PC hibernates for no reason

[Grant Robertson]

I have an Acer C300 Tablet PC. This issue is not Tablet PC specific so I
am posting here. I am a returning student and I use the tablet to take
notes in all of my classes.

My laptop will just go into hibernation mode at random times for no
reason at all. It only happens when I am running on battery and ONLY if I
have hibernated at least once since my last full reboot. It usually only
happens after I have hibernated and resumed a few times. It also usually
only happens when I have manually blanked the screen and have not been
using it for a couple of minutes, though, rarely, it has happened right
in the middle of me writing something. Once it starts with the random
hibernating then it will keep doing it every time I stop using the tablet
for just a few minutes which is a royal pain when you are trying to take
notes. If I completely reboot the computer then the problem will go away
but that causes me to miss some notes.

The power scheme is set to "Always on" and all the settings under that
scheme are set to "Never." I have even disabled the { Power Options ;
<Alarms> ; [Alarm Action] } for the low battery alarm. (The critical is
still set to shutdown.) It is set to "Do nothing" when I close the lid,
to "Hibernate" when I press the power button, and "Stand by" when I press
the sleep button. And, yes, hibernation is enabled.

In fact, the only way I can get it to stop doing this is to completely
disable hibernation altogether. Naturally, this is not an option or I
wouldn't bother to post.

I have spent all afternoon digging through newsgroups and googling all
over the place. There were no mentions at all of hibernating at random
for no reason. I have actually had this problem for years and have
updated the BIOS several times, updated the video driver, and applied all
the current Windows service packs and updates. I just started back into
school recently. A new semester just started and I am finally at my wit's
end with this problem.

If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate some help with
this one.

 

[DatabaseBen]

Well, maybe I can offer a suggestion: Possibly the hibernation goes into
effect when it gets an idea that the battery is loosing power. Since you
made a number of checks, I think the one left is an unstable power being
provided by the battery or being pulled by the screen. Maybe it is
overheating or something else is, so the machine powersdown to protect your
work and system...

Since you say that resuming a blank screen may be a symptom or something,
keep in mind that there would be a surge in power going to the screen to
bring up bright and fresh to display.... The question is if the battery is
failing to handle it, the screen is uncontrollably taking too much or the
components in between that control the flow of electricity is overheating,
maybe like a circuit breaker would do.

Hope this may provide some help....

I have an Acer C300 Tablet PC. This issue is not Tablet PC specific so I
am posting here. I am a returning student and I use the tablet to take
notes in all of my classes.

My laptop will just go into hibernation mode at random times for no
reason at all. It only happens when I am running on battery and ONLY if I
have hibernated at least once since my last full reboot. It usually only
happens after I have hibernated and resumed a few times. It also usually
only happens when I have manually blanked the screen and have not been
using it for a couple of minutes, though, rarely, it has happened right
in the middle of me writing something. Once it starts with the random
hibernating then it will keep doing it every time I stop using the tablet
for just a few minutes which is a royal pain when you are trying to take
notes. If I completely reboot the computer then the problem will go away
but that causes me to miss some notes.

The power scheme is set to "Always on" and all the settings under that
scheme are set to "Never." I have even disabled the { Power Options ;
<Alarms> ; [Alarm Action] } for the low battery alarm. (The critical is
still set to shutdown.) It is set to "Do nothing" when I close the lid,
to "Hibernate" when I press the power button, and "Stand by" when I press
the sleep button. And, yes, hibernation is enabled.

In fact, the only way I can get it to stop doing this is to completely
disable hibernation altogether. Naturally, this is not an option or I
wouldn't bother to post.

I have spent all afternoon digging through newsgroups and googling all
over the place. There were no mentions at all of hibernating at random
for no reason. I have actually had this problem for years and have
updated the BIOS several times, updated the video driver, and applied all
the current Windows service packs and updates. I just started back into
school recently. A new semester just started and I am finally at my wit's
end with this problem.

If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate some help with
this one.

 

[Grant Robertson]

Well, maybe I can offer a suggestion: Possibly the hibernation goes into
effect when it gets an idea that the battery is loosing power. Since you
made a number of checks, I think the one left is an unstable power being
provided by the battery or being pulled by the screen. Maybe it is
overheating or something else is, so the machine powersdown to protect your
work and system...

Sounds like a pretty good theory. My battery indicator does occasionally
say I only have 20% left but when I hover the mouse over it then it will
update itself to 80%. Unfortunately it is not a theory I can really test
very well. I have the low power alarm set to shutdown rather than
hibernate. Can you think of a reason that it would hibernate any darn
way?

Since you say that resuming a blank screen may be a symptom or something,

It is not happening AS I unblank the screen. It will do it on it's own
while the screen is blank with no stimulus from me.

Thanks for trying. I know this is gonna be almost impossible to
troubleshoot but I figured I had to try. I don't like the idea of
shutting all the way down and rebooting at the beginning of each class. I
guess I could go to standby between the classes that are only 10 minutes
apart.