Windows XP Standby and Hibernate Problem (Update 5/2009)

August 15, 2008

Windows XP Standby and Hibernate Problem (Update 5/2009)

Category: Conservation,Little Things,Save Electricity,Tips – Tom Harrison – 11:24 am

No Standby

In June I wrote about how I had solved my problems with windows XP not going into stand-by or hibernating. That post is a good overview of the problem, with suggestions on how to diagnose and narrow down the problem. There is also a good thread of comments there.

Judging from the traffic I have been getting on that post, it seems that many others are having the same standby issues as I. And there are some other standby solutions I have found since then. I’ll try to keep updating this post, and I encourage anyone with other findings or questions to comment.

Update History

(edited 9/7/08, added test methodology)
(edited 9/9/08, added suspected Google Reader issue and 5 minute test period)
(edited 9/14/08, results of testing free utility, Smart Shutdown — ~~it works!~~ It used to work :-( )
(edited 10/21/08, some XP SP3 Hibernate problems and possible solutions)
(edited 11/17/08, added firmer “shut down everything first” to test procedure)
(edited 11/18/08, added “verify manual standby works” to test procedure)
(edited 12/13/08, clarified case where iTunes causes problems
(comment #17 on this post, 1/1/09, Java QuickStart
(comment from other post, 1/29/09: Symantec AV suspected
(comment from other post, Installation of SP3 kills hibernate option; see below)
(comment from other post 2/26/09: Adobe Type Manager causes Keyboard error entering standby, confirmed by Microsoft)
(additional bolding of some other solutions in comments, 5/22/09): Spamblock Plus, VOIP connection, MSN, others suspected.

Known or Suspected Standby Hibernate Issues

Standby Problems

Having a video, e.g. YouTube open in my web browser, Firefox 3 or IE (100% sure), even if all content is downloaded (ok if it has the “Play” arrow, i.e. not started yet)
~~Having GMail open in my web browser (20% sure)~~
~~Having Google Reader open in my web browser (20% sure)~~
Having any program open that has a file open on another computer (100% sure)
Having iTunes open when the iTunes library is on a network computer (100% sure) Update 12/08: If your computer DOES go into standby or hibernate, e.g. manually, iTunes will get confused and need to reprocess your library next time you start. Aaaargh!!
~~Having Last.fm running (50% sure)~~
8/16 I am suspicious of some browser applications and plugins. I ruled out last.fm today, but also had what I thought were innocent windows open in my browser (FF 3). I stopped the browser and then restarted, opening the same windows, and standby was fine. Grrr.
9/9 Google Reader??? But not always. I was able to reproduce a problem that occurred when Google Reader (a fantastic RSS reader!) was open in a browser window, again, either IE or FF. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen sometimes, confirmed. I am not sure if it has to do with the particular site whose feed is selected, or perhaps just if the periodic check the application does for new posts happened during my tests. Note: I had to set the Standby period to longer than my usual 1 minute to reproduce this, so maybe it’s just that I was testing this in the morning and a whole bunch of items were getting updated. (100% confirmed that something is up, not sure exactly what).
Windows XP Service Pack 3 causes Hibernation tab in Power Options to go away. I have not seen this; SP3 installed fine for me. See my comment on my other standby/hibernate post, here with links to possible causes and solutions. (100% confirmed by MS)
The confirmed case of Hibernate tab disappearing is that SP3 installation uses more disk space; hibernation uses disk space. When disk space is freed, hibernation option becomes available again
Java QuickStart!!! See comments below…

It pretty much sucks that I now have to think about what kinds of browser tabs and applications I need to close in order to make sure my computer goes into standby, so to that degree, the problem is not solved. But I now am successful at getting my machine to stand by and hibernate 90% of the time.

This is by no means the extent of the problem. I am quite sure that having certain programs, hardware device drivers, or services running was likely to be part of the problem I solved.

Testing Method for Standby Issues

Here’s the quickest way I have found to test for a program that interferes with XP Standby:

Close ~~any known and suspected problematic~~ all programs (and optionally disable suspected plug-ins, or stop suspected services, etc.)
Make sure the computer will go into standby (and stay in standby) mode manually (Start > Shut Down > Standby)
Set the standby time to 1 minute (Start > Control Panel > Power Options > System Standby > After 1 minute)
Wait a minute (no keyboard, mouse, etc.) to see that the system actually goes into standby
Open the suspected problem program and wait again
If it fails to standby after a minute or two, then there’s probably a problem; I would give it a few more minutes just to be sure
Then re-close/re-disable/re-stop the suspected program and wait ~~a minute~~ five or more minutes (you’ll need to reset your power options standby time setting). If the computer goes back into standby mode, that’s pretty conclusive. Note that I have confirmed cases where I cannot reproduce a problem when standby time is set to 1 minute, but can when it is set to a longer time, like 5 minutes.

Two other general suggestions for testing:

Test only one suspected problem at a time — I had tried testing multiple changes at once but found that without rigorous recording of what changes I had made, it was almost impossible to isolate a specific issue.
Make sure to see standby working, then failing, then working again before making any conclusions. I have had several cases where it seemed to stop working after I did something, but it was still not working after undoing it. Many things can be happening under the covers that are potential culprits or which can interfere with a test (e.g. a scheduled virus scan)

9/14/08: A Free Tool that Solves My Issues (at least)

~~I haven’t tried it yet, but~~ Here’s a link from “Lifehacker” describing a free utility called Smart Shutdown for Windows XP that seems to put standby and shutdown on steroids. ~~More on this very soon.~~

If not perfect, it seems, so far, so have solved all the cases I can find where Windows’ built-in standby and hibernate utilities fail. Apparently, this has been around since 2005 — who knew? The user interface is a bit lacking, but it seems to replace the power settings and take over. If network files are open, or videos are open, it works where Windows doesn’t. Update: I still have this utility running, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Most likely some configuration change affected this, but I can’t figure out what I did. Sigh

My (minor) complaint is that the user interface is ~~pretty~~ very weak. There are a lot of options, and it takes a ~~little~~ lot of work to figure out which ones you need, you don’t need, and so on. But it is free, and it ~~hasn’t failed yet~~ might work for you.

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91 Comments »

