When I use Standby mode in windows XP, all is well, but when I (accidently) used it in Vista 32bit, something very odd happened.

The PC seemed to shut down, but then started to SCREAM at me. A high pitched continous tone, coming from god knows where. It wasn't the speakers since I had headphones connected instead. It went on until I panicked and turned the power off.

Now, the scream has happened before. Vista always does that in standby mode. Does anyone know why?

But anyway, something worse happened this time. I powered off and then on again, and the PC booted up, or at least seemed to. Nothing appeared on my screen though. I got no signal to the monitor (a HDTV). I powered it off again, left it off for several seconds, and turned it on again.

It then booted up, but gave me a message in the BIOS saying "Overclocking failed!" and made me either start the PC with default BIOS settings, or go into the BIOS and adjust things myself. I went into the BIOS, made sure everything was normal, told it to use defaults, and started the PC. It then reset itself and booted normally. There have been no problems since, but then again I've avoided using Vista.

Now, this is the weirdest part of all.

I have never, ever, overclocked my CPU.

There is no overclocking, never has been. My GPU has been overclocked using Rivatuner in the past, but that wouldn't affect the boot up...

What the heck is going on?

Does anyone know why Vista screams in agony whenever it goes into Standby? And what's with the "Overclocking failed" warning? Does Vista do something really screwy to my CPU voltage instead of going into standby?

As you may have guessed, I'm running a dual boot with XP and Vista.

I've actually had the system have a high pitch sound come when I place it into standby mode. This is due to the hardware having incompatibilities with being place in "standby" or "sleep" mode. How I've resolved this (might not be the same way you would resolve it but you can give it a try) would be to disable ACPI (advanced power management mode) in the bios. Also, make sure you have the latest drivers for your advanced power management for your OS. You'll need to go to the motherboard manufacturer and see if they have any drivers listed that supports ACPI.

I've also seen the overclocking error before as well. It's just the BIOS freaking out on an abnormal shutdown and for some reason it sees the CPU as something different than it should be. I've also seen the BIOS mis-report the actual CPU speed but the OS sees the ccorrect CPU speed. A couple to a few reboots resolved the over-clocking problem for me.

That sounds like the same thing that happened to me.

Thing is though, it only happens in Vista standby mode, and NOT XP standby mode. XP standby is merely annoying because I never, ever want it to activate. My keyboard has one of those stupid standby buttons that you hit while attempting to press ESC.

So if it's a hardware problem, why does it only happen with a certain OS? Does Vista go into standby differently somehow?

it's possible. Vista was re-written and had tons of problem when it was released. Vista might be handling power management differently than XP does.

So... am I the only person who wishes there was a little plastic safety cover over that stupid Standby button on the keyboard?

You can edit the registry to remove the standby button:

quote

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ACPI\Parameters\

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add New Dword value: Attributes

quote

Key Value: 0x70

I got as far as the Parameters folder, but I don't see how to add anything called a Dword value... All I see in there are two items.

(default)

and

AMLIMaxCTObjs

What do I do?

This is in XP, by the way. Does that make a difference? I assume I'd have to remove the key in Vista seperately, but is it in the same way?

Strange. I put mine in standby all the time.

The only time a high pitch noise like yours has happened to me is when I turned my laptop on and accidentally hit it against the wall during bootup and it went all messed, Sounds like a car alarm. I was actually quite surprised how loud it is without using the speakers.

@DG - When you are in the Parameter's folder, on the right side screen --> right click --> New --> DWORD --> Type Attributes --> then double-click the new Dword --> type 70 (make sure you keep the format in Hexadecimal).

Ok...

What exactly is that doing, by the way?

And will that particular numerical code apply to that exact key for every model of keyboard?

The registry DWord will either hide or grey out the Standby option. The number is just 70 (in hexadecimal) so having a different keyboard doesn't make a difference. As far as I know, that key will only apply to the standby option in the OS. If you have a keyboard that has a standby key, then I would suggest using your keyboard software and disabling that macro to prevent standby.