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

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

Yousuf Khan

On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:23:25 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:

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

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

Stef

On 05/12/2010 10:59 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
> On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:23:25 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>
>> My laptop running XP Home is set to go into standby and then later to
>> hibernate. It works when running on battery, but when the machine is
>> plugged into the power outlets, it never changes modes. Any idea why?
>
> Yes. When on AC, it's set not to. Usually, by default. Check your AC
> power settings.

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

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote:
> On 05/12/2010 10:59 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
>> On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:23:25 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>>
>>> My laptop running XP Home is set to go into standby and then later to
>>> hibernate. It works when running on battery, but when the machine is
>>> plugged into the power outlets, it never changes modes. Any idea why?
>>
>> Yes. When on AC, it's set not to. Usually, by default. Check your AC
>> power settings.
>
> I already have, that's why asked. It's set to standby after 20 minutes
> and go to hibernate after 45 minutes. It does neither when on AC power.
>
> Yousuf Khan

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

dumppo ac cap

( listed as 13KB, a tiny download )

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oem...cpi/dumppo.exe

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

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

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

Paul

On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:38:22 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:

> On 05/12/2010 10:59 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
>> On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:23:25 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>>
>>> My laptop running XP Home is set to go into standby and then later to
>>> hibernate. It works when running on battery, but when the machine is
>>> plugged into the power outlets, it never changes modes. Any idea why?
>>
>> Yes. When on AC, it's set not to. Usually, by default. Check your AC
>> power settings.
>
> I already have, that's why asked. It's set to standby after 20 minutes
> and go to hibernate after 45 minutes. It does neither when on AC power.

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

Check the power options in BIOS, too.

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

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

Stef

On 06/12/2010 1:14 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
> When on AC, can you set it to go Standby when you close the laptop? And
> does it? Does it hold that setting after rebooting? Try the same thing
> with Hibernate.

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

>
> Check the power options in BIOS, too.
>
> Is your laptop capable of doing this under AC power. Check the user
> manual. I know this sounds stupid, but stranger things have happened.
>
> If all else fails, there's always a Repair Install. You may have a
> "damaged" file or files.

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

Yousuf Khan

On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:34:02 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:

> On 06/12/2010 1:14 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
>> When on AC, can you set it to go Standby when you close the laptop?
>> And does it? Does it hold that setting after rebooting? Try the same
>> thing with Hibernate.
>
> Well, nothing happens when I close the lid while on AC, but nothing
> happens when on DC either. I did change the options from "do nothing" to
> "standby" and "hibernate". It's an old laptop, so that feature might now
> be broken, but I don't really care as I never used the feature to go to
> standby while the lid was closed, in fact I used to keep that feature
> turned off.
>
>
>> Check the power options in BIOS, too.
>>
>> Is your laptop capable of doing this under AC power. Check the user
>> manual. I know this sounds stupid, but stranger things have happened.
>>
>> If all else fails, there's always a Repair Install. You may have a
>> "damaged" file or files.
>
> Well, as I said, it works while on battery power, DC. Just not in AC.

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

Stef

On 12/6/2010 9:01 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
> On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:34:02 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>> Well, as I said, it works while on battery power, DC. Just not in AC.
>
> You said it was an old laptop. Maybe, it's not capable of suspend and
> hibernated when using AC, but only when on battery. Check the user
> manual.
>
> Stef

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

Yousuf Khan

On Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:47:52 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:

> On 12/6/2010 9:01 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
>> On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:34:02 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>>> Well, as I said, it works while on battery power, DC. Just not in AC.
>>
>> You said it was an old laptop. Maybe, it's not capable of suspend and
>> hibernated when using AC, but only when on battery. Check the user
>> manual.
>>
>> Stef
>
> Who would design a laptop like that? Anyways, you can manually hibernate
> or standby in AC mode, I'm talking about the automatic power-management
> based method.

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

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

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

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


Stef

On 07/12/2010 1:56 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
> What's the make and model of your laptop? The specs? What OS originally
> came on it? How long has the current OS been installed on it? Is it
> fully updated? Have you checked the viability of the hardware and OS
> recently?

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

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

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

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

Yousuf Khan