Tom, you forgot one: Running Windows XP in the first place. :-)
Comment by John — August 17, 2008 @ 7:50 am
@John –
Was it not your work computer (Max OSX) that someone recently had to ask you to shut down while you were away?
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
(Or, backatacha)
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — August 18, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
My problem is weird.
My desktop goes into standby, but CPU and power supply fans don’t shut off. They used all shut off some time ago. Fans DO shut off during standby on two other PC I have. Isn’t that normal for standby? What can cause this? How do I fix it?
PS
What is meant by the question Spam protection: Sum of 7 + 10?
I got this response: Error: You have entered the wrong sum in the spam protection field. Press the back button and try again.
So I put 17 in the blank and got it again. Now what?
Comment by Tominfl — September 4, 2008 @ 10:59 am
@Tominfl – standby only means that the computer shuts down some power-consuming functions … but not all. However, your computer’s fans will turn on when things get too hot, even in standby.
The CPU (“brain”) of the computer is usually the main consumer of power, and thus the main producer of heat. In standby, the CPU is mostly (but not completely) turned off, along with the hard drives and other parts of the system. So yes, it is usually the case that the fans would turn off if the CPU is in standby mode … but if it’s still hot inside the computer case, the fans will stay on.
So, check a few things:
- Are the vents that let air in and out clear of dust and lint?
- Is there adequate air flow around the computer?
- Is there a heat source (notably, the sun, but maybe a heater or other electronic doohickey that is warming the air around the computer)?
If everything is ok on this angle, the other question is whether the computer is correctly measuring the temperature. On one of the data center computers I manage, it turned out that the thermometer embedded in the computer was defective, and this made the computer think it was always hot (which caused it to die an untimely death, whose cause I only diagnosed post-mortem :-). This is probably an unlikely cause, and while there may be a utility you can download to see what your CPU temperature is, its most likely a simpler problem. If your computer is an “off the shelf” box from a major manufacturer, it’s probably fine.
So, make sure there’s decent air-flow around the computer, take two aspirin, and call me in the morning if high temperatures persist :-)
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — September 6, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
I agree with your concerns about standby problems and Firefox.
One of the plug-ins I have installed totally prevents auto standby, but I have not had the time to try and diagnose which one is causing the problems.
-Adblock Plus
-Downthemall
-Foxmarks
-Video Download Helper
I use them all frequently and don’t want to have to uninstall them just to get my computer to work as it should.
Is there any utility that can monitor the standby DLL or service to see what application is preventing it? Or a standby log? I’ve done a bit of searching but haven’t found anything yet. Any ideas?
Comment by AllanC — September 7, 2008 @ 11:06 am
@AllanC — Great info! It’s pretty easy to temporarily disable a Firefox plugin. In Firefox 3, clicks Tools > Add Ons > Extensions — if you select any plug-in, there should be an option to disable it (and then easily enable it later). Write back if you find a culprit.
Of the plugins noted, I would suspect Foxmarks first. The problems I have found all occur when there’s an open connection to a remote computer (as when I have something open referencings files on our home file server, or when a video is open in either IE or Firefox). Foxmarks talks to a remote server (where the shared bookmarks are stored); the others probably only spring into action as needed and work locally. But it’s just a guess.
If only there were a utility in XP to monitor or log standby none of this would be a problem — apparently there’s some better support for this feature in Vista, but sadly, XP is a black box. I have searched far and wide and found nothing (and further, I think the reason for this is that the basic information provided by Windows XP itself is not exposed via Windows’ API, making it effectively impossible to write such a utility).
Good luck!
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — September 7, 2008 @ 11:55 am
[...] Finally solved the problem with Windows XP standby not working [...]
Pingback by Save Electricity — Our 45% Reduction Saves $1,250/year (Updated) | Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy — September 19, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
Maybe you should write another test option:
people should close all programs, if firefox is closed for example, it doesn’t matter what plugins are loaded. then they should check if standby works. for me it doesn’t. but when i disconnect my internetconnection, it will go into standby. so there is something with the connection. i have a tool tcpview and it doesnt show me special connections or any programs that are online. suspicious!
Comment by Fisch — November 17, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
Good idea, Fisch –your wish is my command. Test suggestions updated.
Thanks!!
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — November 17, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
I can’t believe no one has mentioned this test. See if you can put the computer into standby manually by going to the shutdown menu and selecting “standby”.
The actual method depends on your XP’s UI setttings…classic vs XP, etc.
I quickly found that having MS Access open, connected to a remote database prevents standby. However, Excel connected to a remote spreadsheet does not prevent standby.
I can get my computer to go into standby mode manually, but not automatically.
Comment by corby — November 18, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
Corby — yeah, you’re right — if it won’t go into standby manually, it certainly won’t do it automatically :-). I’ll add it to the test procedure. Thanks!
Comment by Tom Harrison — November 18, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
With no user applications running (services, yes, but no user apps), my XP Dell reliably goes into standby if the time is set for 1, 5, 10 minutes but not beyond that, unless . . . I unplug the Ethernet cable. I’m guessing some network housekeeping is reseting the standby timer. But what? I do have some network devices mounted in My Network Places, but no files are open (since no apps open). How to find the network trouble-maker (short of using WireShark to go through every packet and figure out what each even is, something I’m not really qualified to do)? Ideas?
Comment by John McCaskey — November 22, 2008 @ 11:55 pm
John –
This is an interesting one and it would be great to get to the bottom of it.
The one thought I have, based on your diagnosis, is to see if the network adapter is set to wake up the computer when there’s network activity.
Open Start > Control Panel > Network Connections. Listed there will one or more connections. In the status column, it should say “Connected” (and maybe other options, like Firewalled) — if you need to verify which one is right, unplug the cable and status should change to “Network Cable Unplugged”, then you can plug it in again.
On that connection, do the following steps:
1. Double-click the connection to open the Properties window
2. Click the “Configure…” button to the right of the “Connect Using” box
3. Click the last tab in the new window opened, which should be “Power Management”
4. Uncheck (if it is checked) “Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby”
5. Another option, “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” should be safe to leave checked”
This feature (known as “Wake on LAN”) only sort of makes sense. Are there other computers on your network that are on all the time — they may periodically check the state of your computer, which might trigger this event and wake up the computer. But I’m not so sure.
If this doesn’t solve the problem, or if the option was not checked, it might be worth un-checking the other option that “should be safe” above if it’s checked. If these don’t work, or there’s no Power Options tab, then you might want to check to be sure you have the latest drivers for the network adapter.
In any case, let us know the result!
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — November 23, 2008 @ 11:38 am
Thanks Tom. I should have mentioned that I had already confirmed that “Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby” had already been turned off.
