down keystroke in Windows XP and 2000.

The software has a size of only 11 Kilobytes and could be useful if your computer falls asleep every now and then. On the other hand the sleep and screensaver intervals can be changed as well or turned off. Still nice to have a coffee cup sitting in the system tray.

And then there is the possibility of the drinking bird that presses a key for you just like Homer did in the King-Size Homer episode of the Simpsons.

Related posts

• Wikiquote Screensaver (1)
• Wikipedia Screensaver (7)
• Use Screensavers As Vista Wallpapers (8)
• TwitSaver Twitter Screensaver (3)
• The Linux screensaver xscreensaver (6)