Windows 7 has started to wake up as "Resuming Windows"

[sonoferu]

I still have Windows 7 Pro. I had to use 8 and 10 at work and just wanted to stay with 7, thank you. It's a custom built desktop from a local computer guy, built back when 7 was the thing.

For a long long time i have set the Power Options to go to sleep after 15 minutes. Works fine, just come in and set down my coffee and hit the Any Key and in seconds I am good to go.

A couple of weeks ago I came in to find the power button dead. Usually the power button is illuminated with a blue ring around it. Now it was blank, dead. Instead of a keyboard wakeup, I had to push the power button. It spun up and after a bit of a wait the black screen said "Resuming Windows" and then I got a cursor arrow and nothing else, then again it went black for minutes. So I figured it went into Hibernate. (I have never done Hibernate so I dont know for sure). Finally it began to come to life but in bits and pieces. The desktop background screen appeared but no taskbar, no icons. For several more minutes one piece after another would come on, but nothing that worked. The windows that were open when I left it would start to appear but were not active. When they finally filled in and looked ok, clicking on them froze them and got the "(Not Responding)" thing at the end of the title bar. If I opened another program, it would take minutes to get up and going. Things like that.

In the end it took maybe 10 minutes before I was fully functional.

So I did a restart and it came up normally. I thought that would be the end of it. But since then it has happened maybe 6 or 7 times. I come and go from my computer a number of times a day (I am retired, home most of the time) and it still usually goes to sleep and wakes up normally. But now it has happened 3 times in the last 2 days.

It's a big pain and I cant find anything on the web to clue me as to what could be going on.

I do a system backup with EaseUS Todo, maybe once every week or two, but I'm reluctant to restore the only image I have that goes back far enough to precede this behavior, unless it gets critical. I have used the backups to retrieve stuff but never yet for a full disk restore, and that kind of thing makes me a bit queasy.

Ever hear of this kind of misbehavior?

 

[mikeymikec]

This system has a HDD in, correct?

On the default settings, when Windows starts the process of going into sleep mode, it copies the contents of RAM to the hibernation file (this feature is called hybrid sleep); the idea being that if mains power is lost then so are the contents of RAM, but Windows can restore the session from the hibernation file. When this happens in a system with the hibernation file on a HDD, it takes ages to resume and respond at a normal rate. I'm not sure why it takes so long as I'd expect a 4GB image to be read at say 80MB/sec from a slow hard drive and be done in about 50 seconds, yet I've seen a system take say 5 minutes to return to a normal level of responsiveness after "resuming".

What I suspect is happening in your case is that the PSU (power supply) can't do sleep mode any more and craps out after x amount of time in sleep mode, causing the machine to power off and Windows to resume from "hibernation" and taking ages about it.

I asked about it being a HDD system because resuming from an SSD ought to be an order of magnitude faster; I've seen systems with not enough RAM that are obviously paging out tonnes of data to the SSD and yet performing pretty damn well, so therefore I wouldn't expect there to be such a delay when "resuming" from a SSD hibernation file.

 

[crashtech]

I'd probably start with disabling hibernation, myself. It's not terribly useful on a desktop, imo. Maybe it got turned on by an errant update or random event. After that, if there is a hardware problem like PSU, it will be quickly evident because the machine will simply have an unexpected shutdown while sleeping, easily seen in the Event Log.

 

[sonoferu]

It is indeed rather old - July 2012. The hard drive is 150GB, enormous back then, but I have only 15GB free now. 8gb RAM which was a lot then, too. I have toyed with getting a new one, maybe the time has come. Even with a new power supply, the storage will remain somewhat limited. I got an external drive a year or two ago to hold the EaseUS [what an odd product name] images which are like 70GB. That drive is 1TB, and I see multi-TB storage on newegg. Time moves along. I would be happy to keep this box forever, it works fine for my purposes but then ...

So your theory sounds plausible at least.

What about diddling with the power options? I dont know much about that except the simple combobox settings in Control Panel.

