One of the most regularly reported problems with Windows Vista is that the hibernate function – one of the power-saving modes – does not work. I have been using Vista daily since February 2007 and although the experience has been generally positive, hibernation has failed to work a number of times. Through trial and error (and a lot of time spent trawling through blogs of both users and Windows developers) I have come across some solutions that seem to work for most people.
Hibernation problems on Vista fall roughly in to three categories:
- the computer fails to wake up from hibernation
- the computer fails to hibernate
- the computer keeps waking up from hibernation when it is supposed to be sleeping
Waking Vista from hibernation
Right from when I bought my laptop (a Dell Inspiron 1501, a mere matter of weeks before they sexed up the Inspiron range with colours, new gadgets and upgraded specs that make my laptop blush with shame at being so weak and puny and unworthy of calling itself a “computer”), my computer would not so much hibernate as enter into a terminal coma from which there was no waking.
The number one reason that Vista fails to wake from hibernation is a problem with video drivers. In my case, the answer was simple. All I needed to do was to update the drivers for my Radeon Xpress 1150 onboard video chipset. A quick visit to the ATI drivers page to download the latest drivers and I was back in business. As easy as that.
Making Vista hibernate
Sometimes the hibernation option is not available, or your hardware key combination (on my Dell it is Fn -> F1) simply does not work. The first thing you need to check if your computer supports one of the hibernation options. To do this, go to the start menu and type Command in the search box. In the results, right click and select “Run as Administrator”. When the command prompt opens up, type powercfg -a which shows you all of the available types of hibernation that your hardware supports. In the video below you will notice that my laptop supports s(3) which is the “deep hibernation” that saves the state of the system to disk before shutting the hardware down.
If your hardware does support hibernation but it still stubbornly refuses to bunker down for the winter, either the hibernation option has been disabled or the Hibernation File Cleaner has been deleted by the Disk Cleanup Utility. Both these options are easily fixed using the powercfg utility again. To turn hibernation back on, type powercfg -h on. The short video below shows you how easy this really is (toggle full screen mode on the flash player for best results).
I can personally vouch for this method as well. Like many people, when I first ran the Disk Cleanup Utility, I saw the the Hibernation File Cleaner took up around 1GB of disk space and I thought “Surely it wouldn’t be an option if it wasn’t safe to delete it? Surely?” Like many people I learned the answer was “Hmm. Not so much” which isn’t exactly grammatically correct but does get its meaning across while inspiring a healthy dose of Friends nostalgia and yearning for Courtney Cox that I thought had long since worn off. Not so much, obviously. But I digress. In my case, the option to hibernate had disappeared from my shut down options and Fn -> F1 didn’t work either. powercfg -h on worked immediately.
Vista Keeps Waking Up From Hibernation
This one is a tricky one. In theory, hibernation physically shuts down your machine so issues such as scheduled tasks (eg system updates, virus scans and so on) shouldn’t be able to wake the machine back up. However, I have seen reports all over the internet of Vista machines waking up and doing strange things. I have never experienced this problem myself but the following suggestions have worked for various people at various times:
- if your computer wakes up at a consistent time, make sure there are no scheduled tasks (Start menu -> search for “task scheduler”)
- check your BIOS settings to make sure that “Wake on LAN” (also sometimes known as “Wake on Ring”) is disabled. Check your bootup screens to see what key combination you need to hit to access your BIOS
- check in Device Manager (Start menu -> search for “device manager” – your life will be much easier if you run this program as Administrator) and see if any of your devices have an option that allows it to wake the computer. I’ve seen reports that blame everything from a wireless mouse to an ethernet device that isn’t plugged in to the network for waking a computer from hibernation.
If any of the above suggestions help, or you have an even better suggestion to make about Vista hibernation modes, why not drop me a line in the comments?
Pingback: ttiqq.com
This is why I’m still stick with XP. thanx for the info d-_-b
Hope the info is of some use to you.
A number of these problems pre-date Vista, especially the ones that wake the computer up from hibernation. All of those solutions were ones for sleep issues in XP that were tested on Vista and worked.
In my own experience, I’ve had more system problems with XP on my desktop than I have had with Vista on my laptop. On new hardware, I think Vista is a better piece of software.
