Auto-Hibernation/Standby Fault

[cheapterp]

Hi all,

Of late - since maybe about 2 weeks back - my laptop just refuses to enter standby and hibernation. I have set my PC's Power Options to send it to one of these power saving modes depending on how long the machine has been sitting idle.

PC config:
Toshiba Satellite A105-S4211
Win XP - SP3
1.49 GB RAM
hiberfil.sys file size = 1.49 GB (1,600,180,224 bytes). Size on Disk also shows same size. (Never quite been able to figure out why 'Size' and 'Size on Disk' are two separate parameters which tend to have different values most of the time. That said, it's not my main concern at this time.)

Hibernation: Enabled
Free Disk Space: 3,865MB :: Disk space required to hibernate: 1,526MB

It looks to me like some process is resetting the idle timeout before the machine is due to enter hibernation. How do I find out which process that is?

EDIT: The machine does enter these modes if I FORCE it to do this, but doesn't happen via the auto-timeout Power Options. Forced Hibernation also takes longer than usual - at least 5-7 mins compared to the earlier 1-2 mins.

Thanks!

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
Hibernation and XP have never been good friends, you could try a lot of things and maybe even repair it for now but it could just start to play up the next time you use it.
You are much better off letting it just run and allowing the monitor to turn off than to keep trying hibernation. The only difference is a quicker start up time of a minute or two and a small amount of power usage.

[Bob_180_Bob]

Size vs Size on Disk

A lot of people have been confused when looking at the properties of a file, folder, or drive as the properties size and size on disk do not usually match each other. The value of size in the properties page indicates the actual size of the file while the size on disk indicates the number of bytes that it actually occupies on the hard drive.

The discrepancy comes from the way the file system stores the file on the drive. File systems treats a number of bytes as a single cluster in order to reduce the number of addresses that are being used. Depending on the file system, common cluster sizes can vary from 2KB to as large as 32KB. A file that is written to disk takes a discrete number of clusters regardless of each actual size. So a 1KB file when saved in a file system with 2KB clusters would take up 2KB but in a file system with 32KB clusters, it would take up 32KB. Also, a 33KB file would take up 17 2KB clusters (34KB) or 2 clusters in a 32KB file system (64KB). The amount of wasted space for every file would not exceed the cluster size.

http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-size-vs-size-on-disk/

Read more: Difference Between Size vs Size on Disk | Difference Between http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-size-vs-size-on-disk/#ixzz0eQMlpNZ1

[cheapterp]

Hi,
Hibernation and XP have never been good friends, you could try a lot of things and maybe even repair it for now but it could just start to play up the next time you use it.

What is really riling me up is that I have had this laptop for almost 4 years now and all this time hibernation worked no problems - no matter how many and what applications I installed and uninstalled.

I think I'll try some more (just because I am curious to find out who the culprit is) and if I still can't get it to work, maybe I'll just let it go like you say. As far as I can see looking at the Task Manager and the CPU consumed, Avast anti-virus(that I just installed a couple months back) sucks a lot of memory every now and then.

Thanks!

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
If you really wanted to get it back and you can not any other way, you could do a repair/install. The only bad thing about it is you lose all your Windows updates since you installed Windows first. If you wanted to go this way, look at slipstreaming your OS CD first, it is easy and saves so much time and effort. You can even add your product key and all your machines drivers to be installed with the system files.

[cheapterp]

By the method of elimination, I am starting to get the feeling that FireFox or its add-ons has/have something to do with it. However, I am almost positive it is not specific to version 3.6, because when this problem first showed up, I was still using FF3.5.

The reason I conclude it has got something to do with the Mozilla browser is because when I do not have a single browser window open, the machine will happily go into the power saving mode at the end of the preset timeout period. On the other hand, if a single instance of the browser is open (even though it may be absolutely idle), and my laptop will ignore the standby/hibernation instructions.

Question unrelated to this particular problem+laptop combination:
The task manager on my office desktop shows the following numbers:
'Peak Commit Charge' (PCC) = 1407288K,
'Total Commit Charge' (TCC) = 1176960K (and going further up, as I write this post)
and
'Total Physical Memory' (TPM) = 1046056K

I read somewhere that if TCC > TPM, I have to upgrade the memory. Is that an accurate statement?

Thanks!