Hibernation suddenly very slow lately

[Brian]

Hi, when I go to hibernate my XP Pro machine, it's very slow to do so.
About one to two weeks ago it was very fast, but now it takes around
5-10 minutes to do it. The "Hibernating" screen comes up, but the
progress bar is very slow... only one "block" in the bar appearing
every 30 seconds or so. The hard drive activity light is flashing
like crazy during this. Any ideas on why? I've not installed any
new software or made any system changes.

 

[R. McCarty]

Perhaps an issue with the Hiberfil.Sys file. Try this, use the Power
Applet in Control Panel. Turn off Hibernation - Apply, OK. Reboot
and reverse the process by re-enabling Hibernation. Before you do
the re-enable it might help to run a defrag, so the system will find a
contiguous space to create the new Hiberfil.Sys in.

 

[Brian]

Perhaps an issue with the Hiberfil.Sys file. Try this, use the Power
Applet in Control Panel. Turn off Hibernation - Apply, OK. Reboot
and reverse the process by re-enabling Hibernation. Before you do
the re-enable it might help to run a defrag, so the system will find a
contiguous space to create the new Hiberfil.Sys in.

Didn't help. I'd say it's a process slowing the thing down. Maybe
an anti-virus sig update is checking hiberful.sys or something... dunno.
If it continues to be slow I'll just change my Power button to Standby
instead.

 

[T. Waters]

You HDD isn't getting full, is it?
Have you Defragmented lately?
Do you get Automatic Updates?
You could try using the System Restore Process, since it is reversible.
Look up System Restore in Help and Support if you are unfamiliar.

 

[Brian]

You HDD isn't getting full, is it?

Nope -- 8 GB free with 512 MB allocated to hiberfil.sys already.

Have you Defragmented lately?

About a month ago... I did an analysis now and it's only 3% fragmented.

Do you get Automatic Updates?

I get notified of them... why? This problem occurs even if I'm offline,
so it's not like any notifications are downloading at the time.

You could try using the System Restore Process

I'll try this later when I finish some work and can reboot.

 

[T. Waters]

Hi, Brian. Let us know how the SR goes.
The reason I asked about Auto Updates is that an Update can cause problems,
sometimes very serious ones. SR would rectify this (by getting rid of the
offending Update).

 

[Brian]

Let us know how the SR goes

Hmm, I just checked and I have *NO* restore points after May 11!
Aren't daily ones supposed to occur? There is a description for
the May 11 one called "Software Distribution Service 2.0", whatever
that is... I am hesitant to restore to it. Any ideas?

The reason I asked about Auto Updates is that an Update can cause
problems, sometimes very serious ones. SR would rectify this (by
getting rid of the offending Update).

As above... I don't have anywhere "safe" (ie. "Automatic Checkpoint")
to restore to.

 

[T. Waters]

If you have installed any XP Updates in the past two weeks, uninstalling
them would probably be your next step.
You are not alone in having this Software Distribution Service going on
(just Google!), but normally, it does not take away Restore Points, just
create them.
From what you have posted earlier, it appears that the date of May 11 is
after the start of your Hibernation difficulties. If so, SR to May 11 will
not help with your Hibernation.

 

[Guest]

My machine hibernates very slowly if I disable write caching on the system
disk drive. When write caching is enabled it hibernates in 10 seconds or so,
but when write caching is disabled it takes 3 or more minutes.

I've tried with the default Microsoft IDE drivers and also with the latest
IDE drivers from NVIDIA (my machine has Athlon 64 CPU and nForce4 Ultra
chipset) and both drivers exhibit the same behaviour.

O/S is XP Pro with SP2 and all the latest patches from Windows Update.

I don't know if this is a hardware specific problem or an O/S problem, but
it's worth looking to see if your write caching has become disabled.
(Personally, I prefer it disabled for the reduced risk of data loss.)

Paul

 

[Mike]

Hi, when I go to hibernate my XP Pro machine, it's very slow to do so.
About one to two weeks ago it was very fast, but now it takes around
5-10 minutes to do it. The "Hibernating" screen comes up, but the
progress bar is very slow... only one "block" in the bar appearing
every 30 seconds or so. The hard drive activity light is flashing
like crazy during this. Any ideas on why? I've not installed any
new software or made any system changes.

The driver for the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" may have been updated.

Had this same problem on a DFI Nvidia GF3 board - when mobo drivers were
updated, hibernation became really slow.

The fix? Believe it or not... Uninstall the driver in device manager
for the controller to which your primary boot drive is attached - SATA
or PATA - reboot, then get back into device manager again, scan for
hardware changes, and the *same driver* you just uninstalled (assuming
it was the latest version known to your machine) will be reinstalled.
On my box, hibernation started to work at it's normal fast speed again.

Your mileage may vary and my experience may not reflect your experience.
It's what worked on my box.

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

I had this problem before and did not clear up the problem until I
re-installed windows. Thanks for your "short-cut." This time uninstalling
and then re-installing the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers worked great.