Hi,
I have a Dell M1330 with Vista ultimate. My system supports S(3) hibernation and I used powercft -h on and then rebooted my laptop, but it still does not hibernate. Do you have any other suggestions?
Thank you
Hi Frank,
Can you give any more details on your problem, like if any error messages come up, or is the hibernate option still missing from the shutdown menu (like in the beginning of the second video)? Or is it that you select hibernate and nothing happens?
As a final thought, does “standby” work? Standby puts the computer into a sleep type mode where it can still be woken up almost instantly.
With a few more details I might be able to help you track down a solution.
Hi Shane,
There are no error messages and I have the hibernate option on the shutdown menu. However, when I close the lid or choose the hibernate option, Vista locks the machine and takes me to the login page. I tried the sleep or standby option as well, but that does the same thing and takes me to the same place where I need to log back in again.
If there is anything else you would like to know please let me know.
Thank you for your help,
Hi Frank,
I found this thread on Notebook Review where someone seemed to have the same problem. In the end it looked like it was a problem with some Intel drivers.
There are a couple of suggestions of things to check in that thread. In particular, have a look in your Event Viewer to see if any drivers or services are causing problems. You should be able to search for Event Viewer within the auto search on the start menu if you’re not sure where it is.
If that doesn’t help (or you have already seen that thread) let me know and I’ll keep looking. Badly written drivers or corrupted files are often the culprit when Windows systems don’t play nice.
Let me know how you get on.
It worked!
Stumbled too!
Rocks
!
Thanks man!
Hi Nabin,
I’m glad it worked for you. Out of curiousity, which tip did you try?
Hi Shane
I tried the tips from the website you gave me and installed the new versions of matrix storage and turbo memory, but they didn’t work and my laptop still fails to hibernate. I’m going to call Dell Support during the weekend. If you have any other suggestions in the meantime please let me know.
Thank you for your help
Frank,
There’s probably not much else I can do for you between now and then. It’s often difficult to troubleshoot without the computer in front of you. I’m sure it is something simple that can be fixed quite easily.
I want to point out that at least once a week I get vists from the dell.com domain referred from Google doing searches for variations on Vista and hibernation. I find it quite amusing actually. It would be nice if any of the tips work, they could leave a note in the comments :)
Good luck and please stop back again if they can’t fix it. I’m sure there is a way and I’d be glad to help out where I can.
I tried the powercfg -h on command and so far so good…my m1330 so far has no problems getting in and out hibernation since. Thanks for your help!
That’s great news, Andrew. I’m really glad it’s working out for you.
Thanks for letting me know that it worked for you. I love to read success stories :)
Have a couple more for you:
Advanced Power Management
=========================
Open Control Pannel, click “System And Maintenance”, click “Power Options”. Under your currently selected plan click the “Change plan settings”. You’ll now seel the “turn off display” and “put the computer to sleep” times. Underneath, click the “Change advanced settings”.
In the advanced settings you have “Sleep->Allow hybrid sleep”: This should be on (allows suspend to RAM & disk).
A common one for stopping Vista sleeping is the “Multimedia Settings”->”When sharing media”. Switch this to “Allow the computer to sleep”, if your PC is sharing any files this can cause the PC not to hibernate or sleep.
Mouse, Keyboard & Other USB Devices
===================================
You can tell Vista which devices are allowed to wake your PC. Some miss-behaving USB devices like Mice & Keyboards can be a problem. Open device manager and open the properties (double click or right click the device) of your mouse (or keyboard, or other USB device). If it has a “Power Management” tab, un-tick the “Allow this device to wake the computer”.
If you are having problems then it is worth turning all these off until you can sleep/hibernate and then turn them on individually to find out which one is causing it.
And this explains the difference between S1,S2,S3 and S4:
http://blogs.msdn.com/omars/archive/2004/05/11/129553.aspx
S3 – Suspend to RAM (keeps RAM alive, uses about 5W, instant wakeup).
S4 – Suspend to HDD (saves RAM to HDD and switches off, about 20 seconds boot up).
Hybrid – Does both S3+S4 (still using 5W). Wakes instantly as in S3, except if there has been a power failure or you switched off at the mains inbetween, then is wakes via S4 (HDD).
Great tips, Gav. I had forgotten about the Power Management angle. Thanks for the heads up on the differences between S1-S4.
My problem is the direct opposite – my Dell 1720 laptop goes to sleep/hibernate while I am actively using the keypad and/or mouse.
