XP Scheduler not firing

i am running windows media player as a sort of "wake up" call - it used to work beautifully...with the list of songs i have my kids get ready for school when certain number of songs finishes....how can i get it to work without having logged in...it was working so i know it is possible.

win xp professional

Dear komandur,

My understanding is that Accounts in which scheduler runs should have a password.
Go to control panel --> User accounts and click on the account ( which you use ) and enable password for it

Check to see if this would solve the issue

Thanks,
Sunray

When you said previous PC, what that windows xp

S

yeah the previous one was also win xp prof - and the account thro' which i run already has a password. It used to wakeup the PC and run it also. Now it expects me to be logged in to run this....

Look at the properties of the task you've scheduled, make sure you use the runas function and put the right password there.

LucF

yeah it is. If I open the scheduler and choose to run that task, it does it correctly. It runs fine so long as I am logged in- the moment i logout or sleep the PC, it fails to fire...No clue in the event viewer for why it failed also...what am i missing?

rightclick on the task, choose properties, check "run as" and put "Domainname\username" (if you use this computer locally without a domain, just put the username there" then click set password and put the right password there twice

LucF

no luck...even if i put only the username, it is automatically changing it to domainname\username - still not working if i logoff...any more ideas? is there somewhere a log that will tell me why it failed?

isn't it supposed to fire even if the user is logged off? or does my window media player is not able to run as "service"?

>isn't it supposed to fire even if the user is logged off?
Only if that user has administrative rights as far as I know. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

yeah the user does have administrative rights

On the settings tab under properties for the scheduled task is the checkbox for Wake the computer to run this task checked?

It is checked - Isn't that to wake it up if it is in suspend mode - It doesn't work even if i am logged off...sort of windows media player is refusing to run as service...

schedule the task with AT and use the /interactive switch.  The task will then run as local system and logoff/screen saver will not affect it.

This is the command it runs at specified time in the morning

"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music\My Playlists\Wakeup Songs.wpl"

Please tell me where to add this switch..

thanks
kannan

should be something like this, assuming you're running it at 7:00:

at \\computername 7:00 /interactive "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music\My Playlists\Wakeup Songs.wpl"

it did not work. though it added in the schedule and promptly deleted it. Remember everything works fine so long as i am logged in..

it doesn't work even if another user is logged in..that means it somehow expects the creator to be logged in...how can i make this run as a "service" - i never had trouble doing this in my previous pc - i don't understand why it is failing now..

I have resolved it finally by installing the SP 1a. There is also an article on this by microsoft. See:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;812400

thanks for all the assistance.

Now how do i go about deleting this question?

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To the system administrators:

Please give komandur the points for this question. This issue has been plaguing me and his answer was the absolute right one.

Thanks!