Very slow hibernate

[eman6]

I have a nearly two year old Compaq nx7000 notebook with Windows XP Pro. 512MB RAM and half full 40GB Hard disk.
The graphics card is the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 AGP with 64MB, set at 1680 x 1050, 32bit color
Even with no running software applications and hardly any in the system tray either (just the clock, volume and network) when I put the system in hibernate it takes very long time (5 to 10 minutes) until it gets into hibernate mode.
When I wake it up again it comes back normal, though.
This started a year ago already.
I tried to deactivate the hibernation for a while (few months) and then activate it again. Still same problem.
What could be the reason? And hopefully the solution.

Kind regards
Eman

 

[jimp56]

no, usb printers probably not the problem. just curious. so, the system event viewer didnt really indicate much else other than the driver issues?

about the only other thing I can think of is to possibly upgrade/flash the BIOS to a newer version. the newer version may possibly correct some sort of advanced power mgmt (APM) flaw that was discovered.

beyond that, I am sorry I cannot provide more to try - you have already tried most of the common things from the sounds of it.

I will look on compaq's site for any clues...

 

[jimp56]

OK, they just recently released a video BIOS upgrade that according to the notes, "Fixes intermittent issue where the Suspend mode was unstable."

even though hibernation and suspend are different, and it addresses issues coming BACK from suspend/hibernation, instead of going into it --it may help..

you may try running this:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqnk/us/download/20503.html

or go to presario support, choose to download drivers/files, then enter the nx700 model #, then browse to the "BIOS" area.

try it and report back.

 

[eman6]

This led to another problem.
While trying to run the ATI WinFlash utility, it is asking me to provide the ROM image file.
No clue what that is and where to find it.
HELP!!

 

[jimp56]

ok, not sure why you were getting that message.

did you choose the "download" button from the link i provided, or did you get it some other way?

at any rate, the utility places the necessary files under the "c:\SWSetup\sp27461" folder.

so if its asking for a location, I would choose that.

the file it should be looking for is:
M9-P0222.BIN

 

[eman6]

Well, I finally figured out what file he is looking for.
Installation succeeded.
No change in hibernate after reboot.
But now that you mentioned the BIOS flash of the Graphics card, what about the BIOS of the system itself?
What do you think?

 

[jimp56]

ok, cool. well - the system bios listed was released in 2003, didnt seem to be much newer than what you already probably had, but its worth a try. Just be careful to follow the instructions very carefully, because if the bios flash fails, you have a useless computer. use at your own risk!

beyond that, I am afraid I am stumped. Sorry. Only other suggestion would be to try reloading windows, but thats more trouble than it might be worth.

Good Luck. Maybe someone else on the site can think of something I havent... Guys?

 

[eman6]

jimp56
I am very grateful to you for your efforts, I really appreciate your care.
I'll try to contact HP Tech Support, hoping they will not require me to send them the notebook for checking.
Well, maybe your suggestion of re-installing Windows is not that bad, after all. I guess all my settings and applications will not have to be re-installed.

Thanks again indeed.

Kind regards
Eman2005
P.S. I shall post here if I solve the problem anyway.

 

[bjdobs]

just my two cents worth ...

files that are system or hidden cannot be seen by using dir from the command prompt ... use the attrib command from the cmd prompt ... attrib by itself gives a listing of all files almost like a ls -lat used in unix

The hibernate concept hasn't changed much from the way we used to do captures on the Apple II series machines. The machine was frozen and the OS gathers all the information of work in process and saves it to disk.

The twist in this is that with the Apple we just froze the processor then copied the core memory and neglected any peripherals. With XP, hibernate sends out a global request for status from all devices so it can return those devices to that state when it resumes.

I have a Compaq with 196M of ram and a 10G drive ... it only has an AMD 380Mhz cpu and it works fine with XP SP2 ... Hibernate has been my best friend.

I suspect that OS is stuck waiting for a response from one of your devices and or drivers and after a timeout the OS finally gives up on it before issuing the system shutdown command. You could check devices by disabling them individually from the device manager to attempt to isolate which one is causing the delay.

 

[eman6]

That is, in my opinion, worth more than two cents

Thanks bjdobs. I'll give it a try to see which device is causing the trouble.

 

[eman6]

Dear all
I used The DataLifeGuard tools utility software downloaded from Western Digital (which is essentially the same like the one provided by Maxtor and named MaxBlast) to replace my 40GB with a new 80GB Hard disk, and the hibernate problem is solved.
It was tricky because there were two main options regarding a new hard disk installation.
The first is a new HD setup, and the second is to copy drive to drive. (actually these are options 2 and 3 in the utility). If you read the instructions, you would use the copy drive to drive, which I did and failed. Then I tried the new HD setup option and failed too, obviously because (as WD states) if there has been a failure or problem, the installation might not work.
So what I finally did is to format the new HD and then start the utility, run the New HD setup with the option to set a new drive as the boot drive. This not only sets up the new drive but copies the entire old drive into the new one. Then as you click on next it shuts up the computer. Then you switch it on again and upon windows startup it completes the setup in a few seconds.
I did all that and switched the notebook off and then on again. BINGO, I have now 80GB half full and Hibernate works normal again.
It looks like it was misleading to indicate that the copy drive to drive is the right option. Especially that exactly after failure of this option, the other won't work.
Wheeewww. Finally the job is done without having to buy a utility.
Yes I spent a lot of time, but many people I know as well as those who participated in this forum discussion now know what to do in such a case.
Thank you all for your care and attention.
Happy New year to all.

Eman2005

 

[jimp56]

Good to hear. I had suspected something to do with the hard drive to begin with, but it was unclear exactly what the issue may have been. Like I had stated, all its really doing is writing whatever data is in ram to the drive and shutting down.

Thanks for the follow-up information.