What are Power Options?

A setting called Power Options can be found in the Hardware and Sound section of the Windows Control Panel. It enables the user to modify their computer's power settings and power plan. Most brand-new computers have their Power Options set to "balanced", which typically turns off the computer, hard drive, and occasionally the network card (NIC) after a set amount of time. Programs like Procare depend on a constant connection to your primary computer. As a result, these are affected in several other ways, including timeouts, lost connections, and random freeze-ups. Selecting high-performance settings and ensuring that settings like the "sleep the computer" options are set to "never" are both strongly recommended by Procare.

Check Your Primary Computer System First

The primary computer (server) where your Procare database is installed is the most important computer to verify your power options. All PCs connected to it will experience problems if it goes to sleep. Additionally, it is a good choice to double-check these settings on any computers used for check-in as well as secondary "client" systems, those on which Procare is used, but the data is stored elsewhere.

Overview of Power Options

The Power Options windows in various Windows versions can be seen in the images that follow as samples.

How to open Windows Power Options

You can follow these steps to access Windows Power options.

1. You have to press Windows key+X (while holding down the Windows key, press X) to access the Power User Tasks
2. After that, choose Power Options (or press O).

There is another method to open the power options by running the .cpl file.

1. First, you have to click on the Start
2. After that, type cpl and press the Enter key. After clicking on the enter button, it will redirect you to the Power options page.

Windows Power Options: How to Use It

Choose the power package you want to use by selecting the radio button. A list of alternatives may contain several selection indicators, such as radio buttons. The circle fills in when a choice is chosen, and the circle is blank if the choice is not selected. The other circles are deselected when one circle is chosen, allowing for the selection of just one at a time.

1. Balanced (Recommended)

If you are not using anything, save energy; only use more when you need a speedier response.

2. Superior Performance

It gives you the best performance out of your computer while using more energy.

3. Modify the plan settings.

Click Change Plan Settings to modify your electricity plans and select from several possibilities.

Click OK when you are finished.

Power Saver: What is it?

Your computer's power usage is maximized while a portion of its performance is given up when in the Power Saver mode. If you're using a laptop with a battery and need to conserve, use all the strength you can use in the Power Saver mode. If you want to further modify the power settings after switching to the Power Saver mode, select Change Plan Settings, followed by Change advanced power settings.

Changing Windows Power Options

This approach is similar for all Windows versions, even if you are using old and new versions of Windows.

1. First, go to the Start button, and then select the Control Panel
2. Click twice on Power Options.
3. Select "Show additional plans" by clicking the down arrow to bring up more choices.
4. Select Change Plan Settings after first selecting High Performance.
5. During the change of settings screen :
   1. Here, the "Turn off the display" setting should be set to Never if this computer is used to check in kids or staff; otherwise, it can be set to whatever you want.
   2. Ensure that the setting for "Put the computer to sleep" is Never.
   3. Click on the Change option to change advanced power settings.
   4. Click the plus sign (+)next to "Hard disk", after which click the addition symbol (+) next to "Turn off hard disk". After changing the setting to Never or Zero, click OK to return to the Change Settings screen.
   5. After that, close the Power Options and go back to the Control Panel by clicking Save Changes.
6. Open Device Manager when you're back at the Control Panel
7. When using Device Manager:
   1. To expand the section marked Network Adapters, click the tiny arrow next to it.
   2. One or more Network Adapters might be present. For the Properties screen to appear, double-click the first item on the list.
8. The Properties screen displays:
   1. Select the Power Management button (top right).
   2. To prevent the computer from turning off a device to conserve power, uncheck the box next to it and then click OK.
9. Do the same for any additional network
10. The Control Panel and Device Manager should be closed.
11. In the end, Restart the computer.