Frustrating part is Dell tech couldn’t help me after their suggestion – downloading updated BIOS, video driver -8400M-GS.
The last thing I want to do is reload the software all over again. Also, I went to the power management advanced settings and have the sleep options to “never” sleep etc.
Any suggestions?
Hi Davey,
I can’t test this myself as it’s not a problem I’ve run up against before. However, I do a scope around and one possibility is that the Dell, for whatever reason, isn’t playing nicely with S3 hibernation. I’m pretty sure you can change to S1 mode within the BIOS setup itself.
I can’t guarantee that this will fix it but it might be worth a try. This MS TechNet thread doesn’t exactly match your problem but it does shed light on the problems poor drivers can have with S3 – http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2933624&SiteID=17
Let me know how you get on. It’s a strange problem but I’m sure you’re not the only one who is looking for an answer for it.
Thanks Shane for your comment as I am a rookie and not an expert in computers. I went to the gpedit.msc>admin templates>power mgmt and disabled all sleep/hibernate settings.
So far it helped, but occassionally there’s a conflict somewhere as I get a black sreen(BSOD?) for less than 2 secs.
The good thing is I did not have to wait for the HD to shutdown and hit power button and re enter password again and fo several times.
Will look into the forum/s suggested. Thanks!
Davey,
It really does sound like a driver issue that might take a few months to shake out. I remember when I got my Dell there was driver issue with the included CD burning software and Vista that wasn’t fixed for quite a few months. Lucky for me I prefer to use my full version of Nero and it didn’t bother me but it caused quite a hassle for others.
I’ll keep my eye out and if anything else pops up, I’ll add it here.
Thanks a million. This issue have been bugging me and Vista help is no help at all.
Pingback: Power problem with Vista on my Compaq Presario - Page 2 - Computer Forums
Thank you for the hibernate fix. I had done just like you had and cleaned out my hibernate folder and just like you said vista had disabled the entire function for some reason.
Very quick fix to get it back though. Really a life saver.
Glad it worked out for you, Doug. It’s amazing how quick and easy some of these fixes can be once you know where to look for them.
I am going to write a short how-to about this hibernation problem with a link back to you!
hey!
you were a GREAT help in restoring the hibernation button on my vista laptop!
thanks ever so much!
much appreciated amigo!
best regards
alex
So bought brand new computer. She (my computer) has 4 gigs RAM. Made the histake of putting her to SLEEP. She (my computer) will not wake up. Took out 2 GIGS of RAM (as suggested), Baby still sleep. Help!!! She (my computer) acts like she wants to start, then she just stops after a couple seconds of warming up to idea of waking up. Motherboard still working because external Passport harddrive is still lit up. How do I wake my girl (my computer) up? I can’t do all the other neat things suggested to correct hibernation problems if baby-girl will not wake up. HELP!!!
Lawrence
Lawrence,
I need a little bit more information from you. Some of my questions might seem obvious but I’m just trying to rule things out.
Is your computer running XP or Vista?
Have you tried booting the computer up without the external hard drive attached?
What happens when you unplug the computer from the power source (or remove the battery if it is a laptop) and try to boot up again?
Have you tried booting the computer up with the Windows installation CD in the drive? To pop the CD tray open when there is no power, poke a straightened out paperclip in the little hole in the CD drawer and you should be able to manually open it.
If you’re tried all those things and still no luck, let me know and I’ll see if I can think of something else.
Shane
My hibernate worked fine until I removed BitLocker on vista, now if i set it to hibernate I get a screen saying “windows error recovery” when I try and boot back up.
Says the computer didnt shut down properly and gives me options to boot noramlly or safe mode etc.
Really annoying as I always used Hibernate instead of shutting down.
I have tried turning off hibernate and turning back on but it still wont work.
Can anyone help with this problem at all?
Lee :o)
Hi Lee,
I don’t have any experience with BitLocker myself as I’ve only got Home Premium and not Ultimate.
Maybe there was an error when you removed BitLocker. Have you tried re-installing it to see what happens? If the problem goes away, maybe try removing the BitLocker service again.
I managed to resolve my issue thanks Shane, although it did involve contacting microsoft tech support to get it sorted.
So glad to have the hibernate feature back though :o)
If anyone else encounters this problem after removing BitLocker I will be happy to post the solution on here.