Yes, there are several computers (and a switch, DHCP server, and VOIP router) on the net. If I get the time and a time when I can do so, I might try shutting others down one by one. But the process is so slow, given each test takes 15-30 minutes and needs to be repeated to confirm. Grrrr.
Sure would be nice if someone could just tell us what activities/processes restart the standby counter.
I haven’t checked for an updated network card driver, but I have a relatively new gigabit card, so I’d expect the driver to be up-to-date. But I’ll check.
Comment by John McCaskey — November 24, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
@Tominfl:
I know your post was over three months ago, but posters do occasionally check these blogs for comments once in a great while (like me!)
Computers actually have two different Suspend modes: Power-on Suspend (POS for short), and Suspend to Ram (or STR).
POS:
System appears on except for monitor. The CPU is stopped; RAM is refreshed; the system is running in a low power mode. Fans continue running. Hard drive state tends to vary with different motherboards.
STR:
System appears off. The CPU has no power; RAM is in self refresh; the power supply is in a reduced power mode: Hard drives and fans are powered off, along with most PCI and AGP devices.
Your problem might be that your computer may or may not support STR. Two things are required for STR support: An STR-capable motherboard+processor, and a power supply that can output 2 amps on the ‘suspend power’ wire. If your system supports STR, then it may be disabled in the BIOS.
If, as you said, the computer did it previously then a registry entry may have changed (though I’m not sure what program would change it). There is a tool called “dumppo.exe” that will force changing the minimum sleep state to STR. It is available here:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe
The ftp server is a little flaky right now, so Firefox will sometimes fail to see the file. Just keep trying, it’ll work eventually.
To use dumppo, type “dumppo.exe admin minsleep=s3” (no quotes) in a command prompt.
HTH,
Scott
Comment by ScottyPcGuy_03 — December 23, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This solution has proven to resolve many problems. Way to go, Ian!]
I enjoyed reading your article – you have an animated writing style. Thanks mostly for the problem determination steps that you outline…
I too am constantly wrestling with all the little gremlins that prevent my computer from going to sleep automatically.
FYI – The personal finance software Quicken usually prevents my computer from going into standby if it’s running (usually; not always). I have found that the Google Photos Screensaver (part of the “Google Pack” (http://pack.google.com) also prevents the computer from entering standby when it’s the currently selected screensaver. These are things I’ve known about for some time…
My recent discovery is what I would really like to share with you.
Sun Microsystems – the people behind Java – has released a “bizillion” updates to their Java Virtual Machine / Java Runtime Environment over the years. If you take a look in the “Add or Remove Programs” applet in Windows Control Panel, you will likely see a bunch of copies of it (depending on how long your computer has existed):
e.g.
Java(TM) 5 Update 12
Java(TM) 5 Update 13
Java(TM) 6 Update 1
:
:
Java(TM) 6 Update 9
and ending (currently, as of Dec 2008) with
Java(TM) 6 Update 11
(Note: I have found that you can uninstall all of the earlier versions and just keep the latest one, freeing up about 100 MB / installed instance. They seem to have tweaked the Java Updater now and it will remove the previous version automatically; earlier versions did not, as you can see…)
Anyway, long story short, they have implemented a stupid (in my mind) “technology” in the recent versions of the virtual machine called “Java Quick Start” which is intended to keep the core parts of Java in virtual memory to facilitate quick startup / execution of Java applets. (You talk about other warmup type programs in one of your articles. I hate these warmup programs also; I rarely use Java and I dislike having some self-aggrandizing software architect @ SUN MICROSYSTEMS raise its level of “importance” on my computer without consulting me first.)
I have determined that a program called “Java Quick Start” (you can find it in task manager running as “jqs.exe“) has been at the centre of MY computer’s current bout of insomnia. After I disabled Java Quick Start, my computer went to sleep right away (after the 1 minute interval I had set for testing); it’s the first time it’s done so on its own in literally 2 months.
Here’s how to disable Java Quick Start. (I benefitted from another person’s article on this – to find out where to do it; in that article he was more concerned with wasted virtual memory because he used Java only on an infrequent basis.)
1. Go into Windows Control Panel
2. Bring up the “Java Control Panel” applet.
3. In Java Control Panel, click the “Advanced” tab.
4. In the Settings tree, expand the “Miscellaneous” branch.
5. Deselect “Java Quick Starter”.
6. Click “OK”.
That’s it – problem solved (for me).
PS
In this day & age, I think big corporations like Apple, Intuit, Google and SUN MICROSYSTEMS have a moral obligation to deliver software that is (to put it politely) “environmentally friendly” or (to be blunt) “not stupid” / not “stupidly implemented” – i.e. software which does NOT interfere with the computer’s built-in mechanism for conserving power. I think it’s a total joke. Few people have the wherewithal to debug standby/hibernate problems and I think mass-distributed software that has flaws like this is just plain WRONG.
There – I’ve said my piece.
Comment by Ian — January 1, 2009 @ 6:42 am
Ian — your comment is awesome, and I especially like the notion of Windows “insomnia” :-). My wife’s computer has the Google photo screen-saver — I’ll test that one here. I can’t really confirm the Quicken case; I do use Quicken, but the file is on my Apple Time Capsule network mapped drive; I can confirm that any open file on a network driver/resource will prevent Windows from sleeping.
The Java Quick Start item is a great. One additional note — I had an earlier version (Java 6 release 10) and the only item in “Miscellaneous” was called “Place Java Icon in System Tray”; after updating to 11, I also I got the “Quick Start” feature (and by “feature” I mean “poorly implemented useless bloat”), turned on by default. I would turn both of them off. While I have a good deal of respect for Sun (one of my life skills is Java programming, and it’s a pretty decent product that’s free), I hate this kind of semi-invasive software. Typical Windows installations are cursed with a massive number of little, useless items; another … eh hem, turd like this is not helpful.
It is nice to hear that new revisions of the Java runtime no longer decide to install themselves separately. I just set up a computer for a friend that had 10 or 15 revs of Java, all of which were pretty much redundant.
Comment by Tom Harrison — January 9, 2009 @ 5:52 pm
I’ve had the same problem with XP and standby mode (it woke up less than a minute of going into standby). I’ve been trying to find the problem few months. I did find it on my own last night and I’m glad to see that Tom hit the nail on the head in an earlier post – it was the network adapter set to allow the adapter to bring the computer out of sleep mode. I unplugged my ethernet cable from my router to the computer and that gave it away – went into sleep mode just fine. If anyone has this problem, they should start there. By the way, I have Vonage – I’m not sure that had anything to do with it but it may.
Comment by Ross DePaola — January 13, 2009 @ 12:06 am
Hello to all,
RE:JAVA Quick Start.
I recently switched back to using a desktop as a primary machine because I acquired a model which runs (virtually) silent and importantly is happy to go in and out of sleep (S3) without being a bad sport.
Now I did have an issue with a unruly mouse, one logitech usb bluetooth laser type, which allowed the computer to sleep but only to an S2 state; which left, an albeit quiet, PSU fan running. So anyway between my acoustic hypersensitivity and a niggling feeling that this was more power consuming than was necessary I sorted this out. I have to use the pwr. button on my computer to wake it now, far less slick than a flick of the mouse but everything has a price.
So I happily went about brining the other nut and bolts of the binary kind up to date via Windows Update, a device which by the way I have never been best of friends with, and despite choosing the ‘custom’ path my flipping comp was now refusing to go to sleep after its bedtime of 25mins inactivity. Bugger.
Long story short and after much trial and error vis a vis MSCONFIG I finally nail this JQS AKA (sorry for the TLA’s) Java Quick Start as the cause. SHAME SHAME SHAME on Java. That is three hours of my life I didn’t get paid for, perhaps I should have read that particular EULA after all.