* There is a link there to "Change advanced power settings", and in there I see choices like "allow hybrid sleep" which is On. If I turned that off and the power supply choked, the whole thing would die on the spot and start with a cold boot?
* What about setting it to go straight to hibernate after x minutes rather than let it "fall" into hibernate if that is the problem? There is an option to "Hybernate after ---"
* Could I tell Windows to send the hybrid file to the external hard drive? [Seagate 1TB USB 3.0 STEA1000400 - my usb is only 2.0]. Not that that might perform any better.
* If I tell it to NEVER go to sleep how much power would I really waste, in dollars per day?
* If I dont let it sleep will it be harder on the rest of the hardware?

Ideas like that.

Thx.

And I note your UK "tonne". Some day I would like to see your country.

 

[sonoferu]

I'd probably start with disabling hibernation, myself. It's not terribly useful on a desktop, imo. Maybe it got turned on by an errant update or random event. After that, if there is a hardware problem like PSU, it will be quickly evident because the machine will simply have an unexpected shutdown while sleeping, easily seen in the Event Log.

What error would I look for, and where?

In Event Viewer / System I see a number of instances of an error "Event ID 11, Disk" that says
*The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk3\DR3.*

There are over 6400 of those errors beginning in Feb. of 2017. I dont know how they could relate to my problem if it only began recently and I havent had hundreds of hibernation events.

The drive number in the errror varies. I have 2 hard disks [one external] and 2 or 3 thumb drives (at any time). Right now they are saying DR3, but several days ago they were all DR4. And before that, from the start in Feb till October they were all DR1. Odd?

Sorry, I used to be a QA engineer and I always looked at bugs to find where any clue might lie.

 

[Ketchup]

Probably the best thing to do right now would be to leave the external hard drive and thumb drives disconnected. You could even clear the error logs if you wanted to, so as not to let old error make the matter more confusing than it already is.

If the issue returns with just the main hard drive in the machine, go back into the event viewer and tell us what the error code is.

 

[crashtech]

@Ketchup has a good idea.

Also, if you are interested in disabling hibernation, it's as simple as opening a Command Prompt as administrator, and typing:

powercfg /hibernate off

This also saves a significant amount of disk space.

 

[sonoferu]

OK, cleared events. And all other drives disconnected. Wait and see.

crashtech - if I disabled hibernation what would happen if it is in fact correct that the PSU is the problem and it has been "falling" into hibernation. Would it have nowhere to go and just fall over dead and cold boot next time ( with the message that it shut down incorrectly)?

 

[crashtech]

OK, cleared events. And all other drives disconnected. Wait and see.

crashtech - if I disabled hibernation what would happen if it is in fact correct that the PSU is the problem and it has been "falling" into hibernation. Would it have nowhere to go and just fall over dead and cold boot next time ( with the message that it shut down incorrectly)?

Yes, that could happen. In my experience, sleep failure due to a failing PSU is rare, in the hundreds of PCs I've repaired, this problem has never surfaced, I've only heard of it. That said, saving your work before walking away from your machine would be a good idea if you choose to disable hibernation, at least until you determine what the problem is.

BTW, I probably should have mentioned that the last time I saw behavior similar to this, it was the HDD that was failing.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My guess is that the HDD is on it's way out, but it could be a PSU problem as well. Maybe both, due to age.

@BonzaiDuck has mentioned in some of his threads in the past, that he had a PSU fail, due to what he determined was "extended sleep state time". The idea being that, in sleep mode, the PC is running off of the +5VSB (Standby) line, and the main PSU fan is NOT running, and eventually, during extended sleep cycles, it heats up enough, to wear out the particular components being used, pre-maturely. I'm not an EE, so I can't say if that's true, or if one PSU design is more likely to succumb to that problem than another.

Did this only happen, after a particular program was installed, or a particular Windows Update?

