[Solved] Windows XP Home - Standby not working, shuts computer down

[Airborne]

Recently my Standby stopped working. When I click Standby the computer shuts down. I have no clue what caused this, it happened suddenly.

 

I have surfed the web and read many cases where this has happened, but so far have not come across a fix or cure. It all seems very difficult to rectify, with users uninstalling Windows and reinstalling. One guy said it cured it, but others had no success. I am not prepared to go to extremes on this and am looking for a simple fix. If I cannot get a simple solution, then I will live with Standby not working and use Hibernate, which does work with no problems.

 

I am using Windows XP Home edition 2004 and have no other problems at all, everything else works perfect. My system is clean. I use Sandboxie, AVG 2012 PrivateFirewall and several other security programs. I also scan frequently with no infections found.

 

I have fiddled about with the power options until I go crazy - tried everything with no luck.

 

Can anybody please advise me how to get my Standby working again ?

 

Thank you

[RandyL]

Is this also your thread?

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic469827.html

 

I have fiddled about with the power options until I go crazy

What are your current settings in Power Options>Advanced?

 

Are you using a USB keyboard or mouse?

 

Are there any external devices connected?

 

Are you sure that standyby is not working? This might be that it's entering standyby but not resuming from standby. In standby the hard disk and monitor will shut off. If you have to press and hold the power button to restart it is in standby.

 

Hibernate is a better option than standbye. Does hibernate work?

 

Apart from XP being notoriously buggy about standyby there are many possible causes. BIOS, drivers and third party programs for instance.

 

Speaking of third party programs I've seen AVG cause all sorts of issues. As for myself I uninstall AVG before trouble shooting a computer. It saves time from trying everything else first.

[usmanozzy786]

I think its because from the settings the stand by option is set to shut down the computer the settings needs to be changed in order for your computer to go standby

[Airborne]

Is this also your thread?

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic469827.html

 

Randy,

 

Thanks for a very relevant post, I will check all you ask and come back later.

 

YES the link is my thread. No harm meant in duplicating my problem on other Forums. Being desperate to find a solution I have used a "shot gun" approach to solicit the views and expertise of a wider audience.

 

It is not always a picture of success like here where members reply. On one Forum I posted the same problem and out of 250 views, not a single reply has been voiced.

[Airborne]

Is this also your thread?

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic469827.html

 

 

What are your current settings in Power Options>Advanced?

 

Are you using a USB keyboard or mouse?

 

Are there any external devices connected?

 

Are you sure that standyby is not working? This might be that it's entering standyby but not resuming from standby. In standby the hard disk and monitor will shut off. If you have to press and hold the power button to restart it is in standby.

 

Hibernate is a better option than standbye. Does hibernate work?

 

Apart from XP being notoriously buggy about standyby there are many possible causes. BIOS, drivers and third party programs for instance.

 

Speaking of third party programs I've seen AVG cause all sorts of issues. As for myself I uninstall AVG before trouble shooting a computer. It saves time from trying everything else first.

 

Randy,

My Power Options have been set for nearly 2 years without change apart from checking and unchecking Hibernate as required. See screen shots 1-3.

 

Yes, I do have a USB keyboard and mouse.

 

No external devices except my printer.

 

OK, Standby may think it is working, the blue screen does say "Preparing to Standby", but on pressing the power button, my computer has shut down and has to be restarted again. All very tedious.

 

Hibernate works perfectly.

 

I have many 3rd party programs, all of which update, but I cannot see how these independent programs can affect the basic Windows system. My entire system has been working for years with no previous Standby problems and I have made no changes to affect this feature.

 

Bios ? The only factor that affect this are Windows updates and has they have never caused a problem in over 10 years in connection with Standby, I see no reason why it should all start in 2012. I cannot check Bios S1, S2, S3 because the brilliant designers have only allowed a few milliseconds to view the data information screen showing the access keys. I have not got high speed vision.

 

I have disabled my AVG and PrivateFirewall, tried Standby, but it still shuts me down.

 

Using Hibernate is no problem, but it uses far too much VM and I keep getting "VM low" popups.

 

Some users have practically rebuilt their PC`s trying to solve Standby problems, but I am not even prepared to dig very deep at all. I personally think the problems is a simple "funny" and until some clue reveals itself, I will stick with Hibernate.

[Airborne]

 

Randy, missed the edit. This may be interesting :-

 

Standby suddenly started working perfectly , but after a while it stopped again and resumed a shut down action. This alone can only mean that the problem is a "funny" and not something serious. A serious problem would not do this. What it is though, I have no clue as yet.

