SOLVED Hibernate/Sleep Issues

[marlenefoung]

Hi,

So my problem is that my Sony Vaio VPCEH Windows 7 doesn't go to sleep nor hibernate from the specifications I have put in my advanced power options which are to sleep after 30 minutes and to hibernate after 120 minutes. When I click sleep or hibernate from START, my PC can sleep and hibernate, so that's not the problem... By the way, it worked before but it stopped working recently and I didn't install some programs so I don't know what's happening...

How can I solve this??

 

[TrainableMan]

There should actually be settings in your BIOS, listed as ACPI, that could limit which sleep states are allowed on your machine and could prevent sleep.

Also, please check the power settings from an administrator command prompt to see if sleep is allowed, limitations, etc ...
- click the start orb and in the search line type "command"
- "command prompt" should be your first choice, right-click on it and choose Run as Administrator
- In the box type powercfg -a
- post the result.

 

[marlenefoung]

Thank you for replying.

I did as you asked and it said

The following sleep states are available on this system: Standby <S3> Hibernate Hybrid Sleep
The following sleep states are not available on this system:
Standby <S1> The system firmware does not support this standby state.
Standby <S2> The system firmware does not support this standby state.

 

[TrainableMan]

Did you check your BIOS for ACPI?

It may be that you need to change your BIOS settings to allow the other states OR you may need to check the SONY site and see if there is a BIOS update to your computer model (if ACPI is not there at all).

Please note when updating BIOS it is important your computer not loose power or your computer may be damaged permanently. Make sure it is plugged in, not running on battery, and if possible have it plugged into a UPS battery back-up/surge protector.

Basically, as the message said, currently your computer can only hibernate, not sleep

 

[marlenefoung]

The problem is that I dont know how to check my BIOS for ACPI.. I tried to search it online but I couldnt find anything. But I know that I have the latest software installed, I checked it.

 

[TrainableMan]

If you have a good camera, even cell phone camera, you can take snapshots of your BIOS menus and upload them so we can see. Hopefully they aren't in French

 

[marlenefoung]

Is it this menu?

 

[TrainableMan]

That is in the "Main" menu of BIOS ... hit the right arrow and look under "advanced".

 

[Digerati]

I don't see this being a BIOS setting. BIOS settings don't suddenly change on their own so if it used to work and now it doesn't then something else changed, not the BIOS.

BTW, sleep in 30, hibernate in 120? Those are odd settings. Why let it stay in limbo for an hour and a half?

For security reasons alone, your settings should be much shorter to ensure no one can step up to your computer and start using it while you are on your two hour lunch break. 15 and 20 is more reasonable and of course, the requirement to enter your password when waking is essential too. Plus, 2 hours is a long time to see if it is going to work.

and I didn't install some programs so I don't know what's happening...

It is more likely you did, and don't know it - or at least one of your programs or add-ons was updated, and changed. It is likely something is still running in the background.

Have you scanned for malware?

Also, you say "PC" but the Sony Vaio VPCEH is a notebook/laptop and not a "PC", in the true sense of the word. This is important because notebooks are typically put in hibernate mode, but PCs running Windows 7 should use hybrid-sleep mode.

Finally, while W7 is much better than previous versions, Windows sleep modes have NEVER worked properly consistently. But very often, the solution is to simply to change the settings, hit "apply" and change the settings back, hit "apply" again, then reboot.

 

[TrainableMan]

No, the settings don't change by themselves but they may have been set wrong or on older machines the original BIOS may not have ACPI at all. In the second situation there are sometimes BIOS updates available which will provide this functionality and if it is something the user needs then a BIOS update may be the only way to get it.

 

[marlenefoung]

I've recently realized that the computer sometimes hibernates itself and sometimes doesn't but it always doesnt hibernate when I have the program PerfectDisk 12.5 open, so maybe this is the problem?

 

[TrainableMan]

Some programs will try to prevent sleep/hibernate because they will not function properly if this happens; common programs for this are video players or DVD burners. It would make sense that a disk defrag program can not run while the HD is sleeping, so yes it could prevent that from happening.

 

[marlenefoung]

Then is there a way to change it, or is it better to not change anything?

 

[TrainableMan]

Close the program; there is no reason to have it running all the time. With NTFS formatted drives defragging isn't hugely important; once every 3 months would probably be more than enough.

 

[Digerati]

once every 3 months would probably be more than enough.

Less often than that if there is lots of free disk space on the drive. And always remember to de-clutter the drives first by running Windows Disk Cleanup. It is counterproductive to defrag with potentially 1000s of tiny temporary Internet files on the drive. For this reason, I am against defraggers that work in the background, or by schedule - such as Windows 7 own defragger. Good defragger but I recommend disabling scheduled defragging.

 

[marlenefoung]

thank you all for your help