The "Disk Errors" in Event Log, are somewhat disturbing, but they can be caused by various things, if they are happening on External Drives - they don't automatically mean that the drive is actually failing, although a failing drive CAN and generally DOES also throw those errors.

I would backup, first thing, and then run a SMART self-test on the internal drive in question, followed possibly by a OCCTSU stress-test. If it causes the PC to power-off, then it could be the PSU that's failing. Granted, you may not want to do that, as it could also blow the PSU if it's failing, and then it could take out the rest of the system. Just saying. (Worst-case scenario.)

 

[mikeymikec]

chkdsk /f /v /r on the HDD if you want to rule that out plus VirtualLarry's suggestions.

I've seen the PSU causing resume problems plenty of times (it was especially irritating with first-gen CX430 PSUs and the boards I was using at the time, but I've seen it since then as well), but I think this is the most suggestive symptom:

A couple of weeks ago I came in to find the power button dead. Usually the power button is illuminated with a blue ring around it. Now it was blank, dead.

Presumably this still occurs when the computer fails to S3 resume correctly. If so, I'm wondering how people can think it might be a faulty hard drive when during sleep mode the drive is completely off, then something else in the system decides to switch off completely when it shouldn't. That narrows it down to the board, RAM, or the PSU, and I'm pretty sure that faulty RAM that only shows up in this way would not do cause the power light to go off (though I've only seen this happen once, which then showed up as faulty during memtest 7.4's rowhammer test).

If the symptom here was a little different, such as the power light flashing in sleep mode, then when the computer is resumed the light goes off, that could potentially be a HDD issue (though I'd expect the system to have as many problems being booted from off as it does in sleep mode in this scenario).

Furthermore, disabling hybrid sleep which simply result in the computer switching off instead of staying in sleep mode as usual then when it is switched back on, Windows will say that it failed to shut down properly and would you like to boot into safe mode or start Windows normally. Basically exactly what you'd expect it to say if you yanked the power while it was switched on. Hybrid sleep is switched on by default on Win7, btw.

 

[sonoferu]

VirtualLarry -

I dont know anything about the tests you mention, except what I can find about them online. I ran a basic SMART test [I think] and got this, for HDD and an SD card reader. So the external drive and thumb drives are out for now

C:\Users\Fletcher>wmic diskdrive get status
Status
OK
OK

Since I was last on, there have been 43 more of those Disk Errors #11, so whatever that is, it's still going without the extra drives.

Did this only happen, after a particular program was installed, or a particular Windows Update?

I dont know. I havent installed anything new for a long time, and the updates sort of do themselves and I dont have any way of associating any of them with this behavior.

mikeymikec - the "dead" main power button has only ever happened when it has "fallen into" the hibernate state. I dont know what S3 resume is, even after googling it. I was a QA engineer for some years, so I'm not computer-ignorant, just not deep into OS stuff.

And I thought I would try putting it direct into hibernate. So I read online that I was to go into “Change advanced power settings” and set “Allow hybrid sleep” to Off, and then Hibernate appeared in the option list on the Start Button where it was not before. I clicked to Hibernate and it went down, and the power button’s blue rim was gone when it went quiet. Then I hit the keyboard and it started up, going through Resuming Windows.

That’s not what it did when it fell out of Sleep and went dead. In that state, it would only come up by pushing the power button, no keyboard action did anything. And to be clear, the power button I mean is on the front of the case [it’s a desktop tower computer]. It’s round, about an inch in diameter, and you push it straight in. Not a toggle like I have had on other boxes.

And coming out of Hibernate this way, after the BIOS screen and splash screen, the desktop came up all there, not returning piece by piece agonizingly slowly. I started up Thunderbird and Firefox and they came up pretty normally, not agonizingly slowly.

So the problem state of Resuming Windows seems really different from a normal one. It sounds like mikeymikec's idea of

something else in the system decides to switch off completely when it shouldn't.

 

[mikeymikec]

mikeymikec - the "dead" main power button has only ever happened when it has "fallen into" the hibernate state. I dont know what S3 resume is, even after googling it. I was a QA engineer for some years, so I'm not computer-ignorant, just not deep into OS stuff.

