The command line “powercfg –energy” checks your system for power-related issues.  I tried it on my server system and the error part of the results are below.  I wish I had this on Vista, so I could figure out why one of my system’s never will sleep on its own!  And I can’t imagine ever buying a new computer system in a retail store without running this and making sure the manufacturer has optimized for power efficiency.  It’s a great addition to Win 7, at least for those of us willing to take a look just slightly under the covers.

Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report

Computer Name
HAL-WIN7

Scan Time
2009-01-13T19:04:46Z

Scan Duration
60 seconds

System Manufacturer
Dell Inc.

System Product Name
PowerEdge SC430

BIOS Date
02/06/2006

BIOS Version
A02

OS Build
7000

Platform Role
PlatformRoleSOHOServer

Plugged In
true

Process Count
45

Thread Count
604

Report GUID
{8d5fc6f4-fc88-4026-8191-295179f5a1e1}

Analysis Results

Errors

USB Suspend:USB Device not Entering Suspend

The USB device did not enter the Suspend state. Processor power management may be prevented if a USB device does not enter the Suspend state when not in use.

Device Name
USB Composite Device

Host Controller ID
PCIVEN_8086&DEV_27C8

Host Controller Location
PCI bus 0, device 29, function 0

Device ID
USBVID_045E&PID_00E3

Port Path
2

USB Suspend:USB Device not Entering Suspend

The USB device did not enter the Suspend state. Processor power management may be prevented if a USB device does not enter the Suspend state when not in use.

Device Name
USB Root Hub

Host Controller ID
PCIVEN_8086&DEV_27C8

Host Controller Location
PCI bus 0, device 29, function 0

Device ID
USBVID_8086&PID_27C8

Port Path

CPU Utilization:Processor utilization is high

The average processor utilization during the trace was high. The system will consume less power when the average processor utilization is very low. Review processor utilization for individual processes to determine which applications and services contribute the most to total processor utilization.

Average Utilization (%)
73.60

Platform Power Management Capabilities:Sleep is disabled because the VGA (vgapnp.sys) driver is loaded.

Sleep requires the manufacturer-specific driver for the graphics adapter.

Platform Power Management Capabilities:System firmware (BIOS) does not support S3.

The hardware in this computer does not support the S3 sleep state.

Platform Power Management Capabilities:PCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) Disabled

PCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) has been disabled due to a known incompatibility with the hardware in this computer.