Away Mode driver

[johny media]

Well most things are now working on my Scaleo with XP media Centre, but one thing that is not is away mode. I have downloaded the suggested driver (from Soxlades post re Maplin Scaleo e drivers) it's a windows file KB902437-ENU but on opening I get a message "The environment is incorrect" then clicking ok, "AwayMode 160 installation did not complete" does anyone have any suggestions - it would be a useful feature to have working (appart from the annoyance of the flashing gree led)?
Thanks

[kid-jensen]

Johnny Media,

Just looked into this as I was thinking of using it myself. What is really disturbing is that "the Power Consumption in Away Mode is similar to normal operation" (Microsoft's words).
This is a scandalous situation where the PC is using 200 to 300Watts, 24 hours a day, and because the graphics card is blanked by Away Mode, you think it's off....

Might as well leave it on, at least you could watch TV whilst you're waiting...

My inclination would be to disable "Away Mode" and use "Standby" to get a significantly reduced power consumption (a few watts) and if MCE is configured right, it should wake up to do the recording, then go back to sleep after.

Just like a dedicated PVR (only more fun because it has Windows in it).

[johny media]

thanks for that - there's no way I'd want to leave the machine eating a couple hundred watts or more when I'm not using it! It's just a pity to have to come out of media centre to switch the machine off which involves using the wireless keyboard (the ball mouse thing on mine is nigh on useless!), kind of takes away from the slickness of having the remote with all the functions on - I wonder if anyone could come up with a way of accessing standbye from the r/c? Prolly not.

[kid-jensen]

Johny Media,

I might be missing something, but my Scaleo switches to Standby when you press the Power button on the MCE remote, and starts up again when you press it again. In standby, the blue Power Light switches to flashing Yellow, all fans and HDD activity stop, and the mains power consumption drops to a few watts.

This is how I understand it was designed to work....

Getting MCE to record everything you want it to, then go back to standby as it's supposed to, is what keeps me busy most weekends....

I think the return to standby is the usual function that gives so much trouble.

If you're desperate, you could set a "User inactivity" setting in "MCE Standby Tool" to say, 15 minutes. It would then go back to standby (if nobody pressed any buttons) 15 minutes after the last recording stopped.

This setting may be a nuisence in other situations though, so you may want to play about with it....

Hope that helps.

[johny media]

Yep, that is what I hoped would happen, ie the standbye button on the r/c putting the machine into a low power state, I tried it once and it did do that, with the flashing green light, but I could not wake the machine, had to force it to restart vai holding the on button, when it did I got the other problem of no comunication with the keyboard so had to do what someone on here suggested, unplug the unit for a minute to allow it to fully reset, which it did and it powered up fine with everything working including r/c and keyboard. I have not tried standbye again due to all that hassle.
So, It's kinda two faults really, one it wont wake up again, two, when it does the k/b is u/s. Plus of course the away mode driver says it has failed to install whenever I try it...one for F/S maybe???

[rocketz]

I installed the AMD Away mode driver (google it, its easy to find) which identified the product. I then ran Driver Agent which found that it was the wrong driver and reccomended that I upgrade the driver to the Intel Away Mode

BUT

I am not too sure about the Intel drivers because my Scaleo fan blows too much with the newer drivers. For now I am leaving the old Intel drivers because I am hoping not to increase the fan noise (after a clean instal with WIN 7) if that is the problem, I dont know

Having said that WIN 7 has given my Scaleo a new lease on life and I am very happy with it, again

[rocketz]

Here you can download the driver

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KM0CJZV9

[johny media]

yep, that's the driver I have but it wont load for me.

[johny media]

and I now think I have found out why away mode wont install for me - I have xp 2002, and it needs to be 2005 onwards, according to a post I found on another thread here somewhere.