Windows Vista, Sleep to Shut Down

Ever wondered how to change the default behaviour of the Sleep button found in the Windows Start Menu to a Shut Down button? If so just follow these instructions...

• Press the Windows key then type in 'pow' and press enter (this should open the power options control panel)
  
• Click 'Change plan settings' on the power plan you currently have selected
  
• Click 'Change advanced power settings'
  
• Expand 'Power buttons and lid'
  
• Expand 'Start menu power button'
  
• Now change the setting 'sleep' to 'shut down'
  
• Click 'Apply' and 'OK'

Now the yellowish sleep button in the start menu has become a red shut down button.

Alternative 'nvstor32.sys' BSOD Fix

If you are having problems with the updated nForce drivers that I posted the other day (not that I'm expecting you to), have a look at the following alternative fix by a guy named David...

For some months now, I have had a persistent problem with my wife’s laptop, she has a HP Pavilion dv6000 (dv6231eu), which came with XP media centre, earlier this year I upgraded the OS to Vista Ultimate, and I used the Vista drivers downloaded from HPs Support Web site. Since then, she has had several BSOD much to MY pain, to make things more difficult, the BSOD screen was blurred and I couldn’t read the message. read more...

Vista, nvstor32.sys and the BSOD!

I recently upgraded my computer with some larger hard drives, allowing me to run internal backups. My plan was to use the inbuilt Windows Vista backup tool to run both file and complete backups (I'm running Ultimate) and things were going great until about 80% of the way through a complete backup. At this stage my computer crashed to the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death) and the error message listed a file called 'nvstor32.sys'. After a quick google search I found this file to be part of the nForce SATA drive for my motherboard (a DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert).

So I now knew what was causing the fault and assumed that a simple driver fix would solve the problem. I navigated my way over to the nVidia downloads section only to find that the current drivers found in the 15.01 nForce package were the ones already installed on my computer. This forced me on a journey through the series of tubes that is the internet to find some sort of magical updated driver.

After a while and with some random luck, I found a few threads where people were talking about a secret 5.10.2600.995 SATA & RAID driver. I was hoping that this was the key to fixing my problem and all I needed to do was find download link (which didn't take long). But the real great news only came after I had installed the updated driver and found that it did fix my problem. Allowing me to use the Vista's backup tool the way it was intended, with the added bonus of no crazy side effects.

If you are having problems with your nForce motherboard and would like to try out these updated SATA & RAID drivers, click on the appropriate download link below and extract the files do your desktop.

Download nForce SATA Driver 5.10.2600.995
Download nForce RAID Driver 5.10.2600.995

Then open up 'Device Manager' expand 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' and repeat the following steps for all the items listed as 'NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller'.

• Right click the 'NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller' item and select 'Update Driver Software'
  
• Click 'Browse my computer for driver software'
  
• Click 'Let me pick from a list of device divers on my computer'
  
• Click 'Have Disk'
  
• Now select the extract folder on your desktop and follow the rest of the on-screen instructions

Once you have completed the above for ALL listed 'NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller' items the properties of each one should look like the following....

and that's it, your done! If you have any questions just fire away and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.