Solving an hibernation-related problem on a XP Home PC

[MerleOne]

Hi,

I am posting here in the hope that someone could help me find the right direction to solve the following problem with my Dell Dimension (model 4700, runs XP Home).  It used to be a minor problem but is becoming much more annoying as I want to use this PC in unattented mode.

The problem is the following : I am using a lot the XP hibernation feature, only rebooting when necessary.  Putting the PC in hibernation works fine, waking it also, except the wake up part is behaving strangely :
After wake up (using the on/off switch), XP resumes normally, but goes into hibernation again after 2 minutes or so if I don't do anything with it.  On the contrary, if I perform some minimal activities after the waking up like launching an application then the PC won't automatically go into hibernation again.

I have managed to far to live with this, until recently when I wanted to have my PC start during the day and record something from the attached DVB-T tuner (Terratec).  The Terratec software is perfectly capable of waking the PC from hibernation, but when in unattented mode, the hibernation kicks in after a few minutes...  The only way to perform unattented recordings is to leave my PC on all the time.  Not very energy saving friendly...

I have looked so far in the Microsoft KB, tried to find something in Dell's one (much more difficult), to no avail.  I have tried different settings for the internal ethernet card, which is sometimes responsible for problems with the hibernation process.  No result so far.

Has someone encountered the same behaviour or know a solution for this ? 

Many thanx !

[Wordzilla]

Have u looked into your Power Options (in control panel)?

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[cthorpe]

I posted this in another thread about turning hibernation on and off with task scheduler.  Don't know if it would help you at all, but here it is:

These are a couple of AutoHotkey scripts that should disable and reenable hiberation.
These should work for Windows XP.  You may have to modify them for other flavors of windows.

Hibernate Off

Code

WinWait, Program Manager, 
IfWinNotActive, Program Manager, , WinActivate, Program Manager, 
WinWaitActive, Program Manager, 
Send, {LWINDOWN}r{LWINUP}
WinWait, Run, 
IfWinNotActive, Run, , WinActivate, Run, 
WinWaitActive, Run, 
Send, powercfg.cpl{ENTER}
WinWait, Power Options Properties, 
IfWinNotActive, Power Options Properties, , WinActivate, Power Options Properties, 
WinWaitActive, Power Options Properties, 
Send, {CTRLDOWN}{TAB}{TAB}{CTRLUP}{SPACE}{ENTER}

Hibernate On - Change the number of {UP} on the last line to adjust the hibernate time.

Code

WinWait, Program Manager, 
IfWinNotActive, Program Manager, , WinActivate, Program Manager, 
WinWaitActive, Program Manager, 
Send, {LWINDOWN}r{LWINUP}
WinWait, Run, 
IfWinNotActive, Run, , WinActivate, Run, 
WinWaitActive, Run, 
Send, powercfg.cpl{ENTER}
WinWait, Power Options Properties, 
IfWinNotActive, Power Options Properties, , WinActivate, Power Options Properties, 
WinWaitActive, Power Options Properties, 
Send, {CTRLDOWN}{TAB}{TAB}{CTRLUP}{SPACE}{ALTDOWN}a{ALTUP}{CTRLDOWN}{TAB}{TAB}{CTRLUP}{ALTDOWN}h{ALTUP}{UP}{UP}{UP}{UP}{UP}{ENTER}

You could compile those and then run them using Task Scheduler to stop the hibernation process.  The attached files should turn it off and turn it back on with a 3 hour delay.

[AndyM]

After wake up (using the on/off switch), XP resumes normally, but goes into hibernation again after 2 minutes or so if I don't do anything with it.  On the contrary, if I perform some minimal activities after the waking up like launching an application then the PC won't automatically go into hibernation again.

This is how it's always worked for me (XP Pro SP2) and I figured it was normal behavior.

Skrommel has a utility that keeps a machine from entering sleep mode, should work for your problem if you have it run when the computer wakes up.

[MerleOne]

Wordzilla  : yes, I have, but nothing suspicious there :

[MerleOne]

Thanks, will try it !

I posted this in another thread about turning hibernation on and off with task scheduler.  Don't know if it would help you at all, but here it is:

These are a couple of AutoHotkey scripts that should disable and reenable hiberation.
These should work for Windows XP.  You may have to modify them for other flavors of windows.

[MerleOne]

Thanks, I thought it was only my machine doing this !!!

This is how it's always worked for me (XP Pro SP2) and I figured it was normal behavior.

Skrommel has a utility that keeps a machine from entering sleep mode, should work for your problem if you have it run when the computer wakes up.

[MerleOne]

Just a short summary of what I have tried since the various suggestion were posted here :

cthorpe : thanks for the scripts.  You were right, they don't work "as is" on my system, because it's localized.  I suppose I could get it to work by converting them, but I still have trouble using AutoHotKey.  It looks very promising though !

AndyM : I suppose you are referring to LowtoSleep.  It seems to do the trick for now, that is if I keep it running or if I launch it just after wake-up.

So far, Skrommel's "LowtoSleep" compiled AHK script seems the best solution. 

Thanks !

[Carol Haynes]

Have you tired disabling hibernation completely, restart and then re-enable it to see if some of the internal registry settings are screwed up?

[MerleOne]

Not yet, and good idea !  Will try, except if I observe the same behaviour on another XP machine, which would tend to confirm what AndyM was saying, that is : it is an XP "feature".

Thanks for the suggestion !

Have you tired disabling hibernation completely, restart and then re-enable it to see if some of the internal registry settings are screwed up?

[Carol Haynes]

Not a feature on my 3 PCs which hibernate fine with XP (when the discs aren't too full to accommodate 2Gb files!)

[AndyM]

Not a feature on my 3 PCs which hibernate fine with XP (when the discs aren't too full to accommodate 2Gb files!)

If you wake up your machine from hibernation and then don't touch a key or the mouse, it doesn't re-hibernate after a minute or two?

[Carol Haynes]

That's right

[MerleOne]

Just for clarification : are we talking about desktop or portable ?  Mine is a desktop.

[AndyM]

Mine is a Dell desktop, and I am waking it up with the on/off button.

[Carol Haynes]

Mine is a desktop too - I can use hibernation without any of the issues you describe.