Why doesn't my laptop hibernate or standby when on AC power?

[Yousuf Khan]

My laptop running XP Home is set to go into standby and then later to
hibernate. It works when running on battery, but when the machine is
plugged into the power outlets, it never changes modes. Any idea why?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Stefan Patric]

My laptop running XP Home is set to go into standby and then later to
hibernate. It works when running on battery, but when the machine is
plugged into the power outlets, it never changes modes. Any idea why?

Yes. When on AC, it's set not to. Usually, by default. Check your AC
power settings.

Stef

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Yes. When on AC, it's set not to. Usually, by default. Check your AC
power settings.

I already have, that's why asked. It's set to standby after 20 minutes
and go to hibernate after 45 minutes. It does neither when on AC power.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Paul]

I already have, that's why asked. It's set to standby after 20 minutes
and go to hibernate after 45 minutes. It does neither when on AC power.

Yousuf Khan

One tool for looking at ACPI info and states, is "dumppo.exe".
But it might not be the only tool.

dumppo ac cap

( listed as 13KB, a tiny download )

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe

(On occasion, there is a problem with passive FTP and friends, working
with that site.)

I don't have a laptop running WinXP, so can't tell you what to expect.
What my desktop shows, wouldn't mean much.

That program is capable of an "administrative override", to make
some changes.

Paul

 

[Stefan Patric]

I already have, that's why asked. It's set to standby after 20 minutes
and go to hibernate after 45 minutes. It does neither when on AC power.

When on AC, can you set it to go Standby when you close the laptop? And
does it? Does it hold that setting after rebooting? Try the same thing
with Hibernate.

Check the power options in BIOS, too.

Is your laptop capable of doing this under AC power. Check the user
manual. I know this sounds stupid, but stranger things have happened.

If all else fails, there's always a Repair Install. You may have a
"damaged" file or files.

Stef

 

[Yousuf Khan]

When on AC, can you set it to go Standby when you close the laptop? And
does it? Does it hold that setting after rebooting? Try the same thing
with Hibernate.

Well, nothing happens when I close the lid while on AC, but nothing
happens when on DC either. I did change the options from "do nothing" to
"standby" and "hibernate". It's an old laptop, so that feature might now
be broken, but I don't really care as I never used the feature to go to
standby while the lid was closed, in fact I used to keep that feature
turned off.

Check the power options in BIOS, too.

Is your laptop capable of doing this under AC power. Check the user
manual. I know this sounds stupid, but stranger things have happened.

If all else fails, there's always a Repair Install. You may have a
"damaged" file or files.

Well, as I said, it works while on battery power, DC. Just not in AC.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Stefan Patric]

Well, nothing happens when I close the lid while on AC, but nothing
happens when on DC either. I did change the options from "do nothing" to
"standby" and "hibernate". It's an old laptop, so that feature might now
be broken, but I don't really care as I never used the feature to go to
standby while the lid was closed, in fact I used to keep that feature
turned off.



Well, as I said, it works while on battery power, DC. Just not in AC.

You said it was an old laptop. Maybe, it's not capable of suspend and
hibernated when using AC, but only when on battery. Check the user
manual.

Stef

 

[Stefan Patric]

Who would design a laptop like that? Anyways, you can manually hibernate
or standby in AC mode, I'm talking about the automatic power-management
based method.

Who can say who? There's more that goes into the design of any product
than what might be useful or even make sense.

I have an old notebook (Thinkpad 240X. Yes, I still regularly use it.)
that doesn't boot off USB or anything attached to USB like a CDROM. Will
only boot off an external floppy or internal hard drive. Makes it
difficult (but not impossible) to put an OS on it or repair the one on it
if it goes bad. But that's another story . . . Back to your problem.

What's the make and model of your laptop? The specs? What OS originally
came on it? How long has the current OS been installed on it? Is it
fully updated? Have you checked the viability of the hardware and OS
recently?

