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Hibernation...

F

firewall

Platinum Member
I recently started using Windows XP's hibernation feature on my PIII 700 with 128MB RAM. It has worked fairly well and has reduced my boot to workable desktop time from 5-7 minutes to around 40-45 seconds.

My question is this; what are the advantages and disadvantages of using this hibernation feature in Windows? Is it recommended for regular usage or should it be used sparingly. I do restart my PC each time I install or uninstall a software but apart from that is it okay to continue using hibernation?

What are your personnal experiences with it? Have any of you folks encountered any problems with it?

Thanks for any help/reply.

 
All drivers are certified and work perfectly.

The only problem occured yesterday after I resumed my PC from hibernation, when the phone line connected to my PC modem had a strange buzzing noise with an 'in use' notification and when I disconnected the telephone line from the modem, there was no tone in the phone. The phone is working OK now but it did cause me to wonder if resuming my PC from hibernation was the culprit.
 
Issues with hibernation tend to come up when a device was attached at hibernation and removed when it starts up again (or the reverse.) The example would be a network connection or SCSI device. If you hibernate with the modem connected (online), it could describe the result you are getting. Docked vs Undocked seem to have similar, yet intermittant issues (hibernate docked, power back on undocked).
 
Oh. 'K Thanks!

I had just disconnected and immediately put it to hibernation with no gap for it to close all the ports and stuff. That might had been a cause of all that mess then.
 
Frankly, I have never found anything redeeming about hibernation - always have it disabled. I have seen too many systems with problems waking up.
 
Issues with hibernation tend to come up when a device was attached at hibernation and removed when it starts up again (or the reverse).
Click to expand...

Yes, you should change as little of the state of the machine as possible while it's in hibernation. But I would think that Windows would be smart enough to deal with network connections coming and going since that's probably the most common thing.

Frankly, I have never found anything redeeming about hibernation - always have it disabled. I have seen too many systems with problems waking up.
Click to expand...

The fact that it keeps state of all your running apps is redeeming enough, it saves me a ton of time every day. Booting my notebook normally takes over a minute, restoring from hibernation takes like 20s and everything's ready and waiting.
 
You get to see the benefits when you have to wait for 40-45 seconds instead of 5+ minutes just to reach a ready desktop.
 
Agreed, but does it remove the need for the occasional reboot that Windows unfortunately seems to require?
 
Originally posted by: corkyg
Frankly, I have never found anything redeeming about hibernation - always have it disabled. I have seen too many systems with problems waking up.
Click to expand...
I have found redeeming qualities. I use it on my media laptop all the time. I can leave models open and remove my 'dongle' (the original CD in the drive bay) as the app only authenticates on startup. Startup and shutdown are usually quicker.
 
Originally posted by: okb
Agreed, but does it remove the need for the occasional reboot that Windows unfortunately seems to require?
Click to expand...

2000 and XP rarely, if ever, need to be rebooted.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Frankly, I have never found anything redeeming about hibernation - always have it disabled. I have seen too many systems with problems waking up.
Click to expand...

The fact that it keeps state of all your running apps is redeeming enough, it saves me a ton of time every day. Booting my notebook normally takes over a minute, restoring from hibernation takes like 20s and everything's ready and waiting.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I save a ton of time by hibernating my laptop rather than doing a full shutdown.
 
Originally posted by: MrChad
Originally posted by: okb
Agreed, but does it remove the need for the occasional reboot that Windows unfortunately seems to require?
Click to expand...

2000 and XP rarely, if ever, need to be rebooted.
Click to expand...

My 2K machine enjoys a regular reboot (every couple of days), it seems to get sluggish otherwise. Though it's on an older machine, so I don't know if that has any effect? My laptop (XP) doesn't get left on long enough for me to tell (might get left on during the weekend).
 
Originally posted by: MrChad
Originally posted by: okb
Agreed, but does it remove the need for the occasional reboot that Windows unfortunately seems to require?
Click to expand...

2000 and XP rarely, if ever, need to be rebooted.
Click to expand...

compared to 9X windows, it is leaps and bounds ahead. Compared to a well maintained linux box though, and it seems like you reboot alot more. My windows XP box (still pretty snappy) is at 14 days, but my linux box is at 65, and that was because of a power bump 😉. UPS linux server at work (does casual apache, NTOP, mrtg, sniffing, etc as required) is at 130+ right now.
 
If it takes 5 to 7 minutes just to boot, you have other issues you need to be worrying about...
Click to expand...

5 minutes is definitely high, but on a slow laptop with a slow drive it will always take a lot longer to do a full bootup and restart all of your apps than it will to restore from hibernation.
 
The 5 minute startup time is for booting, welcome screen and loading 4 startup apps like Firewall and AV. Zonealarm is pretty heavy during loading up.

The 128 MB RAM also plays a significant role IMO. It is too less.
 
While In Hibernation Mode when shut down the computer saves the status and content of the working RAM to the Hard Drive.

So, as an example, if you have 512MB Memory it would save a File of about the same size.

When you boot the computer goes to through the Hardware Boot process and when Windows time come it just loads the content of the RAM from the file as it was when it was shut down, and thus save the time the it takes windows to go through the process of Starting.

Advantages.

It saves Boot time.

If you have a specific Desktop with certain programs and Windows opened in a specific way it comes up the way you left it.

Disadvanges.

If changes occurred in the peripheral and relate connections it might get into trouble when it comes up since the changes did not registered in the memory and or HD content.

When it comes up the Software/Memory part is in the date and time position that it was while putting the computer into Hibernation. The hardware clock and date are now in their real Time and date. If you have applications that are time and date sensitive, it might cause problem.

So given the above parameter it is a personal call. I use it on some computers and avoid using them on others.

:sun:
 
I have this weird problem with hibernation and stand by. When the machine wakes up the PSU and various other fans fail to turn on.

Anybody have an idea as to why?
 
Originally posted by: Genx87
I have this weird problem with hibernation and stand by. When the machine wakes up the PSU and various other fans fail to turn on.

Anybody have an idea as to why?
Click to expand...
That might be a BIOS bug, check for newer version.

 
Originally posted by: gsellis
Originally posted by: Genx87
I have this weird problem with hibernation and stand by. When the machine wakes up the PSU and various other fans fail to turn on.

Anybody have an idea as to why?
Click to expand...
That might be a BIOS bug, check for newer version.
Click to expand...

Bios problem or your PSU might not be compatible with standby/hibernation. It might not support those S1/S3 power states.

 
There is a *possible* security issue with the data in RAM being stored on an unencrypted file, but that's only for the uber-paranoid.

Other than that, if it works (no driver/BIOS conflicts) there really isn't a reason not to use it.
 
There is a *possible* security issue with the data in RAM being stored on an unencrypted file, but that's only for the uber-paranoid.
Click to expand...

With Linux you can encrypt the file/partition if you want but I don't know about Windows.
 
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