I'm a new XP user (I've been using Win98 for the last 6 years), and I just took delivery of this system last week. I don't consider myself a computer "geek", but I pretty much know my way around and usually can resolve my own issues. Having said that, I have two small quirks with this new system that are more annoyances than problems, but I think things ought to work as designed, so here I am asking my question!

Quirk #1: If I leave the computer on for an extended period of time without using it (an hour or two), when I come back to it, it cannot find the connection to the internet anymore. A simple reboot (soft or hard) cures the problem, but I know I shouldn't have to go through this. I've turned off all the "power-saving" stuff and the "sleep" options are all off. The only thing that still activates after inactivity is the screensaver (to my knowledge, anyway). Any ideas as to what the problem might be?

Quirk #2: Again - I'm new to XP, so I'm new to having an OS with multiple logins (I never set up user accounts with Win98). I set my new Dell up with two user accounts (mine and my wife's), and for some strange reason, I cannot get any sounds to play with windows "system events", such as signing on, signing off, error messages, minimizing/maximizing windows, etc. I have always assigned specific .wav files to specific system events without any problem on my Win98 PC, so I did the same thing with this one. I can assign sounds to event without any problem, and when I click the "play" button in the dialog box when setting up these sounds, everything sounds great. I've saved the scheme under my name, and told the system to apply it, but I get nothing (by the way, I think these worked the first time I turned on the PC out of the box, but they soon quit - long before I tried assigning specific .wav files to them). But when I change users to my wife's account, all the default settings work just fine (I have not attempted to change her sounds). Switching back to my account brings back the silence. I've tried going back to the default settings, but still the silence remains. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance to all who reply - I truly appreciate your time!!!

- Don

Welcome to SAF!

Re the first issue: Go into the hardware device manager. Expand the Network Adapters. Right click your network card and select "Properties".
The last tab is Power Management. Uncheck "Allow computer to turn off this device to save power."

There are also settings in the BIOS to check.

Not sure yet about the 2nd issue. I will post back if I find anything.

Thanks so much for the reply! Your advice about the setting on the network card was right on the money! I've unchecked the box, and now the internet stays active even after several hours of inactivity.

If you have any ideas on the "system events" sound issue, just let me know!

Thanks again!!!

We know it is not a sound problem because the sound plays when you click play. We also no it is probably not a driver problem. This makes it a Windows problem.

What happens when you choose Windows Default and click ok? Be careful, cause it seems to default to "none" on its own.

If the Windows default scheme works, you might want to keep it on default and delete any schemes you have created. Then try to create a new one.

If that does not work, I would think you might have an error in the registry. You could try a restore. I do not recommend messing with the registry. It might be better to create a new account for yourself with a different name. I am thinking that would work because the sound work fine on the other account.

I've tried changing the sound scheme back to Windows Default, but it makes no difference. And I certainly don't know enough about registry editing to mess with that!

Thanks again for your advice!

Hiya donmcpeters, and belated welcome to the site,

This is a funny one ... do you have Service Pack 2 for Windows XP installed ? I know there were a few sound bugs fixed with this update.

You can download SP2 free from Microsoft's download page

Yup...the new Dell was delivered with XP, SP2, and I've let the Windows Update thing do it's thing everytime it asks.

So...any suggestions???

(and thanks in advance for your help!)

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