Look out for it folks, I just wish I could have found this post in the pre solution research phase! Oh well, thanks anyway Tom & Ian.
P.S. Along with the comments about POS and STR look out for things which do not allow an S3 sleep state. As with my B.T. mouse/keyboard combo they allow an S3 state normally but when in ‘allow to wake system’ mode they only achieve S2 which leaves as I said the PSU fan running in my case. More of a USB issue that blue tooth I think.
Goodnight all,
Conver
Comment by Converseahorse — January 16, 2009 @ 8:56 pm
Okay so this issue with Excel preventing my notebook from hibernating has been haunting me for months. Under certain circumstances, such as when I had certain excel files open, I would get this pop-up prompt instead of being able to quickly pack and make it in time for meetings. Extremely irritating!!
Well, after unsuccessfully trying many MSVP-endorsed “solutions” I finally found sort of a dirty work-around. It appears that if certain hyperlinks are present in your open workbook, Excel will complain if you attempt to hibernate or switch to stand-by. In my case specifically these were SharePoint links. What makes things worse, even if you delete said links, through some weird “feature” Excel still complains about open network files. The only thing that seems to have made this issue go away was to copy all existing worksheets into a new workbook. This forces Excel into abandoning obsolete workbook history information.
So to summarize, if you find yourself staring at an Excel pop-up prompt stating that open network files are keeping your computer from going into stand-by or hibernation, a possible solution is to “freshen up” the problem excel file by copying all worksheets to a new, empty workbook and closing/discarding the old file. Beware of loosing any VBA code/macros that are not copied along with the worsheets though.
Comment by Al — January 21, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Thanks go out to Ian for his Java Quick Start post. That was exactly what was wrong with my new laptop which would neither hiberbate or go into standby. Let’s hope Java releases yet another “update” that corrects this problem for all who have not read Ian’s post.
Comment by Doug — January 23, 2009 @ 8:59 am
Useful thread! My PC was, up to last December, quite happily dropping down to standby after five minutes then overnight stopped doing it. After much messing around I eventually bit the bullet and did a fresh reinstall of Windows last weekend and after starting to put my apps back on the problem reappeared. Arggggg!!!!
Anyway, after a bit of lateral thinking, lots of swearing and blaming Microsoft, Adobe and several other software vendors I hit on the solution, Google (literally). I’ve had Google Desktop Search installed for ages and a post elsewhere suggested that this was the culprit.
See here http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/582544-problem-google-desktop.html
Shutting down Google allowed the PC to gracefully go to standby. I guess some update from Google has messed things up, quite why the whole world isn’t complaining I suppose is down to differing hardware.
Hope this helps!
Comment by Andrew Sinclair — February 19, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
Andrew –
Thanks for the great new item for the list.
The world is complaining. This and several related posts on my environmental/green blog are the ones that get some of the most traffic (I guess it’s “green”, kinda :-). I continue to research the various new problems that arise, and I think people have mostly given up.
So here are a few keywords that googlers can use to find this: “xp standby google desktop” “standby hibernate google”, “hibernate google desktop”.
And, I’ll post a note on the google desktop newsgroup and hope they fix it.
Comment by Tom Harrison — February 19, 2009 @ 8:34 pm
Damn you Java! And thank you Ian!!
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why my media PC (which is just a TV/PVR that rarely changes) stopped automatically hiberating only a couple of week or so ago. I was starting to suspect recent MS critical updates – but sure enough, it was the Java quickstarter!
Worse, this info was _really_ hard to find, as most Google hits are about hibernation or resuming not working altogether.
In fairness probably just an oversight on their part, hopefully it gets fixed soon …
Comment by gl — February 24, 2009 @ 8:32 am
Just managed to solve my particular hibernation problem after a day’s investigation and thought to report it here since I didn’t see posts about an identical issue.
OS:
Win XP SP3
Issue:
Hibernation works manually but not automatically (i.e. nothing happens when the set time is reached)
Resolution:
In Task Scheduler, I had several tasks that were scheduled with option “When idle“. Changing all those to either “Daily” or “Weekly” solved the problem.
One explanation could be that the “When idle” option employs some sort of counter or other mechanism that somehow interferes with or resets the hibernation counter.
Comment by Jukka — March 11, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
Just wanted to say thanks for all the information you’ve collected. I’ve been troubleshooting issues with my PC’s not going into standby for quite some time. It’s frustrating to me as electricity here on Long Island runs about 20 cents a kwh.
Thanks to your tip above I now realize that open files on a network drive are causing my problems. It amazes me that nothing is logged to the event log for this.
Anyway, I disconnected my network drive and set my standby timeout to 1 minute sure enough it’s working.
It’s too bad that everything I use is located on my server. So keeping the net drive disconnected it not really an option. However, at least I know what’s going on!
Thanks again.
Mike P.
Comment by Mike P. — April 10, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
Mike P. —
The network connection issue is really a matter of how the software handles having files open, which most PC software just assumes isn’t an issue — because files are “always” on the same machine. Grumble.
I am still getting auto-standby about 30% of the time.
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — April 10, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
I’m a tech. Removed some spyware off a customer’s machine, next thing we knew it wouldn’t go into standby anymore. Would simply lock up at the “preparing to standby” screen.
I tried everything, backing out of SP3, repair install, even most of the other stuff I knew wouldn’t matter because it would exhibit the problem when I booted with the minimum configuration (msconfig, Diagnostic Startup). I was just about to format and reload the OS when I took a look at the log generated by ComboFix. It mentioned changes made to the registry concerning the TCP/IP stack.
On a hunch, I ran WinsockFix (resets all the network settings) which fixed the problem.
Just another thing to try.
–Steve.
Comment by Steve — April 20, 2009 @ 2:43 pm
Hi, I had some funny trouble with my Windows XP Home SP3. I found that if there are some jobs in the printer queue, the System won’t StandBy. It took about 6 hours and 2^10 of my nerves ;)
Hope that helps.
Greetz, Robin
Comment by Robin — April 26, 2009 @ 7:10 pm
I bumped into this nice blog and guide while I was troubleshooting my PC that sometimes failed to suspend itself automatically.
Background: I have a notebook with Windows XP SP3, and I have created a “scheduled task” to automatically hibernate the computer at 9:30 PM, to allow time for executing the daily antivirus and antispyware scans after I have left my office desk. 80% of the times all works fine, and the day after I can power on my PC and quickly resume from hibernation. Sometimes however it does not properly work, and while the operating system is apparently shut down (black screen etc.), the CPU fan keeps on spinning and the notebook leds show the power supply is not turned off. In such cases, when I power it on, the PC does not resume from suspension but rather boots, like if I had shut it down instead of hibernating it.
So, I have modified my hibernation batch script to dump to a logfile the list of the running processes before and after the suspension command is launched (I used the ‘pslist’ command from the Microsoft’s ‘pstools’ suite: google for it).
Well, the result is that when hibernation succeeds, the computer CPU is totally idle, while when it does not succeed, some process is instead still executing and evidently interferes with the hibernation process. Wonder what process it is? Have a look:
Here is when hibernation SUCCEEDS (idle=100%):
————————————————————–
21.30.07 21/04/2009 Process information for MYLAPTOP:
Name Pid CPU Thd Hnd Priv CPU Time Elapsed Time
Idle 0 100 2 0 0 50:38:50.234 101:54:59.671
System 4 0 72 1773 0 1:31:18.359 101:54:59.671
smss 860 0 3 19 172 0:00:00.421 101:54:59.671
————————————————————–
Here is when hibernation FAILS (“MsMpEng” is active on CPU):
————————————————————–
