Well, it’s actually a good feature, but it can go bad somtimes.

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, there were various new powersaving features introduced. Now these are great features and it is good to see moves towards helping the environment. We are all for that and you should be too.

I have seen some figures on how much power is wasted just by workers leaving on their computers 24/7. With some of the powersaving features, it can massively cut electricity usage. It is time for all of us to get a bit smarter in this regard. Funny thing is, not only do you save electricity, but money too. This goes for home and business users. Come on guys, switch it off.

Okay, enough ranting. What I wanted to say was watch out for the powersaving feature, because it might be turning off crucial hardware.

We have had users that unexpectedly lost their internet connectivity. This was for no reason at all and it wouldn’t come back until a reboot. It turns out the culprit was powersaving and the ethernet card being powered down.

So if you are running Windows 7 and you lose internet after a brief stint away from your computer, then check out the power settings. It is very possible that the ethernet card is being powered down. If this happens, you obviously lose all connectivity, but it’s a bit tricky to debug. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to power back, until reboot.

So check it out.