Since your laptop will manually suspend and hibernate, and assuming all
the power settings are properly set, I would see if you can set it to
suspend on AC when you close the lid. I know you said you don't ever do
this, but this a test that doesn't use the keyboard to initiate it. If
it works, try hibernate, too. And check that the system "returns"
properly afterwards. If it doesn't do either, consider a Repair Install.


Stef

 

[Yousuf Khan]

What's the make and model of your laptop? The specs? What OS originally
came on it? How long has the current OS been installed on it? Is it
fully updated? Have you checked the viability of the hardware and OS
recently?

It's a Gateway MX6440, AMD Turion processor, 2GB of DDR. It came
originally installed with XP Home, and that's where it's remained ever
since (though I had Ubuntu installed on another partition, until I had
to get rid of it for space reasons). And yes, it's fully updated.

I'm not willing to reinstall the OS, as there's some critical software
and data on the system that does not have replacements anymore.

Since your laptop will manually suspend and hibernate, and assuming all
the power settings are properly set, I would see if you can set it to
suspend on AC when you close the lid. I know you said you don't ever do
this, but this a test that doesn't use the keyboard to initiate it. If
it works, try hibernate, too. And check that the system "returns"
properly afterwards. If it doesn't do either, consider a Repair Install.

Actually, if you will remember, I did say that I tried the lid test, and
it didn't work.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Stefan Patric]

It's a Gateway MX6440, AMD Turion processor, 2GB of DDR. It came
originally installed with XP Home, and that's where it's remained ever
since (though I had Ubuntu installed on another partition, until I had
to get rid of it for space reasons). And yes, it's fully updated.

Okay. 5 or 6 years old. Not THAT old. And I'm going to assume the OS
has never been reinstalled or repair installed in that time. It could be
some System file or dll has gotten damaged in all that time, and is
preventing AC standby. Windows does break itself sometimes or something
else does.

I'm not willing to reinstall the OS, as there's some critical software
and data on the system that does not have replacements anymore.

A restore or complete reinstall would be a last resort option. A Repair
Install only checks and repairs the OS. So, if it's damaged, a Repair
should fix it (Most of the time). It shouldn't touch any of the apps or
settings or your data. But back up everything just to be safe.

Do you still have the hidden Restore Partition on your laptop or did it
get wiped out by the Ubuntu install?

Actually, if you will remember, I did say that I tried the lid test, and
it didn't work.

I remember you said you don't use the close-lib-standby-hibernate option
at all. I didn't remember you saying you tried it and it failed.

Have you contacted Gateway Tech Support? If they don't have the answer
to your problem, no one will.

Stef

 

[SC Tom]

Okay. 5 or 6 years old. Not THAT old. And I'm going to assume the OS
has never been reinstalled or repair installed in that time. It could be
some System file or dll has gotten damaged in all that time, and is
preventing AC standby. Windows does break itself sometimes or something
else does.


A restore or complete reinstall would be a last resort option. A Repair
Install only checks and repairs the OS. So, if it's damaged, a Repair
should fix it (Most of the time). It shouldn't touch any of the apps or
settings or your data. But back up everything just to be safe.

Do you still have the hidden Restore Partition on your laptop or did it
get wiped out by the Ubuntu install?


I remember you said you don't use the close-lib-standby-hibernate option
at all. I didn't remember you saying you tried it and it failed.

Have you contacted Gateway Tech Support? If they don't have the answer
to your problem, no one will.

ROTFLMAO!! You are kidding, right? After the experiences I've had with
Gateway-to-Hell support, I'd rather advise someone to call the Geek Squad
(and I wouldn't do that to someone I hated).

Sorry for the interjection.

 

[Stefan Patric]

[snip]
Have you contacted Gateway Tech Support? If they don't have the answer
to your problem, no one will.

ROTFLMAO!! You are kidding, right? After the experiences I've had with
Gateway-to-Hell support, I'd rather advise someone to call the Geek
Squad (and I wouldn't do that to someone I hated).

