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My Tablet PC takes forever to hibernate?

Dave, Windows XP hibernation takes an extremely long time, ten minutes or longer, to get to full hibernation. What is up? What can I do? I'm using a Toshiba M200 Tablet PC with 1GB of RAM. Everything was fine when I received it used off eBay. Since then, I've reimaged the HDD and then resized the HDD from 60 gb to 25 gb. I don't know if this is when the problem started, but it seems a likely candidate.

Dave's Answer: That can be a very frustrating situation: in modern times we want everything to happen immediately, and when it comes to laptops sleeping or waking up, even 3-4 seconds seems like forever, so I'm quite impressed that you have the patience to wait ten minutes for your tablet to hibernate! Digging around on the Microsoft site, I did find that there's a reported problem with Tablet PC hibernation and 1GB of memory, actually. Of course, the Microsoft article also says that you can have hibernation problems if you have "multiple processes that create a high-stress condition". Who knew that our computers could get stressed?! Anyway, the solution is apparently to apply Service Pack 2, which should be pretty straightforward. I have written extensively about installing SP2 on your Windows system, but I'll specifically highlight How can I safely upgrade to Service Pack 2? Please install SP2 and come back to let us know whether your Tablet PC is running smoothly again or not. And good luck!

Thanks to Tommy Martin for his help with this puzzle.

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Comments

I had this problem on my laptop when I experimentally turned off "write caching" on my hard drive (in Device Manager... HD properties... Policies). I turned it back on and the problem went away.

Posted by: Martin at August 9, 2005 11:39 AM

I've had the problem of 10 minutes to hibernate also. I have a Intel mobile p4 1.8mhz, 512mb ram, 80gb hdd notebook pc, which shutdown in a few seconds, and started in a reasonable time from cold and hibernation. I have looked for some time now to resolve the problem, and have now found the answer here. It was just as Martin described. The "write caching" was turned off. It now hibernates within 10 seconds. PHEWWWWW!!! Thanks very much:-)
Paul.

Posted by: pm8 at December 11, 2005 12:53 AM

Thank you for this info. What a difference!

Posted by: Marc at April 19, 2006 1:49 PM

yea its write caching....but the problem with turning write caching back on is that write caching is not something you want. it doesnt store files to the drive right away. it sucks. i love hibernation but i dont want write caching....i guess it comes down to whether you want hibernation or your fies written safely

Posted by: Jacob at October 25, 2006 9:16 PM

Thanks for the help everyone. I thought it might be write-caching, but as Marc said didnt really want to turn it on again. as nothing to important is on the machine, speedier hibernation is my choice. (once went nearly a year with only restaring computer when updates required it, and no internet, so no updates, for 6 months of that.) Thanks again!

Posted by: diweikai at January 27, 2008 3:48 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!