Dell OptiPlex Gxi - Manual (Page 32)

2-8 Dell OptiPlex GXi Mini Tower Systems Reference and Installation Guide
Power Management can be implemented at three
levels—Maximum, Regular, and Minimum. (The differ-
ent levels apply to the monitor only; hard-disk drive
operation is the same for all three.) The default setting for
this category is Disabled.
Saving Monitor Power
If you have a Video Electronics Standards Association
(VESA
®
) Display Power Management Signaling
(DPMS)-compliant monitor, enabling the Power Man-
agement category reduces monitor power consumption
during periods of keyboard and mouse inactivity.
NOTE: The power management feature monitors activity of
a mouse connected to the Personal System/2 (PS/2)-
compatible mouse port.
By setting Power Management to Maximum, Regular, or
Minimum, you can set predefined time-out periods (see
Table 2-2) for the two successive monitor shutdown
stages, standby and off.
NOTE: Each monitor manufacturer defines the details of
the shutdown stages for its own monitors. But in all
cases, power consumption decreases with each stage
from “on” (full power) to “standby” (reduced power; the
display image usually disappears) to “off” (where power
consumption is minimal). To define these stages for your
monitor, see the documentation that came with the
monitor.
From either shutdown stage, you can return full power to
the monitor in one of the following ways:
• For most DPMS-compliant monitors, any
subsequent activity—including moving the mouse—
should return full power to the monitor.
• A few DPMS-compliant monitors require that you
turn monitor power off and then on again to return to
full power.
Check your monitor documentation for information on
how your monitor is designed to operate.
Saving EIDE Hard-Disk Drive Power
For most systems, enabling Power Management at any
level causes EIDE hard-disk drives to switch to low-
power mode after about 20 minutes of system inactivity.
NOTES: All EIDE drives shipped with your system sup-
port this feature. (For more information on Energy Star
systems, see “Energy Star Compliance” in Chapter 1.)
Not all EIDE hard-disk drives support this feature.
Enabling this feature for drives that do not support it may
cause the EIDE drive to become inoperable until the
computer is restarted and the Power Management cate-
gory is disabled.
In low-power mode, the disks inside the drive stop spin-
ning. They remain idle until the next drive access, which
causes them to start spinning again. (Because the disks
take a few seconds to regain full speed, you may notice a
slight delay when you next access the hard-disk drive.)
When Power Management is set to Disabled (the default
option), the disks spin constantly as long as the system is
turned on.
Sound
Sound determines whether the integrated audio controller
is on or off. You must reboot your system before a change
takes effect.
NIC
NIC enables or disables the system’s network interface
controller (NIC).
CAUTION: Check your monitor documentation to
make sure you have a DPMS-compliant monitor
before you enable this feature. Otherwise, you risk
damaging the monitor.
Table 2-2. Power Time-Out Periods
Power
Manage-
ment
Setting
EIDE Drive
Spindown
Time-Outs Monitor
Standby
Time-Outs
Monitor
Off
Time-
Outs
Disabled Never Never Never
Maximum 20 minutes 10 minutes 1 hour
Regular 20 minutes 20 minutes 1 hour
Minimum 20 minutes 1 hour Never