S3 sleep mode is what most people think of when sleep mode is mentioned: The computer sounds like it is switched off, and most PCs show a blinking power light when it's in that mode.

And I thought I would try putting it direct into hibernate. So I read online that I was to go into “Change advanced power settings” and set “Allow hybrid sleep” to Off, and then Hibernate appeared in the option list on the Start Button where it was not before. I clicked to Hibernate and it went down, and the power button’s blue rim was gone when it went quiet. Then I hit the keyboard and it started up, going through Resuming Windows.

Hibernation mode in power usage terms is the same as switching the computer off. You could unplug it from the mains while it is hibernation and it wouldn't act any differently when you switch it back on (compared to leaving the mains live and connected).

That’s not what it did when it fell out of Sleep and went dead. In that state, it would only come up by pushing the power button, no keyboard action did anything. And to be clear, the power button I mean is on the front of the case [it’s a desktop tower computer]. It’s round, about an inch in diameter, and you push it straight in. Not a toggle like I have had on other boxes.

So (since this problem started) as soon as you put it in sleep mode, your computer has started going completely off (no power light or response to keyboard/mouse), is that correct?

And coming out of Hibernate this way, after the BIOS screen and splash screen, the desktop came up all there, not returning piece by piece agonizingly slowly. I started up Thunderbird and Firefox and they came up pretty normally, not agonizingly slowly.

So the problem state of Resuming Windows seems really different from a normal one. It sounds like mikeymikec's idea of

I'm not sure what the difference is between resuming a computer that has fallen back to the disk-saved copy of the system memory and a normal resume from hibernation. I just know that the former takes ages from a HDD, whereas the latter is approximately normally responsive as soon as it has finished resuming from hibernation.

What's the spec of the PC? Admittedly testing for a faulty PSU is easy for me as I have a stack of spare cheap ones through my business whereas I could understand your potential reluctance to go out and buy one "just in case it's that".

Also, what PSU is in the PC? If you take the side panel of the PC case off (switching the PC off first is a good idea!), the PSU (power supply) is the one in the corner of the case with the most wires sticking out of it. The brand and some kind of model would be useful in finding out whether you've got a cheap and nasty power supply in there. If you fail to find the model number, then usually the wattage of the power supply is written on it. Look for the highest figure in watts.

Since I was last on, there have been 43 more of those Disk Errors #11, so whatever that is, it's still going without the extra drives.

If you run 'eventvwr' (the Windows Event Viewer), then go into custom logs > administrative events, look for the disk errors/warnings and note down which devices it's talking about; it could be complaining about the internal and/or external storage devices, and if it's the internal one then it's relevant to your situation.

Updates - you can check to see which updates have gone on lately in Control Panel > Windows Updates > View Update History.

 

[sonoferu]

So (since this problem started) as soon as you put it in sleep mode, your computer has started going completely off (no power light or response to keyboard/mouse), is that correct?

Sorry I wasnt clear. By far most of the time that I walk away it goes into Sleep after 15 minutes. Screen goes dead, box goes quiet, power button's blue rim goes off, it appears to be off. Touching any key wakes it up and in seconds it's running normally.
If I explicitly put it into hibernate, it appears to be the same - off - but when I hit a key it comes back via Resuming Windows.
The problem state I was describing is that every now and then I come into my office and hit a key and nothing happens. At that point I have to physically press the power button on the case, just as if I was doing a cold start. It then comes up as Resuming Windows, with the difference that it is maddeningly slow - taking something like 10 minutes to be free from all the piece by piece returns of open programs, terribly slow opening of programs that were not running when it went to Sleep, lots of (Not Responding) on title bars, etc
So it's quite infrequent. In fact it hasnt acted badly since I posted this topic. Go figure. But it has happened enough times that I worry what's going to blow up.

