UniPOWER DPMS Screen Saver

Click the portion of the setup dialog box that you require assistance with:

See Also:

What do the DPMS States mean anyway?

Calculating the Activation Delay

Problems with the Standby State

What is Password Protection?


Calculating the Activation Delay

All of the activation delays that you set in the UniPOWER configuration dialog box are cumulative. That is the total delay to get to a certain state is the sum of the delays for all previous states before that state. Note also that all the activation delays take effect after the normal Windows screen saver activation delay that is specified separately in the Windows Control Panel. For instance, the following table describes a common configuration:

State:	Activation Delay:	Total time till activation:

Activate UniPOWER	10 min (from Control Panel)	10 min

Standby	0 min	10 min (10+0)

Suspend	5 min	15 min (10+0+5)

Off	15 min	30 min (10+0+5+15)

See Also:

What do the DPMS States mean anyway?

Problems with the Standby State


Problems with the Standby State

By default when you installed UniPOWER, the Standby state is disabled. Some monitors do not support this particular state, and on some video card configurations, this state is difficult to signal correctly. You may notice that when the Standby state has been activated, the video monitor goes directly in the Off state, rather than the Standby state. If this happens then your video card was not able to correctly signal this state to the video monitor, and it should disabled.

If you wish to activate the Standby state, be sure to test it for correct operation with your video monitor using the provide TEST button in the UniPOWER configuration dialog box. If the state is not working correctly, you will not damage your video card or your monitor, but the monitor will incorrectly detect this state as the Off state.

See Also:

What do the DPMS States mean anyway?

Calculating the Activation Delay


What do the DPMS States mean anyway?

In late 1993 the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA ) completed and ratified the Display Power Management Signalling, or DPMS standard. The DPMS standard allows normal VGA or SuperVGA video cards to communicate with DPMS compliant video monitors via a special signalling system. This signalling system allows the video card to tell the monitor to go into a number of different power management or power saving states, which effectively allow the monitor to turn itself off when it is not in use. The primary benefit of this is dramatically decreased (up to 90%!) power consumption when your computer is sitting idle, but it also saves you money.

There are basically four states that a DPMS compliant monitor can be in, and they are usually enter into one after the other in a sequential fashion. Each of the different states provides a tradeoff between minimum power consumption and minimum recovery time (the time it take before you can see the picture again!). The following table outlines the currently defined power management states, and how they relate to each other. Also included are some ballpark figures for power consumption and recovery times, but you should consult the documentation that comes with your video monitor for more accurate figures:

State	Power	Recovery Time	Notes

On	100%	N/A	Normal use

Standby	< 80%	~1 sec	Minimal power reduction (optional)

Suspend	< 30 watts	~4 secs	Substantial power reduction

Off	< 5 watts	~8-20 secs	Lowest level or power - non operational

Note that the Standby state is optional and may not be provided by some monitors.

See Also:

Calculating the Activation Delay

Problems with the Standby State


What is Password Protection?

Password protection allows you to protect valuable data on your computer from interference by unwanted people. Basically during installation or setup you specifiy a personal code, or password that will be used to stop unauthorised access to your computer. When the UniPOWER screen saver is activated, in order to return Windows to whatever it was doing before the screensaver was activated, the correct password must be entered. If an incorrect password is entered, UniPOWER will resume its normal power management activities and the display will remain blanked. This will continue until a correct password is entered.


Standby State Activation Delay

This edit box contains the activation delay for the Standby state (if the standby state is disabled, this edit box will contain the string 'disabled' and you wont be able to edit it). This delay is the amount of time that UniPOWER waits before entering this state after UniPOWER is initially activated. If the value you enter is greater than zero, UniPOWER will blank the screen and display a message that it will be activating soon in order to give you a chance to exit before the Standby state is activated.

Note that the Standby Activation Delay comes into effect after Windows has started the UniPOWER screen saver, which occurs after the normal screensaver activation delay that has been set in the Windows Control Panel. If you want UniPOWER to immediately go into the DPMS states, then leave the first activation delay set to 0 min.

See Also:

Calculating the Activation Delay


Suspend State Activation Delay

This edit box contains the activation delay for the Suspend state. This delay is the amount of time that UniPOWER waits before changing from the Standby state to the Suspend state, after the Standby state has been activated (not the total time to activate this state). If the value you enter is zero, this state will be skipped.

See Also:

Calculating the Activation Delay


Off State Activation Delay

This edit box contains the activation delay for the Off state. This delay is the amount of time that UniPOWER waits before changing from the Suspend state to the Off state, after the Suspend state has been activated (not the total time to activate this state).

See Also:

Calculating the Activation Delay


Testing the Standby State

Clicking on this button will temporarily activate the Standby state so that you can test it with your monitor. When the state is activated, the display will be blanked. In order to return the display to the original state, simply move the mouse or click one of the mouse buttons and the Windows desktop will be restored.

See Also:

What do the DPMS States mean anyway?


Testing the Suspend State

Clicking on this button will temporarily activate the Suspend state so that you can test it with your monitor. When the state is activated, the display will be blanked. In order to return the display to the original state, simply move the mouse or click one of the mouse buttons and the Windows desktop will be restored.

See Also:

What do the DPMS States mean anyway?


Testing the Off State

Clicking on this button will temporarily activate the Off state so that you can test it with your monitor. When the state is activated, the display will be blanked. In order to return the display to the original state, simply move the mouse or click one of the mouse buttons and the Windows desktop will be restored.

See Also:

What do the DPMS States mean anyway?


Enabling the Standby State

Checking this option will enable the Standby state. By default this state is not enabled when UniPOWER is first installed. When the Standby state is disabled, UniPOWER will not attempt to enter this state, but will go directly to the Suspend state.

See Also:

Problems with the Standby State


Enable Password Protection

Checking this option will enable the Password Protection option of UniPOWER. This means that you must enter the correct password before UniPOWER will disabled itself after activation.

See Also:

What is Password Protection?


Set Password Dialog Box

Click the portion of the Set Password dialog box that you require assistance with:

Once you have entered the correct entries into this dialog box, hit the OK button. If the information your entered for the Old Password, New Password and Verify Password is correct, the password will be changed.

See Also:

What is Password Protection?


Old Password

If this edit box is enabled, a password has already been set for UniPOWER. In order to change the current password, you must first enter the old password correctly (so that no-one else can change your password without you knowing about it).


New Password

Enter the new password that you want UniPOWER to use into this edit box.


Verify Password

Re-enter the same password that you entered into the New Password edit box. This value must be exactly the same as the value in the New Password edit box, or else the password will not be changed for you.