The worse that will happen is Tech Support can't fix it either. Will
only cost you time. How much has the OP already spend trying to fix the
problem?

In any case, it's worth a try, since everything else has failed. And,
sometimes, long shots do pay off regardless of other people's experiences.

Sorry for the interjection.

Stef

 

[Twayne]

In

Have you tried System File Check? Sometimes helps.

Have you checked to be certain there are no "battery" vs "on AC Power"
selections in Power Options in Control Panel? My old Gateway laptop has that
feature. I can set the on-battery settings different than the on-AC
settings. On battery it runs thru the process to hibernate, or whatever you
wish yours to do, much quicker than while it's on AC power (by default).

This is an old Gateway Pentium laptop. I now use it as a hardware firewall.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ddocs/en-us/system_file_checker.mspx?mfr=true

Ted

Uh, oh! That "critical" software and data is at high risk of being
lost/corrupted/otherwise compromised, since you say it can't be replaced
anymore. You need to get that data backed up, archived, whatever you want to
call it, and soon!
Also, if you mean you don't have the installation disks for the
application, you're once more in big trouble; Sooner or later you WILL need
to do a reinstall. If you do have them, the disk/s should be backed up, same
as the data so it resides in more than one place. It would be prudent to GET
discs, or do backups such that you can reinstall it that way. It takes a
little knowledge and experience to be able to do that, but it can be done;
just be sure you test it afterwards.
Copy the "critical" stuff to DVD for long term safekeeping.

All in all, it sounds like you have encountered some system file corruption.
No opinion whether it's gremlin related or possible malware; doesn't sound
like maware, but ... can't hurt to check.
A Repair Install might be a good idea since it doesn't disturb any data.
However, things can always go wrong, especially with a machine that's not
working quite right, so it's still important to do a full backup before
doing any repairs anywhere.
For newsgroups, please post in Text mode rather than HTML or RTF. There
are still newsreaders around that cannot display an html post so it'll be
easy to read.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Yousuf Khan]

A restore or complete reinstall would be a last resort option. A Repair
Install only checks and repairs the OS. So, if it's damaged, a Repair
should fix it (Most of the time). It shouldn't touch any of the apps or
settings or your data. But back up everything just to be safe.

Do you still have the hidden Restore Partition on your laptop or did it
get wiped out by the Ubuntu install?

The hidden restore partition is still there, as is the original Gateway
install CD, which is really the exact same thing as the hidden
partition. However, this has been a rather lame install option, it only
offers a complete wipe and reinstall and nothing else. I'd have to use
some kind of a retail Windows XP CD to get a repair install done.

I remember you said you don't use the close-lib-standby-hibernate option
at all. I didn't remember you saying you tried it and it failed.

Have you contacted Gateway Tech Support? If they don't have the answer
to your problem, no one will.

Well, it is six years old, so I don't think Gateway will have much
support for it anymore.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Have you tried System File Check? Sometimes helps.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ddocs/en-us/system_file_checker.mspx?mfr=true

Ted

Thanks for the tip, I have run it now, and it came back successfully, no
errors.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Stefan Patric]

The hidden restore partition is still there, as is the original Gateway
install CD, which is really the exact same thing as the hidden
partition. However, this has been a rather lame install option, it only
offers a complete wipe and reinstall and nothing else. I'd have to use
some kind of a retail Windows XP CD to get a repair install done.

Try these instructions for a Repair Install:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx

Maybe a full, clean install is your best option. If it doesn't fix the
problem, nothing will.

Well, it is six years old, so I don't think Gateway will have much
support for it anymore.

Never hurts to try. Worse that can happen is Gateway says they can't
help.

Stef

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Maybe a full, clean install is your best option. If it doesn't fix the
problem, nothing will.

Well, I ran the "sfc" command as Tango had suggested, and it came back
with no problems on the system files.

Never hurts to try. Worse that can happen is Gateway says they can't
help.

I'll give them a ring after Christmas, no use in ruining their Christmas
over this.

Yousuf Khan