Specs [Built in 2012]
PSU I dont see a model number so to speak, just Ark Technology ATX P4 500W. Unless it's KY-500ATX
Motherboard ASUS P8B75-M/CSM
CPU i5 Quad-core 3.1GHz
HDD Seagate 160GB 6GB/s 7200RPM 8MB Cache [Device manager says ST3160316AS ATA Device]
RAM 8GB DDR3 (1333)
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

As for the HDD, the one thing I have been concerned about for a long time is how full it has got, as I said before. Right now it says it has 17GB free, but several weeks ago I had to go in and clean out all I could find. I had got a message from something saying I didnt have enough space to do something. It's annoying that I cant find more to throw out, but everything in Programs and Features I recognize as something I use even if only rarely, or something I dont dare to remove. Intel Management Engine Components - what's that? But at 18MB do I want to go researching it and others like it and decide to remove or not? Not a lot to be gained.

I am toying with just getting a new HDD. The guy who built it told me he could put me into a new 1TB for not a lot of money. So that would be a lot more space but if it's still 7200RPM it wouldnt transfer from disk any faster, right?

 

[sonoferu]

Also sorry I dont respond real fast. I dont spend a lot of time at the computer and mostly just to check if anybody emailed me and then back out to other things I need to do

 

[VirtualLarry]

PSU I dont see a model number so to speak, just Ark Technology ATX P4 500W. Unless it's KY-500ATX

I've got a few of those, or similar, I purchased cheap from Directron.com some time ago. They're OK PSUs, but just OK. I couldn't find any CE or UL listing icons on them, so I've not been using them for customer builds, due to potential liability issues.

My guess, is that if this rig is from 2012, and this is a mediocre PSU at best, then probably the +5VSB is failing on you, and flaking out, and causing the PC to crash when you put it on sleep / hybrid sleep mode.

My recommendation, is to try a recent, modern, name-brand PSU of sufficient wattage, and see if that doesn't fix the problem.

I recommend replacing PSUs pro-actively after 5 years anyway, unless it was advertised with Japanese capacitors, or has a mfg's warranty for longer. So, yeah, it's basically due for replacement anyways.

Edit: Oh, and a 160GB HDD, even in 2012, was a very minimalist / cost-reduced / entry-level choice, as 500GB was pretty-much standard back then, or maybe 320GB in some cases.

I just bought some Toshiba 1TB HDDs (bare drive from Newegg) for $40 ea., I'm putting them in some Ryzen rigs, along with a 256GB M.2 PCI-E SSD for the main OS drive. (PCI-E M.2 SSDs are really, really, fast, but they won't work on your older platform.)

My suggestion, if your main HDD is only 160GB, to get a 500GB SATA SSD, for around $120 (Team Group L5 Lite 3D NAND 480GB for $119.99 at Newegg right now), or $150 (Mushkin Reactor LT 500GB SSD for $149.99 at Newegg), or a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD (roughly $140-150 on sale, $180 not on sale).

Granted, that's around 3x the money of a 1TB HDD, but it's like ... close to 10x faster, for most things. But if you're patient, then you can get by with a HDD still these days. Just block out a day of your time for Windows Update date.

Edit: Get one of these new Intel 64-layer 3D NAND based drives. They perform well, and come with a 5-year warranty.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...est-_-InternalSSDs-_-20167429-S0D&ignorebbr=1

Promo code: EMCBCBF53

Get the 512GB one for $139.99.

Edit: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB is on sale for same price at Newegg.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373

Either one is good. The Intel is a newer product and a newer design, so I might go with it, but the Samsung's pretty popular these days, and pretty much the one to beat.

 

[crashtech]

I've seen a cheap power supply take out every component in a PC when it failed. After that, it's good names and 80+ Bronze or better for me. @VirtualLarry is giving good advice that works on several levels, preventative maintenance, a drastic improvment in performance, and replacing the two most likely culprits all in one swoop. Additionally, the new parts will migrate to a newer build, so they are not a waste of money.

