Diary that can boot computer from zero?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Charlie+
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C

Charlie+

After a fruitless search just thaught I might try here for anyone who
has come across a Windows diary that can boot the computer from OFF (not
standby) when it needs to inform of an entry?
On some systems I believe Windows Sheduler can boot from zero - is that
right? But I want a proper diary with that facility If I could find
one. Im using XP Pro.
Obviously the BIOS can be set to boot on a date and time from RTC but
its very limited in it's possibility .
I had a mini notebook that ran Windows CE which could do all this
happily about 10 years ago, it had a dedicated diary (along with most of
its other software) in solid ROM.
Grateful if anyone could point in the right direction! Thanks..C+
 
Charlie+ said:
After a fruitless search just thaught I might try here for anyone who
has come across a Windows diary that can boot the computer from OFF (not
standby) when it needs to inform of an entry?
On some systems I believe Windows Sheduler can boot from zero - is that
right? But I want a proper diary with that facility If I could find
one. Im using XP Pro.
Obviously the BIOS can be set to boot on a date and time from RTC but
its very limited in it's possibility .
I had a mini notebook that ran Windows CE which could do all this
happily about 10 years ago, it had a dedicated diary (along with most of
its other software) in solid ROM.
Grateful if anyone could point in the right direction! Thanks..C+
Click to expand...

Each Southbridge chip on computer motherboards, pays homage to
this design. It's the model number of the RTC (real time clock).
Included in the functions, is an "alarm clock".

At one time, this was a separate chip, and it kept the time when the
computer was shut off. Someone liked it so much, they copied it
into the Southbridge of the chipset (to save money). Presumably,
Motorola was paid some good money for this (royalty). So having
a copy of this, it makes it easier to understand what's in the
hardware.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/motorola/MC146818AS.pdf

"a complete time of day clock with alarm"

What that means is, the hardware has access to an alarm function,
if it wants one.

*******

The bad news, is on page 81 "4.8.2.4 Real Time Clock Alarm"

http://www.acpi.info/DOWNLOADS/ACPIspec50.pdf

"Notice that the G2/S5 “soft off” and the G3 “mechanical off”
states are not sleeping states. The OS will disable the RTC_EN
bit prior to entering the G2/S5 or G3 states regardless."

"If implemented, the RTC wake feature is required to work in the
following sleeping states: S1-S3. S4 wake is optional"

What that means is, the RTC alarm can't wake the computer when the
computer is in S5 (I think that's shutdown from menu).
S3 is Standby Suspend to RAM (the "instant recovery" flavor of sleep).
S4 is Hibernate (the "wait while the disk grinds" flavor of sleep).
So in Windows, when you shut down, in theory the computer is wake-able
if you select Standby or Hibernate, but not if you select Shutdown.

Compliance with ACPI would be relatively important, for anyone
making a product. I have run into computers which violate
the spirit of the above (i.e. by placing a timer setting
in the BIOS), but I don't know what the consequences of going
over and above the ACPI spec are. And it's just possible the
computer with the BIOS timer setting, came out before the ACPI
spec did.

Paul
 
After a fruitless search just thaught I might try here for anyone who
has come across a Windows diary that can boot the computer from OFF (not
standby) when it needs to inform of an entry?
Click to expand...


"Diary"? Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "diary." Can you be
explicit, please?
 
"Diary"? Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "diary." Can you be
explicit, please?
Click to expand...
Sorry if unclear - Normally used here hardcopy to write in for
appointments, reminders, any date any time, etc. (rather than "to keep a
diary" - which is a personal story!) C+
 
Sorry if unclear - Normally used here hardcopy to write in for
appointments, reminders, any date any time, etc. (rather than "to keep a
diary" - which is a personal story!) C+
Click to expand...


Sorry, but I still don't understand what you mean. How can hardcopy be
used to boot a computer?
 
Sorry, but I still don't understand what you mean. How can hardcopy be
used to boot a computer?
Click to expand...

Think software reminder. He wants it to boot the computer when/if a future
"todo" date matches the current date.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

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Taxes out of hand? Maybe just ready for a change?
Check it out... http://www.floridaloghouse.net
 
After a fruitless search just thaught I might try here for anyone who
has come across a Windows diary that can boot the computer from OFF (not
standby) when it needs to inform of an entry?
Click to expand...

