I have a question about computers going in to Standby mode. I have had many computers over the last 8 years, some of which were “name brand” computers and some of which I have built myself. It seems as though the “name brand” computers go in to Standby mode better than the ones I have built except for the last computer that I built for my son. Let me explain. On my main computer I have a XION case with blue lights on the front; when I put the computer in Standby the only thing that really happens is the monitor goes black and the light on the monitor goes to orange. All the lights stay on and all the fans continue to run. My son’s computer that I built using a cheapo case and power supply is different; when I put the computer in Standby, you can hear the hard drive kind of churn for a couple of seconds and then you hear the PC go quiet as if it has been shut down completely. The fans on the inside go quiet, as well as the fan on the power supply. Move the mouse or hit a key on the keyboard and the PC comes back up. My HTPC reacts the same way as my main computer; when I try to put it in Standby everything still acts as though it’s powered on normally. I would like my HTPC to enter the same kind of Standby that my son’s computer does because on weekends I might turn the HTPC on sometime in the morning or mid-day and leave it on all day and night until I get ready for bed. This would save power and make it easier for me to use if I need it instead of turning it off and on. Also, I would like to be able to keep it in Standby mode all the time instead of shutting it down so that my wife will actually start to use it. I want to eventually get rid of my unnecessary equipment in my audio rack, but I can’t until I work out all the kinks in the HTPC and make it fool-proof for everyone to use. My main question is, what controls how Standby works? Is it the motherboard that has to support the type of standby that I want, or does the power supply have to be capable of entering a standby mode? I’ve always used “standard” power supplies (the ones supplied with the case) and have always wondered if they were the problem. I have an ASUS socket A motherboard in my main computer, an ASRock socket 775 (with e6600 cpu ) in my HTPC, and a Gigabyte socket 754 in my son’s computer.
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