An SSD is almost always the single best upgrade for any PC or notebook with a spinning HDD.

 

[mikeymikec]

Sorry I wasnt clear. By far most of the time that I walk away it goes into Sleep after 15 minutes. Screen goes dead, box goes quiet, power button's blue rim goes off, it appears to be off. Touching any key wakes it up and in seconds it's running normally.
If I explicitly put it into hibernate, it appears to be the same - off - but when I hit a key it comes back via Resuming Windows.
The problem state I was describing is that every now and then I come into my office and hit a key and nothing happens. At that point I have to physically press the power button on the case, just as if I was doing a cold start. It then comes up as Resuming Windows, with the difference that it is maddeningly slow - taking something like 10 minutes to be free from all the piece by piece returns of open programs, terribly slow opening of programs that were not running when it went to Sleep, lots of (Not Responding) on title bars, etc
So it's quite infrequent. In fact it hasnt acted badly since I posted this topic. Go figure. But it has happened enough times that I worry what's going to blow up.

Ok, so if I'm reading this correctly, when your computer worked fine, putting it into sleep mode meant all lights off, and you could resume the system by pressing a key. The difference now is that the system won't resume by pressing a key, and while it will resume by pressing the power button, it says "resuming Windows" as if from hibernate.

Specs [Built in 2012]
PSU I dont see a model number so to speak, just Ark Technology ATX P4 500W. Unless it's KY-500ATX
Motherboard ASUS P8B75-M/CSM
CPU i5 Quad-core 3.1GHz
HDD Seagate 160GB 6GB/s 7200RPM 8MB Cache [Device manager says ST3160316AS ATA Device]
RAM 8GB DDR3 (1333)
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

As for the HDD, the one thing I have been concerned about for a long time is how full it has got, as I said before. Right now it says it has 17GB free, but several weeks ago I had to go in and clean out all I could find. I had got a message from something saying I didnt have enough space to do something. It's annoying that I cant find more to throw out, but everything in Programs and Features I recognize as something I use even if only rarely, or something I dont dare to remove. Intel Management Engine Components - what's that? But at 18MB do I want to go researching it and others like it and decide to remove or not? Not a lot to be gained.

I am toying with just getting a new HDD. The guy who built it told me he could put me into a new 1TB for not a lot of money. So that would be a lot more space but if it's still 7200RPM it wouldnt transfer from disk any faster, right?

I think I know what's causing the disk space problem, but leave that aside for the moment, though you could run the disk cleanup wizard with admin privs as a quick fix.

You have an odd mix of hardware there. Is the PSU from an older system, out of curiosity? The HDD sounds like it is, there was no way on the planet I was using 160GB HDDs in 2012.

 

[sonoferu]

You have an odd mix of hardware there. Is the PSU from an older system, out of curiosity? The HDD sounds like it is, there was no way on the planet I was using 160GB HDDs in 2012.

The box was built new, July 2012. I have the receipt. I presume all new parts.
My old box at the time [which I actually dared to build myself!] died suddenly and I didnt want to try another one on my own. From a friend's recommendation I went to a local custom shop and gave the guy my specs - I was getting a good salary then and wanted everything big and fast, that's all. I'm sure there were bigger and faster systems for gamers then but I thought I was getting something big and fast. Certainly way more than what I had build myself 4 years earlier.
Are you saying 160 was big for then, or older, "from an older system."
What is odd about the hardware? Asus board, Seagate HDD, Intel CPU?

 

[sonoferu]

And disk cleanup - I have always hesitated on that. Afraid I would choose to delete something I shouldn't and didnt want to do the digging and research to learn all about what might be offered to me to delete

 

[sonoferu]

And you said

"I think I know what's causing the disk space problem, but leave that aside for the moment, ... "

So, what do you think there?