I am confused, are you talking about a calendar event? Why would you
want a calendar update to wake your computer? What exactly are you
trying to do? Do you want to synchronize the calendars on two different
computers?

Let's consider a calendar that exists on The Cloud (i.e. a network
calendar), such as Google Calendar. You can synchronize Google Calendar
with many local calendars on your PC through the network. However, the
synchronization doesn't require that you wake the PC as soon as you
change the calendar on another PC. The first PC can sync itself up with
the Google Calendar, and then whenever you wake your second PC, it can
also reach out to the Google Calendar and sync itself up. Of course, it
requires that both computers have access to Internet while they are
awake to get synced.

Yousuf Khan
 
Sorry, but I still don't understand what you mean. How can hardcopy be
used to boot a computer?
Click to expand...

Diary = Record of daily events including memoranda past and appointments
made in the future, I wanted to find a software diary capable of waking
a computer at a future appointment reminder even if the computer happens
to be off at the reminder time. I suppose another name would be an
organiser but in the days before computers etc. we all kept a business
diary! Its probably an age thing. Sorry about that! C+
 
Diary = Record of daily events including memoranda past and appointments
made in the future, I wanted to find a software diary capable of waking
Click to expand...


Software diary? OK, but in your previous message, you said just the
opposite--hardcopy: "Normally used here hardcopy to write in for
appointments, reminders, any date any time, etc

a computer at a future appointment reminder even if the computer happens
to be off at the reminder time. I suppose another name would be an
organiser but in the days before computers etc. we all kept a business
diary! Its probably an age thing. Sorry about that! C+
Click to expand...


Age thing? I'm probably older than you; I'm 75. I'm well aware of what
the word "diary" means. But it was your sentence "a Windows diary that
can boot the computer from" that I didn't at all understand. I've
worked with computers since 1962, but I've never before heard anybody
talk about a Windows diary.

But I doesn't matter. I didn't mean to give you a hard time; I just
wanted to understand what you meant. I'll let it go now.
 
Each Southbridge chip on computer motherboards, pays homage to
this design. It's the model number of the RTC (real time clock).
Included in the functions, is an "alarm clock".

At one time, this was a separate chip, and it kept the time when the
computer was shut off. Someone liked it so much, they copied it
into the Southbridge of the chipset (to save money). Presumably,
Motorola was paid some good money for this (royalty). So having
a copy of this, it makes it easier to understand what's in the
hardware.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/motorola/MC146818AS.pdf

"a complete time of day clock with alarm"

What that means is, the hardware has access to an alarm function,
if it wants one.

*******

The bad news, is on page 81 "4.8.2.4 Real Time Clock Alarm"

http://www.acpi.info/DOWNLOADS/ACPIspec50.pdf

"Notice that the G2/S5 “soft off” and the G3 “mechanical off”
states are not sleeping states. The OS will disable the RTC_EN
bit prior to entering the G2/S5 or G3 states regardless."

"If implemented, the RTC wake feature is required to work in the
following sleeping states: S1-S3. S4 wake is optional"

What that means is, the RTC alarm can't wake the computer when the
computer is in S5 (I think that's shutdown from menu).
S3 is Standby Suspend to RAM (the "instant recovery" flavor of sleep).
S4 is Hibernate (the "wait while the disk grinds" flavor of sleep).
So in Windows, when you shut down, in theory the computer is wake-able
if you select Standby or Hibernate, but not if you select Shutdown.

Compliance with ACPI would be relatively important, for anyone
making a product. I have run into computers which violate
the spirit of the above (i.e. by placing a timer setting
in the BIOS), but I don't know what the consequences of going
over and above the ACPI spec are. And it's just possible the
computer with the BIOS timer setting, came out before the ACPI
spec did.

Paul
Click to expand...

Paul thanks for your informative post - the distraction of others not
understanding what I was looking for, er distracting! It looks from
what you say that the facjlity just isnt there in the hardware for
software running on Windows to achieve poweron from zero.
I found progs. that do all I want except this poweron facility eg.:
Avisoft Diary or Avisoft Organizer, http://www.avisoft.co.uk
The systems we have will allow BIOS poweron from PCI, PCI-e, USB, RTC,
Modem, keyboard etc. but the start signal has to come from outside it
seems apart from the in BIOS RTC facility which I use at the each day
setting anyway.
Thanks for your help. C+
 
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