Vista on T60p -- a few questions

[npish]

these are a few issues/questions that have arisen during the use of Vista on my T60p thus far...

(1) whenever resuming from standby or causing the display to turn back on (after having been turned off via power management), the brightness meter for the LCD is displayed; this is only slightly annoying, but I'm wondering if it's normal--as this behavior did not occur with XP-- and if there is a way to disable it, i.e. only displaying the meter when actually adjusting brightness;

(2) I've noticed that when putting the machine in "sleep" mode, movement of my external mouse can "awaken" it, even when the lid is closed; this certainly did not happen with XP, and I'm wondering if I can adjust some setting to make it so that only by opening the lid or pressing the power button can the system resume from sleep mode;

(3) regarding power management, is it generally a better idea to adjust these settings via Windows setup or ThinkVantage controls? I'm assuming these both can work & live "in harmony," and that either will work fine, but perhaps not...

(4) with this new "sleep" mode, which apparently combines attributes of older "sleep" and "hibernate" functions, is it safe to leave the system in this state, say, over night, so that whenever I start to use the system, I can just quickly resume from sleep? or is it best to just turn the system completely off for long periods of time?

(5) finally--not a Vista question, but figured I'd throw it in--what is "digital line detect" in the startup items, and is it necessary?

Thanks for assistance/feedback on any of these questions....

[npish]

bah, silly me, I found the answer to question #2-- going into system properties and accessing the power management tab for the mouse properties offers an option to allow/disallow this device to "wake" the system......there's one solved.

[jjesusfreak01]

I do recall my brightness meter coming on after standbys. If the screen was off, its technically changing from off to a predefined brightness state controlled by the thinkvantage software, which is why this appears.

I would use the thinkvantage controls for basic power management. That is, to set your batter/ac profiles. Obviously, there are some things that the OS sets, like standby time and all.

Theoretically, Vista should have less of a problem with being left on for long periods of time (I believe MS mentioned this). I wouldn't worry about it, you can leave it on, and if it starts to slow down or something, just restart it.

I removed digital line detect quickly after getting my laptop, and I have to clue what it does.

[steveh]

(1) whenever resuming from standby or causing the display to turn back on (after having been turned off via power management), the brightness meter for the LCD is displayed; this is only slightly annoying, but I'm wondering if it's normal--as this behavior did not occur with XP-- and if there is a way to disable it, i.e. only displaying the meter when actually adjusting brightness;

In Vista, it is a normal function.

(3) regarding power management, is it generally a better idea to adjust these settings via Windows setup or ThinkVantage controls? I'm assuming these both can work & live "in harmony," and that either will work fine, but perhaps not...

I have found that they do not often work in harmony, and that if they overlap, use ThinkVantage as it generally overrides the Windows choice.

(4) with this new "sleep" mode, which apparently combines attributes of older "sleep" and "hibernate" functions, is it safe to leave the system in this state, say, over night, so that whenever I start to use the system, I can just quickly resume from sleep? or is it best to just turn the system completely off for long periods of time?

Hybrid sleep is not turned on by default and has to be manually enabled. For overnight purposes standard sleep is fine and is much more convenient than hibernate or hybrid sleep.

(5) finally--not a Vista question, but figured I'd throw it in--what is "digital line detect" in the startup items, and is it necessary?

Digital line detect can save your motherboard;
"The dlg.exe process runs in the background and attempts to detect whether your modem has been connected to a digital line (internal PABX line) or an analogues line (normal home phone). If it determines that your modem is plugged into a digital line it will display a warning (as your modem will not work on a digital line). If your modem is connected and working you should disable this service.

dlg.exe is flagged as a system process and does not appear to be a security risk. However, removing Digital line detector may adversely impact your system.

The Process Server database currently registers dlg.exe to BVRP software.

This is part of BVRP Classic phone tools."

HTH,

Steve

[jjesusfreak01]

Thanks for the info on digital line detect. I didnt know that. Nevertheless, I never use the modem, so not a problem.

[npish]

thank you for the responses- very helpful!

[npish]

here's another set of questions regarding re-installation of Vista and/or XP:

if I want to re-install Vista--i.e. a clean install, which I like to do every few months or so (as I did with XP)-- can I just follow my initial procedure with the express upgrade disc and boot from the CD, OR do I actually have to restore my system to a factory-state--i.e. with XP Pro--and then do the "upgrade" process over again?

also, regardless of the answer to the above question, will there be any issues with product activation in reinstalling Vista, as I have already activated my current install?

finally, in the off-chance that I wanted to revert to XP, I can just use R & R to restore the factory system state, correct? I've read some conflicting information about the XP key being invalidated once Vista is activated, which is just completely asinine if that's the case.....

Thanks for any input.