 

[mikeymikec]

The box was built new, July 2012. I have the receipt. I presume all new parts.
My old box at the time [which I actually dared to build myself!] died suddenly and I didnt want to try another one on my own. From a friend's recommendation I went to a local custom shop and gave the guy my specs - I was getting a good salary then and wanted everything big and fast, that's all. I'm sure there were bigger and faster systems for gamers then but I thought I was getting something big and fast. Certainly way more than what I had build myself 4 years earlier.
Are you saying 160 was big for then, or older, "from an older system."
What is odd about the hardware? Asus board, Seagate HDD, Intel CPU?

At the start of 2011, my minimum recommended PC spec for customers included a 500GB hard drive. I basically always go for the lowest capacity hard drive unless say £2 bought another 100GB of capacity (even then the next hypothetical model down from the 500GB would have been 320GB). I found a PC spec in 2009 that had a 160GB hard drive, but in the same year I had a 250GB model on the minimum spec. It seems likely that he diddled you there, so he probably did on the PSU as well because the average joe doesn't know anything about PSUs so it's an easy way to cut corners for extra profit.

And disk cleanup - I have always hesitated on that. Afraid I would choose to delete something I shouldn't and didnt want to do the digging and research to learn all about what might be offered to me to delete

The Disk Cleanup Wizard on Win7 is perfectly safe to use.

And you said

"I think I know what's causing the disk space problem, but leave that aside for the moment, ... "

So, what do you think there?

I've seen an issue on some old Win7 installs whereby C:\WINDOWS\TEMP gets full of files called cab*, they steadily build up over time. Clear that lot out, then clear out C:\WINDOWS\LOGS\CBS, then run sfc /scannow, is the solution I've heard that supposedly stops the problem in the long term.

 

[sonoferu]

So it looks like the guy who built my box didnt in fact give me a hot rod like I thought I was getting .... !!!

In any case, if I do replace the HDD, I'm not clear if you're saying that the SSD option would work with my system.

PCI-E M.2 SSDs are really, really, fast, but they won't work on your older platform

So that is just for that specific type of SSD? Is it a matter of an SSD working with my motherboard?

And several remarks throughout this thread sound like it still might not be clear that the problem that this is all about has only happened intermittently.

In fact, I am interested that I havent had the fall-from-sleep-into-hibernate-and-wake-up-to-Resuming-Windows since I unplugged the external drive. Could that be the issue all along? If so, how? I just now reconnected it and will see what happens.

I realize I have got you folks running around with several different theories. And it might not ever turn into a clear answer as to the cuplrit. I dont know enough myself to test all your ideas, sad but true.

It does seem like it's headed toward a new HDD or SSD, along with PSU. The whole thing of being 5 and a half years old feels looming. But then what about the motherboard? Does that also get cranky at 5 years? Might I not be better just jumping off the cliff and going all new, copying my disk to the new system?

BTW, I did the Disk Cleanup and gained about 25GB. Thanks!

 

[crashtech]

I second the notion that Disk Cleanup is safe. Must check "cleanup system files" for maximum effectiveness.

As far as the 160GB goes, that is small for the year, but it's a Barracuda, which was was considered to be a step up from the average drive as far as speed and reliability. It may have been chosen as a compromise between cost and speed, at the expense of capacity.

 

[sonoferu]

As far as the 160GB goes, that is small for the year, but it's a Barracuda, which was was considered to be a step up from the average drive as far as speed and reliability. It may have been chosen as a compromise between cost and speed, at the expense of capacity.

I now begin to doubt my memory of the deal with the builder. I am pretty old myself, 69 now, and my wife needles me about forgetting what she said yesterday. <giggle>

It may in fact be that I was coming from a machine that was itself 4 or 5 years old at the time, with surely a smaller HDD than what I got for the new one. Maybe I told the guy that surely 160gb would be oodles of space, a lifetime of storage.

But that's kind of beside the point now, except as a question of whether the builder was doing the best thing for me, a user with middling know-how. How would I know the best choice for the system components?

I only wonder about that in terms of going back to him for a new one again. He did have a strong recommendation from a friend who knows lots and lots more than I do, and as a custom shop it is still in business after over 20 years.