Hibernation: laptop locks on preparing to hibernate

[David A Edge]

I have a standalone Compaq Presario 2100, running under Windows XP Home
Edition, Service Pack 3. (I set the laptop up with dual booting in December
2004: MS-DOS and Windows XP Home Edition.)

I have the hibernation option enabled. This has worked satisfactorily many
times (since 30 January 2008) but now it fails to work (beginning 31 January
2009). On preparing to hibernate my laptop locks.

I can revive the hibernation function, but only temporarily. It will
usually work, several times, for the remainder of that day; but the next day
it invariably and consistently fails, immediately. And it continues to fail
thereafter.

I have used the following, with limited success at best: System Restore
(subsequently undoing all the restorations I tried); KB952117 (When you try
to put a Windows XP-based computer into hibernation or standby, the computer
stops responding); KB834202 (Your Windows XP-based computer stops responding
when hibernation starts).

I have noticed that the process of downloading diagnostic software from
Microsoft also revives the hibernation function, but again only temporarily.

Likewise, I have found that the following may have the same temporary
effect: scanning for errors; uninstalling unused programs; using Disk Cleanup
to delete Temporary Files and to Compress Old Files, and / or using Disk
Defragmenter; installing a new program (in particular, Adobe Reader 9.1.0).

Having e-mailed Hewlett-Packard, I tried the following, as advised, but
again with limited success: I reinstalled Power Management; I uninstalled the
existing display driver, and installed a recommended replacement driver using
sp23136.exe; I created another user account, and logged on to that account to
see whether the problem was resolved.

I have also tried the following, again with limited success: I disabled
hibernation for more than 24hr and then enabled it again.

Having "chatted" with an on-line Hewlett-Packard technician, I tried the
following, as advised, but again with limited success: I reset the settings
of the existing BIOS (Phoenix Technologies, Revision KE.M1.72, 2 September
2004) to their default values; I updated the BIOS to the later (and current)
Revision KE.M1.73, 25 April 2005.

So far, the most obvious consistent element is that, no matter how
hibernation is revived on any one day, it always fails at the first time of
asking the next day. And it seems odd that, hibernation having worked
satisfactorily since 30 January 2008, it began failing 31 January 2009.

 

[Unknown]

You made no mention of disk space. How large is your disk. You must have
ample room on the disk to store the entire memory contents.

 

[seangriffin]

To anyone else still tearing out their hair trying to solve this (as was I), here is the solution. The problem is most likely rootkit malware attack.

To check and remove rootkits, download and run Kaspersky's TDSSKiller:

http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/tdsskiller.zip

I ran this. It found one infection, quaranteened the file, rebooted my computer, and hibernation now works.

After countless attempts to fix hibernation, this was the only solution that worked for me.