Smart Strip Problem With PIII

[Dmod]

I bought a Smart Strip to try to control my arcade cabinet and save power.  The control input is powered by my old Dell Dimension XPSB933R PIII.

When I put the PIII into standby mode, the monitor output goes dark and the hard drives and fans sound like they spin down.  However, the line current doesn't seem to drop enough to toggle the control switch in the Smart Strip.  I tried playing with the sensitivity but couldn't find a threshold that works.  I can use the sensitivity to force it on or off but there's no setting in the middle that can detect when the PC is in standby or not.

At first I thought it might be a problem caused by the coin door and trackball lighting (which run off the PIII's 12V supply), but I pulled all the bulbs and it still didn't work.  I even tried disconnecting USB connections for the trackball and U360s. 

Is this just an issue with older PCs not being Energy Star compliant, or am I doing something wrong?

[Dustin Mustangs]

I am having the same issue.  Mine is a P4 but I am also trying to get it to work when going into standby mode with no luck.  A very fine tuning of the switch can get it to work, but not reliably.  I've found I can get it to work repeatedly if I cycle the computer on and off relatively quick.  If it stays on long enough to actually use, it is a crap shoot whether it will work or not. 

Short term I have just been shutting down as apposed to going into standby mode and that has it working fine.  I do prefer to sometimes use standby for my machine so I was planning on trying a few things to see if I could get it to work.  I figure if I add some fans and/or led lights it would up the draw when the machine is on and not effect the draw when it is off making it easier for the switch to tell the difference.  If you find something that works post up here and I'll do the same.     

[Cakemeister]

Was there any resolution to this issue? I just upgraded my PC and now my Smart Strip will not trigger.

I was thinking about modding the thing. The adjustment is just a 100 ohm potentiometer, I was going to just solder another pot in series with it to raise the resistance somewhat.

[Dmod]

Was there any resolution to this issue? I just upgraded my PC and now my Smart Strip will not trigger.

I was thinking about modding the thing. The adjustment is just a 100 ohm potentiometer, I was going to just solder another pot in series with it to raise the resistance somewhat.

I never had any luck with my PIII.  I recently upgraded to a new PC with a Gigabyte motherboard and the Smart Strip works correctly with this PC when it goes into sleep mode.

I think the old PCs don't reduce their current draw much when they go into "sleep mode", although I never measured it to confirm.

[Ummon]

I don't know why there isn't a device that connects via serial or something that tells it when on or not, similar to how a UPC works.

[jharris]

Have you tried going into hibernation instead? I know there is a difference though I don't remember at the moment. I think hibernation writes RAM to hard disk and shuts down while Standby (Suspend to RAM?) keeps RAM powered but shuts almost everything else down. You should check your ACPI settings on your motherboard's BIOS and see how it's configured.

[Dmod]

I recall trying both hibernation and standby modes without success. 

I think the ACPI modes on some of those motherboards is pretty limited.  My PIII shipped from Dell with Windows95 and I think the hardware predates a lot of the energy savings modes that Windows now supports.