Question regarding power management of network interface cards

[BeyondBytes_IT]

Hello everyone,

one of my customers recently had issues with a special application on his HP ProDesk devices which establishes a connection to a SQL server and demands a stable, permanent connection without interruptions. Unfortunately, as soon as the connection drops, the application will throw an error saying something like "Error code 50: Connection has been marked dead.". That means, the software will stop responding. The main window of the application will freeze due to the short interruption of the connection to the SQL server, and the user has to force quit the application using task manager to be able to restart the application. They have 7 different branches, and each branch has at least one HP ProDesk computer, except for one branch that has no computer at all, as far as I know.

So to resolve that issue, I checked the power management in the Windows control panel of all ProDesk computers in each branch, and I could see that every ProDesk goes to power-saving mode in the range of 30 to 60 minutes. In order to get rid of that problem, I changed all the settings which could lead to disconnection of the SQL server. Instead of "balanced" settings, I chose "maximum performance" in addition to some specific settings in the power management settings, for example CPU throttling, which I completely turned off. We don't need throttled CPUs in a working environment. 

The next day, I got employees calling in, saying that the issue still persists, and that nothing really changed, which is somehow weird. Because of that, I started browsing the web where I gladly found this solution for Wi-Fi connection issues: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Wireless-and-Networking/WiFi-disconnecting-frequently/m-p/648...

Spoiler

Go to Device manager > select the Wi-Fi drivers under network adapter> Right click go to properties  > Under properties go to Power Management Tab> Uncheck  "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". 

I think this might be the correct solution for my customer's issue, which also leads me to another question. Assuming that "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is activated, how long does it take until the operating system's power management is shutting down the wireless network interface card? Also assuming that the client computers are running in maximum performance mode without any power saving settings.

Any ideas? If I had to take a guess, I'd say at least more than 1 hour. What do you think? Could it be dependent on the power management settings in the MS Windows' control panel settings? I mean, if the computer is already running in "maximum performance mode", would the option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" still affect the wireless network interface card; or is there then no difference at all?

Thank you. I would be really glad if someone knew the answer.

PS: I hope you understand the technical issue that I'm trying to explain here. English is only my 3rd language (I'm on B2 level), and I'm used to talking/writing in German, which is my mother tongue besides French that I was forced to learn in high school. 🙂

Kind Regards,

Alex (Owner of BeyondBytes IT Services)