[RandyL]

By running %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState which you said you did in the other forum your computer was in standyby. It is failing to resume from standby.

 

Note the following articles:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555569

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/878467

 

The best I can suggest is to try the steps mentioned. The first thing I would do though is uninstall AVG. It's the first thing I always do in order to save time trouble shooting as it's often the culprit.

 

After that update your firmware.

 

Then disable startup items using msconfig if need be.

 

Use a PS2 mouse.

 

The bottom line is something is causing it not to resume. It might even be an update to a program like an AV.

 

And last but not least Microsoft knows standby is buggy in XP. They have shown no interest in a fix.

[Airborne]

By running %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState which you said you did in the other forum your computer was in standyby. It is failing to resume from standby.

 

Note the following articles:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555569

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/878467

 

The best I can suggest is to try the steps mentioned. The first thing I would do though is uninstall AVG. It's the first thing I always do in order to save time trouble shooting as it's often the culprit.

 

After that update your firmware.

 

Then disable startup items using msconfig if need be.

 

Use a PS2 mouse.

 

The bottom line is something is causing it not to resume. It might even be an update to a program like an AV.

 

And last but not least Microsoft knows standby is buggy in XP. They have shown no interest in a fix.

Randy,

Thank you so much for your interesting and informative posts on this matter.

 

I am sure you know as I do that this Standby problem is the subject of many web groans from users worldwide, it appears to be widespread and not just on old machines like mine.

 

My PC has been working perfectly for over 10 years and still is. I have no problems at all and my many programs have never given any trouble, even AVG which has served me magnificently for years.

 

In view of the infinite variety of interacting suspect factors which may lead to Standby problems, I have no wish to re-invent the wheel for such a small gain as recovering Standby. I still think it is a "funny" caused by some simple hiccup and to plod through all these complex possibilities with a risk of completely wrecking my PC is out of the question.

 

I did by luck enter Bios - DEL did it and it is set at S3 for ACPI. It states "Suspend State will be saved to RAM". Maybe there is not enough RAM available and by default Stanby shuts down.

 

If I find a solution, then no matter how old the thread gets, I will let you know the details. Meanwhile I will use Hibernate which works fine - I prefer Hibernate anyhow., just takes a bit longer to climb out of it`s coffin.

Again, many thanks.

[Airborne]

SOLVED

 

To all the kind members who have responded and with special thanks to Randy for his great and thorough help on this problem.

 

Silly really, but here it is. As explained in my OP, the Standby suddenly stopped working whilst Hibernate still functioned OK.

 

I have only just received my computer back from repair, having had a new power unit fitted and a clean out. BUT, at the same time asked for the memory to be increased. I had been getting lots of "Not Responding" and memory low alerts, plus the computer was slow - taking minutes to respond and awful from Hibernate or Start.

 

I previously had 447 MB of RAM, I now have 960 MB of RAM and 2.71 GHz - approx. double the capacity.

 

This memory increase solved my Standby problem immediately, it now works perfectly. What happened, was that my memory usage had crept up to a level exceeding the capacity and Standby could not function. When selecting Standby, the computer could not comply through lack of memory and simply shut down.

 

All now working superb and the Start-up, Standby and Hibernate times are now very rapid.

Much faster on web selections also. So far no "Not Responding" signs. Delighted.

 

Thank you all again

Airborne

[RandyL]

That's great.

 

Yes that could explain it. You had very little memory which standby needs. A lot of startup items could have been using most of that.

 

I'm glad you figured it out Airborne. Thanks for letting us know.

[Airborne]

That's great.

 

Yes that could explain it. You had very little memory which standby needs. A lot of startup items could have been using most of that.

 

I'm glad you figured it out Airborne. Thanks for letting us know.

 

Thanks for that comment Randy,

 

The clue was that (I should have spotted it) :-

 

Very briefly, Standby stores all the data in RAM and therefore soaks it up, whilst Hibernate saves the data in a specially created file - hiberfil.sys and is stored on the hard disk. Hence in my case, stored data was > RAM and Standby failed, the computer just shut down. Hibernate was OK because it was using the hard disk for storage.

 

It is worth other users noting this when their Standby is giving trouble. "Check that your RAM is sufficient to deal with your memory usage".

 

This simple and rather silly solution avoids unnecessary trouble and expense in dissecting your computer into a mass of parts and reinventing the wheel. The web is full of users with Standby problems, especially with Windows XP, but not exclusively and many of these problems could well be a simple matter of needing more memory.