W520 & Sleep issue?

I have Win7Ultimate on my W520, and for some reason it wants to sleep after about 2 minutes, and ONLY after it has slept before. This is seriously a "?" kinda thing - all timers are disabled in the Control Panels, and I can't figure out where or why it is set to sleep. I'm sure it's a glitch - there are a few other glitches as well (Firefox bookmark menu causes tearing - I don't think Optimus is ready for Prime-Time).

Is there a way to check things from the command-line or reset them? Are there registry settings I can poke around in?

I'd wipe-and-reload, but I've got all these tweaky settings that need attending... <sigh>

Anyone? Thanks!
-Dan

 

Before you go too crazy, what version of the power mgmt driver are you using? What version of Power Manager is installed? Are you using one of the supplied power profiles or a custom profile? And of course, what Optimus video driver package do you have installed?

I have seen some glitching, too. It's rare but present. I tend to see it on sites using Flash so I wonder if it has something to do with GPU use in the browsers. I really don't know.

 

To be fair, this is a Win7 install that went from 1 notebook (and Asus N53), to a desktop, to my W520. Windows 7 did a repair on 1st boot, and all is generally working fine. I believe Windows 7 is designed to handle those drastic changes. That said...

I uninstalled Power Manager, Access Connections, and Autolock, as it looks like they compete with standard Windows 7 controls, and are just fluff. The glitches didn't go away.

As for graphics, I don't *THINK* I have Optimus loaded - just the standard NVidia driver. BIOS is set to Optimus, though. I'm downloading the Optimus driver now to install that as well. (See attached Photo - Right Click on Desktop - doesn't Mention Intel driver at all)

Everything is imaged, so it's just a matter of wipe & test & restore...

Thanks!
-Dan

 

Well then, I'd recommend flattening the machine and installing the OS properly.

 

Win7 isn't quite that adept at mass hardware changes (i.e. machine changes). I second Thors' suggestion, reinstall from scratch.

 

Meanies. Probably will.. oh well. I'm 90% there with a rebuild anyway, just hoping...

 

Crap. Even my Win7Pro install is doing it. Ugh. And yes, this is a reinstall from scratch install, from Lenovo.

My Event Viewer shows this:
The system is entering sleep.

Sleep Reason: System Idle

Hmm.... I'm going to try running this "Insomnia" program to prevent it, but man, what a bummer. Oh well, at least I have my OS all straightened out.... :-/.

 

1. Are you running the Lenovo factory image for the W520, or did you install from scratch?
2. Which power supply are you using?
3. Is the battery inserted into the chassis?
4. If you installed from scratch, could you answer my previous questions on the power driver, power mgr and profiles?

 

1. Lenovo Image - straight from Factory (BUT! I did use Windows Files and Settings Transfer program to move over that stuff.. I wonder about that)
2. 170W
3. Yes, battery in
4. Not from scratch, though lots of things installed (VS2010, Office 2010, etc...)

 

This sounds like the machine doesn't realize it's on power from the wall and is suspending and shutting down like it's on one of the hard core battery settings.

You should launch Power Manager and see what power profile it's using. Then change the sleep settings for battery and increase it to something like 10-15 minutes.

If it extends the life of the machine to the time you set, you know that's the problem and a call to Lenovo tech support is in order.

 

But they're both disabled! Could be that disabled is reverting to some firmware setting. Will try it out, thanks for the advice!

 

If they are disabled, you certainly have a problem that needs a call to the support line. Especially now that you are on the factory image and in a supported state. Bummer.

 

Well, I obviously have more time than sense, or need of sleep, but I figured it out -- something in the automated settings transfer caused things to go haywire.

I returned the machine to a REAL factory state, re-installed my apps, and manually dragged over the bare essentials of files and Mozilla settings, and whosh, all is well. The machine doen't sleep on its own.

The graphical glitches may have been cause by that, or possi ly the fact that I turned aero off. Silly me still thinking that is better or more efficient (I just hate the effects). Without aero, windows don't drag .. Smoothly?

Anyway, thanks for all the help! Imaging to my SSD as I type this.....

 

I don't like the effects either. Under advanced system settings > Visual effects I select best performance and then tick smooth edges of screen fonts. It looks like XP with nice firm outlines and clear titles to windows.

John