Lee :o)
Lee,
I’d love for you to share the solution if it’s no hassle. I’m sure you’re not the only person who has experienced it and would love to know more.
No problem Shane here it is:
Restoring Hibernate after Removal of BitLocker
1. Click “Start”, type “cmd” (without quotation marks) in the Start Search box. Right-click CMD listed above and click “Run as administrator”.
2. Run the following command: bcdedit -enum all
3. Locate “Resume from Hibernate” in the output from the command above (example below):
Resume from Hibernate
———————
identifier {fdf2c6d2-40b4-11dd-a524-806e6f6e6963}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Vista (TM) Enterprise (recovered)
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
pae Yes
debugoptionenabled No
3. Once you have found it, copy the value for identifier (example below)
4. Run the following command: bcdedit /deletevalue {fdf2c6d2-40b4-11dd-a524-806e6f6e6963} inherit
5. Restart and Hibernation should be ok!
Wow Lee. No wonder you needed Microsoft support to help you out with that! It’s certainly not an intuitive solution.
Thanks for sharing.
No problem Shane…always glad to help.
I do like vista but still has a few problems that need to be resolved with it. I guess XP was the same when it was first released though.
It was a lovely lady called Betty from Microsoft who gave me the solution and I owe her a big kiss for it haha!
I prefer to use hibernate on my desktop, it’s a handy feature, as opposed to shutting down all the time.
I like the fact you can unplug from the mains and still have your session stored.
I do restart occasionally, mostly after I have done a software installation, or a vista update.
Hi matey
Thanks SOOOO much! Tried the powercfg -h on command but forgot to run as an administrator duh! Once i sorted that i got it working fine!
Again — Thanks!
My laptop keeps trying to go into hibernate mode whenever I turn it on. It can’t actually hibernate, but it just stays on the screen telling me it’s trying to hibernate and won’t let me access windows. So I can’t change options on the control panel etc as I can’t get to it. I tried turning it off and on again, but itjust goes straight back to trying to hibernate the second the desktop has come up on the screen. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could sort it??
Hi Laura,
Have you tried booting your laptop in safe mode? If not, that might be worth a go to see if you can at least get access to the settings without hibernate activating.
Let me know how that works out.
Shane
i own a compaq presario cq50-106au laptop running vista home basic. my problem is that when i snap my monitor panel shut, my laptop goes to hibernation, but when i open it up again, it shows the IRQ_NOT_LESS_EQUAL blue screen of death and restarts. any suggestions please?
this works 100%!!!
thanks man!!!!!
my hibernate button is back!!!
woohoo!!!
Thanks very much, this helped a lot. I deleted the hibernation file cleaner with disk cleanup. Now it works again!!
thanks this advice worked perfectly. once i updated the driver i ran powercfg -a and then ran powercfg -h on . this re-enabled hibernation and i was away.
your a legend…
Hey, i have a dell vostro with vista and recently everytime i turn it on, a couple seconds after starting up it goes straight into hibernation mode before i can do or type anything, can you help me??
thanks
Hello,
My Computer goes right in and does not come out of hibernate. Using windows vista tried safe mode etc. Still just a black screen with moving arrow, does go into screen saver. Was able to do diegnostic check, found errors in ide disk:
code ofoo:0240-block 20474292, ofoo:0244-block
20474293, ofoo:1a44-block 20474292, ofoo:1a44- block 20474293. Do you know how this can be fixed? Sure can use some Help! Thanks, Howard
My problem is totally opposite!!!
I am in middle of something and my laptop goes into hibernation.Does anyone know how to solve that , its very annoying… I wake it up from hibernation sometimes and then it goes back in a minute or two again …Some days theres no trouble at all , but recently it seems to occur more often . When i bought it 2 months back it was working fine , no such problem . laptop is any HP Verve , Vista came with the laptop
my laptop has not show the hibernate option..
One week ago I have formatted my pc that time it is display hibernate option after 2 days it is not display that option i have very very use that option….
powercfg -h on
solved my problem.
one of many vista nightmares solved.
should have bought a Mac.
hi folks,
i am still stuck in the problem of “Vista Keeps Waking Up From Hibernation”. I din’t find where to disbale the wake on lan setting in the bios. :(
thanks a lot
100% work