How to Conserve Battery Power in Windows XP

This post provide some tips to Conserve Battery Power of your laptop if you are using Windows XP. This Windows XP support tips help you to conserving Battery Power.

Is your battery powering your Windows XP laptop requiring a recharge almost constantly? Here are some things you can do to cause Windows XP to use less power:

1. First, check your battery to make sure it is completely holding its charge. This normally can be done by first completely charging your battery, turning your computer completely off, unhooking the battery, then performing a test on the battery by pressing a button or looking at a small display as per your computer manufacturer's instructions.

2. Stay offline when necessary. Network communications may put a drain on battery power.

3. Unhook USB devices whenever not in use - they can zap power.

4. Disable all background processes that you don't need, such as the clock or a background disk defragmenter. DO NOT disable firewalls or antivirus software as removing these programs can cause a security risk!

5. Change the screensaver to the "Blank Screen" screensaver. There's no need wasting power displaying fireworks or marquee text when your computer isn't doing anything important.

6. Though you shouldn't disable your antivirus software, don't schedule complete system scans until your computer is plugged in. Same for spyware scans.

7. Most importantly, when your computer is not in use, either shut it down, put it in standby, or hibernate it.

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Professional is the professional-grade version of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Some features that are included on the Professional version that do not appear on the Home edition include remote desktop, file system encryption, multiple language support and personal web server. Some issues you may have to troubleshoot in Windows XP Professional include start-up difficulties, shutdown problems and error messages. this post provides operating system support to fix windows XP professional.

Analyze the error code by logging onto the Microsoft Support website. If you receive an error message, you can look up the code as well as the fix for the Windows XP Professional operating system. Some examples include 0xC0000218 and 0x000000C2, both stop errors.


Return the computer to a restore point. Restore points can be used to return your computer to a former version before the Windows XP error occurred. Open the "System Tools" menu found under "Accessories." Choose the "Select a Restore Point" option and browse the list of past dates and times that restore points were created. Highlight any point that occurred prior to the operating system issue and click "Confirm Restore Point Selection."


Access the last known configuration of Windows XP Professional that worked. To do this, press F8 at start-up. Highlight "Last Known Good Configuration" and press "Enter."


Restart your computer in Safe Mode to troubleshoot Windows XP Professional. Once in this mode, you can change or delete drivers to fix the OS issue. To start in Safe Mode, press the F8 key during start-up. Choose "Safe Boot" from the "Windows Advanced Options" menu.


Reinstall the Windows XP Professional software. You may need to reinstall the OS if you are unable to troubleshoot the issue with less-aggressive methods. To reinstall Windows XP, make a back-up disc of your programs and files. Then insert the original installation disc and follow the instructions provided by the on-screen wizard that pops up.

Upgrade with the MSDN Version of Windows XP

When you try to upgrade Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Professional by using the MSDN media, you may receive the following error message after your computer restarts the first time to start Text-mode Setup:

Setup was unable to verify drive C:. Your computer may not have enough memory to examine the drive, or your Windows XP CD may contain some corrupted files. To continue, press Enter.

After you press ENTER, you may receive the following error message:

To retry, press Enter. If you are not successful after several tries, quit Setup. Then, to restart setup, copy the Windows XP installation files to your hard disk.

Setup cannot access the CD containing the Windows XP installation files. To quit Setup, press F3.

If you restart your computer and choose the Windows 2000 option on the boot menu, you may receive the following error message on a blue screen:

STOP 0x0000007B (0xED41B84C,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000) INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Resolution

To resolve this problem, note that MSDN Universal, Enterprise, Professional, and Operating Systems subscribers can download the final release of Windows XP from the MSDN Web site:

1. Download the ISO CD-ROM image from the following MSDN Subscriber Downloads page:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx

2. Rename the image file that you downloaded to File name.iso.
3. Double-click the file to start the CD-ROM burning software and burn the image to CD-ROM, restart your computer, and then run Setup.


Although the MSDN DVD version of Windows XP Professional may not work correctly when you try to upgrade from a previous operating system, a clean installation works correctly.

Manually starting XP with a clean boot

This post is intended for advanced computer users. If you are not comfortable with advanced troubleshooting, you might want to ask someone for help or contact Support. For more information contact to computer support services. Here some steps given below to troubleshoot problems of starting xp with clean boot up.

To manually start Windows XP with a clean boot, follow these steps:

Step 1: Start the System Configuration Utility

1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig, and then click OK.
2. The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.

Step 2: Configure selective startup options

1. In the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click the General tab, and then click Selective Startup.
2. Click to clear the Process SYSTEM.INI File check box.
3. Click to clear the Process WIN.INI File check box.
4. Click to clear the Load Startup Items check box. Verify that Load System Services and Use Original BOOT.INI are checked.
5. Click the Services tab.
6. Click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box.
7. Click Disable All, and then click OK.
8. When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

Step 3: Log on to Windows

1. If you are prompted, log on to Windows.
2. When you receive the following message, click to select the Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows start check box, and then click OK.

2. Notes
* You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts.
* The System Configuration Utility is currently in Diagnostic or Selective Startup mode, causing this message to be displayed and the utility to run every time Windows starts.
* Choose the Normal Startup mode on the General tab to start Windows normally and undo the changes you made using the System Configuration Utility.

Step 4: Optional step to disable features

If the clean boot fixed the error, you do not have to perform this step.

Important If your problem is not fixed and you do have to follow this step, it permanently removes all restore points from your computer. The System Restore feature uses restore points to restore your computer to an earlier state. If you remove the restore points, you can no longer restore Windows to an earlier state.

This step temporarily disables Microsoft features such as Plug and Play, networking, event logging, and error reporting.

1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig, and then click OK.
The System Configuration Utility dialog box is displayed.
2. Click the General tab, click to clear the Load System Services check box, and then click OK.
3. When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer.

If these steps helped you start your computer in a clean-boot state, you are finished. If these steps did not help, go to the “Next Steps” section. If you have to return your computer to a normal startup state, go to “Steps to configure Windows to use a Normal startup state”.