21.30.05 27/04/2009 Process information for MYLAPTOP:
Name Pid CPU Thd Hnd Priv CPU Time Elapsed Time
Idle 0 95 2 0 0 37:01:19.687 131:04:57.671
MsMpEng 1980 5 16 309 52764 0:55:35.875 131:04:46.453
System 4 2 73 1775 0 2:03:33.609 131:04:57.671
————————————————————–
So, apparently the good old Microsoft AntiSpyware (a.k.a. Windows Defender, MsMpEng.exe) interferes with my automated hibernation process. I have rescheduled it to start 1 hour earlier and I hope this fixes the issue once and for all.
Anyway, beside the specific interfering process running on my computer, I suggest to utilize a similar approach, i.e. dump the list of running processes and check which ones are running when the hibernation/suspension/standby etc. does not work, and good luck! :)
Ciao
Alessandro, Milano, Italy
Comment by Alessandro (Italy) — April 28, 2009 @ 4:13 am
Ah, almost forgot!
For those interested, here is my batch script for automated computer hibernation:
——————————————————–
FOR /F “tokens=1-4 delims=// ” %%A in (‘date/T’) do SET DATE=%%C-%%B-%%A
FOR /F “tokens=1-4 delims=/. ” %%A in (‘time/T’) do SET TIME=%%A-%%B
set LOGFILE=”C:\Temp\logs\Hibernate_%DATE%_%TIME%.log”
set MESSAGE=”Hibernation will safely store all your data on disk and then turn off the Computer.”
REM Remove the “PsShutdownSvc” from the services list and the pssdnsvc.exe from %windir%, in case a previous attempt hung/failed
FOR /F “tokens=1-4 delims=/. ” %%A in (‘time/T’) do SET TIME=%%A:%%B
echo * STARTED: %DATE% at %TIME%. > %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo – Stopping PsShutdownSvc service (will fail if not running)… >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
sc stop PsShutdownSvc >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo. >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo – Removing PsShutdownSvc service… >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
sc delete PsShutdownSvc >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo. >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo – Removing %windir%\pssdnsvc.exe file… >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
del %windir%\pssdnsvc.exe >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo …done. >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo. >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
REM dump list of running programs before execution of hibernation
REM note the 1st sample out of ‘pslist’ is to be discarded, as it always show CPU=0% – that’s why we take 2 samples ;)
echo ======================================================================== >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
%ProgramFiles%\PsTools\pslist -s 2 >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo ======================================================================== >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
REM execute actual command for hibernating the computer: -h=hibernate; -c=allow user to abort (timeout: 30 sec); -e P:0:0=reason: planned shutdown
echo – Launching hibernation command… >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
%ProgramFiles%\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -h -c -e P:0:0 -m %MESSAGE% >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo – Exit status: [%errorlevel%].
FOR /F “tokens=1-4 delims=/. ” %%A in (‘time/T’) do SET TIME=%%A:%%B
REM dump list of running programs after launching the hibernation command
REM note the 1st sample out of ‘pslist’ is to be discarded, as it always show CPU=0% – that’s why we take 2 samples ;)
echo ======================================================================== >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
%ProgramFiles%\PsTools\pslist -s 2 >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo ======================================================================== >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo * FINISHED: %DATE% at %TIME%. >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
echo …zZz… >> %LOGFILE% 2>&1
——————————————————–
Notes:
1) the script requires the installation of ‘psshutdown’ and ‘pslist’ from the Microsoft’s ‘pstools’ suite (formerly known as SysInternals) that you can find here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896649.aspx
2) the log directory (above set to “C:\Temp\logs”) must exist prior of the execution
Ciao
Alessandro, Milano, Italy
Comment by Alessandro (Italy) — April 28, 2009 @ 4:33 am
Alessandro –
Thanks for the script; it’s a good idea that helps overcome the inherent lack of transparency in the XP standby and hibernation processes.
This is clearly a solution for the more technically minded reader, but could be a really good diagnostic tool for people to use when the system supported standby/hibernate processes fail.
To clarify for readers, this approach would require that you stop using the Power Options control panel item for Standby/Hibernate based on a delay (.e.g. standby after 20 minutes of inactivity) and instead replace it with a scheduled tasks that executes this script at a set time.
Comment by Tom Harrison — April 29, 2009 @ 4:18 pm
I finally got it!!
Standby was always working fine, but then for some time my computer would power on by itself. I uninstalled MSN and GoogleTalk plugin, disabled/enabled hibernation, disabled oneNote icon and tried with no programs running in the beginning.
I believe the culprit was GoogleTalk plugin, because that was the only new thing installed in some time. OneNote was new as well, but I had successful standby the whole time (for days). Also after uninstalling GoogleTalk, I don’t see the GoogleUpdate.exe process anymore.
Thanks for reminding me of the systematic approach to get to the bottom!!
Comment by AE — May 8, 2009 @ 2:01 pm
Standby used to work on XP Prof SP3 on my desktop then it suddenly broke, sometimes. Starting yesterday? All that would happen would be that it would cause a reboot. After two days was about to give up then I read above about Spamblock Plus under Firefox. Disabled it and just put it into standby three times in a row with no problems.
Comment by Ian Singer — May 20, 2009 @ 11:30 am
I could not even put my Desktop PC into standby/hibernate manually, never mind automatic.
However, after unplugging my VoIP system everything was working fine – hope this helps someone )))
SP3 is installed on this computer – maybe it just works for some )))
Comment by Vitaliy — May 21, 2009 @ 2:18 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve been trying to figure out my standby issue for months. I even re-loaded the system and after a fresh image still had the issue. My problem was the Java Quick Start. Finally my laptop can sleep!
Comment by Sunny — June 29, 2009 @ 12:43 am
1] Invert your posts, viz newest first
2]Look to ms for solutions – in this case type ” %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState ” into the Run command!
Comment by Robert — July 11, 2009 @ 4:15 am
To see a list of all devices that can wake system or prevent standby, use the command:
POWERCFG /DEVICEQUERY wake_from_S1_supported
In my case it included recently added things like Webcam, Bluetooth dongle..
Remove suspecious devices for test..
Comment by Steen Nielsen, CPH — July 12, 2009 @ 5:24 am
In Vista, the “Photos” screen saver will prevent standby. They also note here that having an audio channel open will prevent standby. Microsoft’s comments on this issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939617
Comment by Philip Van Baren — July 19, 2009 @ 10:07 am
I went thru the same issues on a brand new Dell m4400.
Stuck on “preparing to standby” same thing with “preparing to hibernate”
I closed almost all non-critical apps. Same issue would show.
Then I tried same thing with the services. Stop almost all of them. And then windows was able to standby.
After doing that, problem was fixed some how.
All required services are running, and it’s yet able to stand by.
Coincidence or not, Java Quick Starter was one of the services that I had to stop.
Comment by Ivan — August 4, 2009 @ 3:44 pm
Ok to resolve this matter with hibernate and stand by issue not working on your computer just follow this link http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/aiwhd_xp.aspx if you have troubles just type in the search bar the name of your video card example; ATI DISPLAY DRIVER DOWN LOAD and then down load just the display Driver to many people on here have lead me on such a wild goose chase just to get this soft ware in to my computer what a job Ok Good luck if you have any questions feel free to ask!
Comment by Jake — August 8, 2009 @ 6:27 pm
A few things I’ve noticed after working through issues related to XP Power Management and Group Policy (GP) Preferences Client Side Extensions (CSE) for configuring Power Management centrally:
- XP will not hibernate if the timeout for sleep mode is set to ‘Never’ (e.g. we had set XP to turn off the monitor after 5 minutes, hibernate after 10 minutes, and both power down the hard drive and sleep were set to ‘Never’ – none of our machines would hibernate. Setting sleep to something other than ‘Never’ (e.g. 5 minutes) fixed the issue – they now hibernate as expected).
