Ever Changing Power Settings

[djkwik]

Hey Guestolo,

I sent the following query about my computer but you said I needed to start a new topic since the other one was so old...so here it is:

Sorry its been awhile since I checked here, been really busy lately. I have been now experiencing a problem where this piece of crap Dell keeps changing the power settings on me. It wasn't bad enough when they just wouldn't work at all forcing me to do a restart. Not to mention the crap of this thing seizing-up on me when I go to wake it out of sleep mode when it actually DOES go into sleep mode like its supposed to. But this is just getting ridiculous! I just got done trying to just set up a new power scheme and saved it, then not a half hour later, I walked past the room and noticed that yet again the power settings had not taken, so when I opened it to check, sure enough this damn thing went back to Max Battery setting, and when I pull down the choices for power schemes the one I JUST CREATED AND SAVED was not even there! Any ideas? Here is a fresh HJT log...

[guestolo]

What is the exact Make/model of laptop do you have?

[djkwik]

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'463864\' date=\'Jul 6 2009, 10:04 AM\']What is the exact Make/model of laptop do you have?[/quote]

This is actually a Dell Inspiron 530S with Windpws XP.  I've been having this problem almost since I got it about 8-9 months ago.  I also have been having a problem with this thing seizing up on me when I go to "wake" it out of sleep mode.  This model has that real loud fan when you first start it up for a few seconds.  What this thing does is, when I click the mouse button to wake it out of sleep mode (my power setting is set to put it into sleep mode if it has been 1 hour after last use) anyway, more times than I can count, instead of the fan blasting hig speed for a few seconds then the screen coming on with Windows already up and running, the fan stays running in high speed mode and nothing ever happens.  I can't even power the thing down with the on/off button.  I have to crawl under my desk and unplug the thing, wait for about 30 seconds, then plug it back in and then turn it on.  This has been going on forever, the people at Dell are no help at all, and I can't seem to find any forum in which other Inspiron 530 users have had this happening to them.

I also just accepted the Explorer 8 update, and now, quite often when I finally get this thing to turn on for me, I open any explorer application (liek to check my email for instance) and the tool bars at the top of the page are blacked out (the 'File/Edit/View/Favorites/Tools/Help' bar and the bar showing the open tabs. They will be blacked out and even a restart does not clear it.  I think that may be an issue with the new Version 8 but I have not had any Windows Update with any patches or repairs since it came out.  Is there anyone on this forum that has an Inspiron 530S experiencing this continual crap with theirs?

I don't use this thing for gaming or any other unusual activity.  Pretty much its my Library, Encyclopedia (google is very heavily used), e-mail, word processing with MS Office 2007 Home Edition, and thats about it.  I just can't understand why this thing is being such a problematic pile of excrement.