HELP: Random issue with E6400 Dell

I installed Windows XP in my E6400. All drivers have been installed properly including Dell Control Point. The problem is when I left my NB idle for a while, the screen is off by itself. The system is ON, but the screen is OFF. I pressed any button to wake up the screen, but the screen never woke up no matter what. It does this randomly. So I couldn't find out what caused this problem.

And the only way to wake up the monitor is by:
1. press the power button to turn off and turn it on again
2. close the lid so that the system goes to hibernate and power up again

So to avoid this problem from happening again, I went to Windows power setting and set:
- turn off hard disk - NEVER
- system standby - NEVER
- turn off monitor - after 15 minutes
And it still happens!

This is totally unacceptable! It wastes my time a lot. Can somebody please advise?

Note:
My room is cool (not overheat), so heat is not a factor
My NB doesn't have any spyware/virus

 

Er... why not change turn off monitor to never and just have it standby instead after 15 mins?

 

Is your XP upgraded to SP3? There used to be old bugs like this in XP.

Also, which GPU?

John

 

I have nvidia 160GM. my windows XP is SP2. i often notice that when you drag/move an application (eg: internet explorer), the screen somewhat shows some lagging by several seconds. it's just different from other PCs and NBs that i have.

 

Install SP3. Use the full download version. It includes a multitude of bug fixes. Then, if you still have the problem we'll have to think again.

John

 

Sorry to revive something old, but I believe I have the same problem.

I think the thing is the system automatically wakes up after like 15 mins. But it looks like it's crashed. system is ON, but screen is OFF and I can't bring it on. I have to reboot the system.

I'm 95% sure a software is causing the wakeup, but how could I identifiy which one?

All wake up settings are disable in the BIOS, in device manager, I disabled all wake up options from misc peripherals.

The system runs on XP SP3 and has minimal software:
- CS3
- Office 2003
- AVG free
- iTunes with MobileMe.

At first I thought it was mobile me but no, it still does it. I tried quitting a couple apps from the status bar (windows search, etc...) just to see. For now it's still on standbu after 5 mins.

Man I was freaking out when I got home after a standby to see 3 hours later that the lappy was ON in a sleeve AND in a bag :-(.

Any help on how to identify what could be causing the wake-up? MS had an unsupported diagnostic app for getting a full image of what was happening during boot-up and standby, but I don't remember the name!

 

In theory, Event Viewer should reveal what is happening.

I never use standby if putting the computer into a bag since it is too easy for the computer to wake up. I use hibernation.

John

 

Finally it doesn't... At least now I wake-up "cleanly", but I still wake up for no reasons. I deactivated every service I saw making something in the event viewer after resume and it still does it, almost exactly 1/2 hour after going into standby.

So there is still something waking up the laptop (not even connected to any networks). It's definitely not hardware related as I tried every event to wake it up (cover, usb, keyboard, mouse, etc...).

Any other ideas?