- GP Preferences has two policy types: Computer and User.
– Computer Power Scheme policies will only apply after a reboot, before a user logs in. Once a user logs in, the user power settings (be it by policy or not) will override those of the machine policy – I believe this is by design
– User Power Scheme policies will apply after the user logs on, and continue to apply after they log out (until either a reboot or another user logs in). This is because XP uses the last power settings that applied as the current power scheme. Logging off doesn’t change the active power scheme
Other factors I found caused issues include:
- Scheduled tasks set to “run when idle” (as previously mentioned) may cause the CPU, Disk and/or Network activity to peak above 10%, which is likely to reset the idle counter on the
machine
- Scheduled tasks set to “wake the computer to run this task” may also prevent the machine from going into sleep/hibernate, though I’m not 100% sure of this one (need to test some more)
For troubleshooting, I found the “powercfg” utility really handy – especially around centrally configured (e.g. GP Preferences) policies. E.g. to check the Computer policy is applying, you can configure a computer startup script to run a batch file with the following command:
Powercfg /query>>C:\<tempfolder>\PowerCFG.txt
Hope that helps someone…. I struggled with this for 2 weeks! (and still testing)
Comment by Dale H — August 12, 2009 @ 12:16 am
I was able to solve my hibernate problem by disabling VRDB in AVAST I have 2 windows XP Pro machines that wouldn’t auto hibernate before I did this and now they both do. I am using Windows Home Server to backup my machines and it would wake them for the backup but they wouldn’t go back to hibernate after my 30 minute time out, now they do.
Comment by Tomaudio — September 16, 2009 @ 7:59 pm
So is there a solution for iTunes preventing hibernation? I found your post and it says something up top about you clarifying the case where iTunes prevents hibernation…I can’t find any mention of this. I recently discovered that I have this problem and would love to solve it since I would like to not have to open and close iTunes all the time.
Thanks,
Andrew
Comment by Andrew Fisher — September 24, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
@Andrew Fisher –
I believe my issue with iTunes preventing hibernation (or standby) was a result of having my library of music on a hard drive that was not on my computer — I had moved everything to a shared computer. iTunes keeps the library file “open” when it’s running, and probably other things like songs, album art, etc. XP will not go into standby automatically when network files are open.
The only other thing that I can think of is that I know there were cases when I had a video (You Tube or whatever) open in a browser the machine wouldn’t standby. iTunes can do video, so perhaps something similar is going on. And of course there are frequent updates, so it’s possible some new thing got added.
I have since given up on Windows and use a Mac. It doesn’t always sleep, either, but I have just gotten in the habit of pressing the button on the keyboard. Sigh.
Comment by Tom Harrison — September 25, 2009 @ 11:48 am
I’ve noticed that, despite following the excellent tips in these comments, sometimes windows refuses to go to sleep after the set time. Sometimes it’ll be because one (or many!) of my kids have been using their login and been accessing some flash hungry site and have just walked away from the PC but often I notice rundll32.exe hanging around in task manager. I’m aware that this is used by Windows to launch dll files that are normally not executable but it should terminate once it has done its job. I’ve not pinned down what causes this but I have my suspicions that Firefox is implicated. So, if I find the machine still pumping out CO2 long after it should have gone to sleep, going into task manager and killing off rundll32.exe usually gets the machine to go to sleep after the appropriate time out. I’m sure someone more familiar with the inner workings of Windows will be along to tell me that my wife will leave me and a great plague will descend upon my house by doing it but for now it seems to do the job!
Comment by Andrew Sinclair — September 25, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
@Andrew Sinclair –
rundll32.exe on its own is not likely to be the culprit. As you say, it should go away when what it has run is complete … and my guess would be that this is the more likely cause.
I don’t think Firefox is the likely culprit … however it’s possible that a plugin like Flash is at fault.
The problem with this can be that rundll may indeed be starting up some program as part of its own process (rather than creating a new process). The problem with this is that any arbitrary program, whose executable code is in a DLL and is set up to be run this way, could look like just another instance of rundll.
I found a great post explaining how to see what is actually running: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/rundll32.htm — the utility needed to make this work is only available in Windows XP Pro, however. If you’re on XP Home, continue on…
If you’re lucky, you might see some other process in the task manager go away when you kill rundll. Make a list of what’s running before you kill, and see if everything is still there afterward.
Otherwise, maybe you can borrow tasklist.exe from someone (or perhaps it’s available from MS).
Hope this helps, and please post back if you find a solution.
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — September 25, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
I fixed my system by disabling the Java Quick Starter. Thanks Tom.
Comment by Bernie — November 4, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
I stand corrected, it did not work.
Comment by Bernie — November 4, 2009 @ 5:38 pm
i exited out of Google talk and now it goes into standby fine and i don’t have to exit out of it anymore for it to go into standby. i think that if you have a problem with the standby and hibernation exit out of anything Google related
Comment by ethan — December 1, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
Well I fixed my standby problem by swapping out the power supply. Now the screen blanker will not work and that could be because Malwarebytes or Unhack me are active.
Comment by Ian Singer — December 1, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
Just want to show my appreciation for the solution from Ian and obviously for Tom for having this webpage, indeed Java Quick Starter was the culprit for me as well (Dell D420 / XP Pro SP3). I’m quite a knowledgeable user and tend to keep searching until a wretched problem like this is solved properly. Thankfully I can now put the fruitless 10+ hours behind me now with a smile.
Rick
Comment by Rick — January 16, 2010 @ 7:14 am
In case of our PC:
cordless usb mouse
wired usb keyboard
P4 533FSB system with DDR2700 RAM
windows xp sp3
Following stand-by problems occurred
after wake-up from stand-by the PC doesn’t respond to key strokes and mouse clicks. However, cursor followed the mouse movements. All that in the windows welcome screen.
However, lately we have realized that the system reacts to user operations. But it took many minutes. Therefore the first impression was, the system doesn’t really respond, frozen-like.
It was necessary to set bios setting “ram clock” from automatic to manual 266Mhz.
Comment by kakii — February 6, 2010 @ 4:07 pm
snoring…
Just wanted to take a second and thank you for your post. Very insightful….
Trackback by snoring — February 7, 2010 @ 2:10 pm
Regarding java quick start… I was having issues in W2k with disconnecting my usb flash drives. Oftentimes W2k would report the drive having files in use when no files should have been open. I noticed jqs.exe had a huge amount of i/o reads in task manager. I uninstalled java and haven’t had this problem since.
Comment by joe — February 11, 2010 @ 12:01 pm
Well ,My Problem is till last week that is before 14 feb 2010 in my system hibernating option was working quiet well.till that time i was not using any internet,but after i started using internet in my pc my hibernating option is not working..and betwwen all this once a virus attacked my system that was cleaned by my anti virus..i am using a XP-SP2…
Comment by Anand — February 18, 2010 @ 8:58 am
I have a 6-month old HP dv4 1432 laptop running Vista 64. I was in iTunes cleaning up music libraries and found 2 libraries under Restored Library Files, with one titled “Sleep”. When I clicked the Sleep library, the laptop lost all power, went dark and even the light that glows around the power cord was out. If I hold the start button in, the middle blue light on the left front will blink as long as I hold down the button, but goes out when the button is released. I can not get the laptop to power up. What is the problem?
