Power Down and Memory Usage

[snpexim]

My desktop consists of: MoBo: Intel-DG965SS, CPU: Intel-D805, DRAM: 2X512 MB 800 MHz DDR-2, HDD: Seagate-250 GB sata-2, Monitor: Dell-1905FP 19inch LCD, Writer: Sony- DVD writer, Accessory: Leadtek Winfast Palmtop TV tuner box. OS: Windows XP pro SP-2. Bios set for 128 MB of video ram. I am not into gaming, however I do convert and edit video files and do the usual ppt, xls, doc, cdr, etc. work. I have the MTNL triband 399 connection giving me 450-420 kbps broadband. Currently, for the last few days, I have been facing 'shut down' issues. After the shut down is initiated, various systems shut down but the power does NOT switch off. I am forced to hold down the power button on the box for six seconds before everything shuts down. After checking out on the internet, I amended the 'registry' so that the Hkey Local Machine-Software-Microsoft-Windows NT-CurrentVersion-Winlogon-PowerdownAfterShutdown value was changed from '0' to '1'. After a couple of times of shut down and cold booting, I did find the problem disappear, only to reappear later on. I am at my wits end, since now I cannot just do the shut down and walk away. As such the whole process takes over 60 seconds. Please guide me on what I can do to resolve this issue other than format and re-load the C: drive. The later will take me five hours of loading and re-setting. There is another related issue of 'memory usage'. Though I have 1 GB of DRAM, I find that the Ctrl-Alt-Del-Performance tab shows almost 500 MB of available 'physical memory' during normal working. Even if I am running the antivirus software on system, or doing a 'defrag' or running many applications simultaneously, the available physical memory rarely goes below 300 MB. Yet the above applications run slow considering that so much spare ram is lying unused. I have set the C: drive virtual memory at 'system managed size' and 'processor scheduling' at 'programs' and 'memory usage' at 'programs'. Please guide me on how to maximize memory usage. Its only when I run 'google earth' that I find the 'available physical memory' drops down to below 100 MB, indicating that I am using it efficiently. Kindly guide me on these two issues.

 

[power]

Have you fiddled with power management in bios ? Try resetting bios to its default . Is it happening since your last windows install ? or just from last few days on same setup

 

[snpexim]

Well ... actually I have a six month old OS setup. I did change the 'power options' settings in the 'control panel' to 'never' for 'monitor' and 'stand by'. This allowed me to watch DVD movies without finguring the mouse every ten minutes 🙂 Further, I now recall that I ran C: drive 'clean up' and even (foolishly it seems now) deleted 'system restore' extra files. So now I am unable to go to some older 'restore point' where this 'power down' problem does not exist. All seemed fine at that time, even after shut down and re-boot. Yeah ... I even had to un-install the DAP85 soft ware since it kept asking for 'authentification' and my free usage period it seems was over. I had the same problem with TVC (total video converter) which I un-installed and re-installed hoping to continue to use if freeshare. Each time I would 'shut down' with a 'restart' to allow registry to update. I hope this helps.