Comment by Glen — April 5, 2010 @ 10:16 am
I too was not able to get my Win XP system to hibernate. After reading the above posts I disabled Java Quickstart and the system went into hibernation fine. I had Google Desktop, Mozilla Firefox 3.6, Sunbird, and Thunderbird up and running at the time of hibernation.
Comment by Bruce — April 7, 2010 @ 1:13 am
I couldn´t fix it yet. Have tried disabling all startups, no Java.
I have XP tablet. I receive message that the hard disk is preventing my system go to hibernate. Stand by works ok but hibernate never. Always the hdd message. I don´t know what more to do really.
Comment by Jose — May 30, 2010 @ 10:53 pm
my xp computer also doesnt sleep if itunes is running. even if it doesnt play music anymore. but i connected with remote from my iphone, could this be a reason, that the computer doesnt go to standby ?
Comment by chewara — June 14, 2010 @ 6:03 am
Thanks to Ian about the Java Quick Start and XP not going to sleep. Followed your instructions and the Puter sleeps like a baby. I was in the midst of removing old copies of Java when all of a sudden the change occurred. I had also updated via Windows update .net 3.5 and then read about the problems that was causing to XP. So, I continued to surf the net until I found this blog.
Comment by Steve — June 29, 2010 @ 8:11 pm
Yay! JQS was the problem. thanks!
Comment by pagejaws — August 20, 2010 @ 6:17 pm
Hello There
Unfortunately, after using this program
windows 7 tranformation pack to change windows xp themes
i’m unable to
hibernate
my Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Thanks in advance
Comment by Ahmadreza — September 23, 2010 @ 2:06 pm
[...] My most popular posts have lots of comments — hundreds in a couple cases [...]
Pingback by Keeping Your Hands Dirty | Tom Harrison Jr — September 24, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
After (finally) upgrading to XP from Win2k just this month, I found that my computer was not going to sleep anymore. Tonight I got sick of that and did some research.
Windows XP, by default, prevents the machine from entering the lowest power sleep mode (“S3″, aka fans off, power draw <5 watts) if it thinks there is a USB keyboard or mouse present. In my case there isn't, but XP didn't seem to know that. The MS KB article for this is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841858.
You want to create this key if it isn't present:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesusb
and create a Dword value in it like so:
"USBBIOSx"=DWORD:00000000
That tells XP to allow the deep S3 sleep mode even if it thinks there are USB devices present.
Posting this here in the hope it will be noticed and helpful to someone.
Comment by Glaurung_quena — October 23, 2010 @ 5:24 am
Thanks, started to freak out when it started happening. Winded up being the Java Quick Start!!
Comment by Dee — November 5, 2010 @ 4:23 am
Thanks so much for this!
Standby used to work perfectly on my husband’s desktop, but recently, it would come back on immediately.
The Java Quick Start was the culprit here, too.
Comment by Susanne — December 17, 2010 @ 2:37 pm
the java quick start solved my problem. my college uses java a lot with it’s website so yeah….how did you deduce that it was java causing the issue?? great work
Comment by Dustin — March 3, 2011 @ 3:22 pm
I have ust spent quite a bit of time reading the questions and answers that you give. I must say that you give good sensible responses. I have learnt quite a bit from these questions and answers and for this I thank you. Being a small computer repair company in Hobart Tasmania it is good to hear what the problems are that people need answers to. Thank you.
Comment by jayjay — March 9, 2011 @ 6:13 pm
Ended up here at this post scratching my head.
XP System, SP3, 3 users. Automatic standby WORKS at the XP login screen with users logged out. All users (3) standby DOES NOT WORK once logged in. Tells me its related to the user profiles across all machines. The two changes were Microsoft Security Essentials (formerly AVG) and Firefox 4, formerly 3.6. I used msconfig, hijack this and cclean to get rid of any unused processes. Full scans for malware. I read all the potential issues with MSE, took care of them. It was during the configuration of FF4 I noticed it would not go into standby. But I’m not 100% sure.
After reading your post I see something familiar. I too tried out “last.fm” on the new FF4 browser, then “removed” it. Never slept again after that. I figured “removed” meant gone/uninstall like it did in ff3. What made me not consider this sooner is the fact that even without the browser running at all it WILL turn the monitor off, but WILL NOT enter standby at the specified time while logged in.
So its Install FF4 from scratch…
Or….
Maybe I should go back to AVG first, easier than dealing with everyone’s FF profiles.
Comment by Scott — April 2, 2011 @ 9:11 am
Re comment #70
Try removing AVG and instead install Avast. I know I fixed my problem but can not remember what I did and I know I changed to Avast and use its protection and have Windows firewall ON.
Comment by Ian Singer — April 2, 2011 @ 9:49 am
Thanks, before I do I just found a tool people have been using for years called the “MCE Standby Tool”. Originally created for Media Center Edition systems with standby and hibernate problems. Going to try that tool, see what happens.
Comment by Scott — April 2, 2011 @ 11:10 am
Steve (28),
Thanks for your reasoned and ingenious suggestion. All other approaches failed on my Acer 4202 and since I knew there was a malware incident closely coinciding with the first appearance of a sleep/hibernate problem I used your approach with excellent results. WinsockFix repaired the altered network settings and everything is back to normal.
Apparently many exploits are not completely repaired by AV protection that simply quarantins and removes and even new driver updates don’t always address or resolved that exploit angle of attack.
http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=4625
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259
The key was finding an inordinate number of unidentifiable service ports left open in Windows firewall so altered communications and network changes became my last approach before wiping the disk and reinstalling system and programs. This program was the perfect solution in my case and your suggestion from over a year was a godsend.
Thanks again,
Craig
Comment by Craig — April 10, 2011 @ 1:49 pm
Steve (28),
Thanks for the suggestion of using WinsockFix to reset network communications. It worked perfectly to resolve side-effects after malware removal that prevented standby and hibernation from working properly.
Craig
Comment by Craig — April 10, 2011 @ 3:43 pm
I have a really strange standby issue and have nearly given up.
I have XP SP3 my issue started a couple of months ago and I have tried numerous fixes to no avail.
When my machine comes out of standby, it basically uninstalls my imbedded WWAN. I can leave the network connections list open, and within a second or two of coming out of standby the device disappears and can not be found anywhere and can not be reinstalled (computer says it is disconnected). A restart is required to get it back. I believe the device shows as a usb device if that makes a difference.
I’ve tried a bunch of fixes but none have worked. Any suggested fixes or tests etc that could give me a lead on what is actually happening???
Comment by Brent — May 11, 2011 @ 10:55 pm
Hello,
New case (with solution) : few weeks ago, I changed my mouse for a Microsoft Wireless 5000. It comes with a CD containing the driver. Automatic install … no question during install … everything seems to be ok. Mouse works fine. Enjoy.
But … automatic standby stop working.
I run XP x64 SP2 (remember : there’s no SP3 for x64)
Driver embedded on CD is in version 7.xx. Having a look on Microsoft site (www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us.), I see that the
last driver for x64 is version 6.xx. Version 7 (and v8 also available) are only for x86.
I dl this 6.x driver, remove version 7 and install v6. And eveything goes right.
Comment by Yin Tching — June 8, 2011 @ 3:51 pm
Disable terminal services – On my 2000 server TS disables standby option on logon screen
Comment by Edward Gentile — July 1, 2011 @ 1:37 pm
Thanks to the tips above here was how I got my Windows XP Service Pack 3 desktop to standby again with multiple Firefox 6 windows and tabs open:
* Update Java to 6.0.260.3
* Perform the Java quick start disabling procedure
Note: I also changed standby to a shorter time, not sure if that did anything but it works so well I’m keeping it.
Comment by Scott — August 29, 2011 @ 10:07 am
Thanks for the link to Smart Shutdown. It’s working for me. I have an active desktop running, and it still works. I’ve only had it going for a day now, but it seems reliable so far. It’s working with multiple tabs open in Opera. I even tried it with the mouse pointer over RocketDock; it worked LOL…
The Java tip worked for me in the past. I unchecked the quick start option many moons ago…
I had a malware problem that had to do with the router, and I think there are still some lingering side effects. I also have a weird situation with WeatherBug. It showed up multiple times in add/remove in Control Panel. I have only been able to remove one of the instances of the program with an uninstaller. I removed the other one physically, but it still shows up in add/remove. When I try to uninstall it I get a strange message that the installer can not be found. Even weirder, it knew where I had been keeping the installer in a folder on my desktop I use for all installers. A problem for another day.
Thanks again…
Comment by Bo Donnelly — September 16, 2011 @ 2:49 pm
Add to 79 above…
Web pages seem likely to have been the problem with me. Smart Shutdown failed to send PC into sleep mode today. I had a tab in Opera open to a social networking site (SodaHead), but when I closed the SodaHead tab, auto shutdown worked. I decided to try the native auto shutdown feature with this new knowledge. I uninstalled Smart Shutdown and opened the SodaHead page again and the native Windows auto sleep failed again as expected. Then, with Smart Shutdown still uninstalled, I closed the Opera tab with SodaHead opened, and the native Windows auto shutdown feature did the trick.
This has me wondering how many internet sites cause this problem? At least with Opera I get the option to open to the previous session every time I close it. That’s good, because it looks like I will be shutting down the internet browser from now on…
Thanks again for the discussion. I am very satisfied that I have identified the problem on my machine…
Comment by Bo Donnelly — September 16, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
Bo — the likely cause of shutdown failure with websites is whether they have a video (or other media, like music) — I think they establish a connection, and (like open files on the network) this can interfere with shutdown. This is a guess, but I know I ran into this at least once.
Tom
Comment by Tom Harrison — September 18, 2011 @ 12:13 pm
Ok, that would explain it. SodaHead has video ads. I like the Smart Shutdown program. I did notice that the autostandby went out again. I closed everything, etc., and, when I restarted the autostandby feature with Smart Shutdown, it started working again. I think maybe SS is a useful utility in that way. If autostandby goes out, right click on the SS icon in the systray, select “Action” then “Set/Activate and hide”, and autostandby starts working again. At least I can say that it has worked for me so far. Thanks for suggesting the program. It’s less than a MB, and it’s easy to use. I am just going to leave it in the systray…
Thanks again for this page devoted to this bug. I know alot of people have run up against it over the years. I have battled it since Windows 98. It’s like a living thing…and indestructable…
Comment by Bo Donnelly — September 19, 2011 @ 3:05 pm
Disabling Java Quick Start also seems to have solved my XP Home SP3′s refusal to automatically go into standby!
Since applying that fix, I also found this document from EnergyStar.gov entitled “Known Causes and Solutions for PC “Insomnia”.
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/products/power_mgt/downloads/PC_Insomnia_Causes_Solutions_7-21-09.pdf
It includes the Java Quick Start fix, and the reference link for that actually points to this website (although that link appears to be defunct).
Comment by Tania C. — September 27, 2011 @ 10:22 am
Hey, Tania. All credit to Tom Harrison, I do recommend keeping a copy of the Smart Shutdown program. I keep it running in the system tray as it uses next to no resources. The main reason I am keeping it is because I have had “insomnia” creep back in, but a “Set/Activate and hide” off the system tray of Smart Shutdown has restarted the feature back to its wonderful automated self for me every time. I am VERY confident in the feature now and :)
Smart Shutdown…http://lifehacker.com/5046541/smart-shutdown-offers-more-ways-to-turn-off-your-pc
Comment by Bo Donnelly — September 27, 2011 @ 3:18 pm
This may seem illogical but for me (XP sp3) NOT having the display set for a screen saver intermittently prevented the screens from shutting off and no standby. Why, I have no idea. Did not have one set because I have such a short standby (15 for display, 20 for standby). I don’t want my display shutting off before 15 so I tried setting it beyond the standby period (say 25). I know, seems illogical, but it worked.
[edit, th] Using a NVIDIA graphics card, dualview.
Comment by Scott — September 27, 2011 @ 7:13 pm
My computer has zero programs running, i click stand by and it sleep for few seconds then turns back on. I disabled the internet on it, but it to sleep, and finally works now!
Comment by daniel — December 29, 2011 @ 4:29 am
FINALLY SOLVED!!!!
After searching for a solution to this problem (Outlook would not allow computer to go on standby even when no documents open anywhere) I no longer have this problem. Problem started when I switched from Office 2003 to Office 2007.
I have just changed my firewall software from a product called F-Secure to McAfee. No other changes and now the computer goes on standby.
I have tried every suggested solution I could find and it now appears to have been caused by F-Secure. I have always noted that F-Secure caused a lot of page faults on all three of my computers and never found a cause for that either.
Comment by edarte — January 11, 2012 @ 5:03 pm
Wow 4 years later and this is still relevant. I have 2 PCs that were not automatically going into sleep states or waking randomly. In both cases Java Quick Starter seems to have been preventing sleep (Sun, help save the Earth FFS!).
I also discovered that despite having my BIOS set to use the S3 suspend state, aka STR (Suspend To Ram), Windows XP seemed to think it should be using S1. The difference in energy cost is pretty huge, yet waking from either state takes about the same amount of time. It can also be hard to notice the difference looking at or listening to the PC. A program called dumppo.exe from microsoft solved that problem (ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOSTest/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe).
dumppo admin
…lists the current settings
dumppo admin minstate=s3 maxstate=s4
…sets s3 as the minimum sleep state
Many thanks!
Comment by RH — January 29, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
I’ll defer to the experts on all PC topics, but this has worked for me without any problems. I installed Smart Shutdown and set it for 2 minutes. I also long ago turned off the Java Quick Start feature.
Before I installed the SS, I was for years experiencing chronic shutdown problems. Now it works without any exceptions that I can’t identify.
The exceptions are rare, which is the best part, but I can honestly say that they don’t bother me when they do happen.
I have had similar problems with scheduled programs set to wake from standby. Irregular behaviors from backup programs and cleaners that I have handled in the same way. I use WakeupOnStandby to wake the computer 1 minute before the scheduled operations, and since have had no problems with those.
This is with XP, so I cannot comment on Windows 7 or Vista.
RH-I downloaded dumppo. The menu pops up but disappears before I can read it. Does it set the sleep state automatically when it is run?
Comment by Bo Donnelly — January 30, 2012 @ 3:35 am
USB DRIVERS PREVENTING STANDBY MODE SOLUTION:
the solution about usb drivers devices prevents xp form enterin standby mode is to create an USB folder in the system/controlset/services of hke local machine main folder and put in it the following DWORD: USBBIOSx typing the value “0″.
As already stated.
Comment by Morri Spick — January 30, 2012 @ 5:05 pm
I have had this problem for years on a Dell Laptop now running XP Pro SP3 that would occur about 50% of the time upon attempt to enter standby. First, the prompt comes up “please wait while machine gets ready to stand by” (or something similar to that), then the screen goes black, and finally the machine hangs with fans on full speed. Only recourse then is to hold down the power switch until power is cut off.
The best method I have found to work around this problem seems to be to disconnect from the wireless network before trying to enter standby. (Testing of this hypothesis is ongoing since this is the first day it has been found to prevent the standby hangups). My Wifi is an “Instant Wireless” PCMCIA Card by Linksys in case anyone is interested and its driver is “lswlnds.sys”.
Comment by Andrew — March 9, 2012 @ 5:54 pm

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