Standby/Hibernation problem

Rasputin666 · May 27, 2003

About a month ago I bought a laptop (Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo D series) with XP home Service Pack 1 pre-installed on it, and everything was working fine until I removed and installed a bunch of software on it.

The problem is that whenever the laptop goes into standby or hibernation mode it freezes permanently on the "Preparing to" screen.

Now the closest thing I can find to this in the KB is http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=331506
I DID have Nero 5.5something installed (It came in the base install of the laptop - and it WAS standing by fine with it there). However I have since removed it (didn't fix the prob), and besides my laptop freezes on the FIRST standby, not the second.

The main things I've done to the laptop were remove MS Works, remove Nero 5.5.x, Keep Word XP, Install Office 2K (except word), Install Visual Studio 6 (C++, tools & MSDN only) and install a couple of games (TES3:Morrowind & Age of Mythology).

Anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing the problem?

TIA,
Rasputin666

Duracell · May 28, 2003

try to do a reeboot before falling in Hibernation;
my suspicion are the game's copy protection drivers; sometimes they are still present even after uninstalling the games;

Greetings from
Duracell

weboneando · May 28, 2003

With so much install/desintall wouldn´t be easier to do a fresh install of the system?

Rasputin666 · May 29, 2003

Duracell:

Surely the games copy protection would only kick in when you run the game? I can't even go into standby mode when I just boot up the machine. I'm not that concerned about hibernation, but standby would be damn useful (given it's a laptop).

weboneando:

It's starting to look like a fresh install may be the only way to go, however the problem here is that I'm likely to want to reinstall all the same stuff and may end up with the same prob. I thought I'd ask around first in the hope of avoiding the hassle.

Regards,
Rasputin666

Duracell · May 29, 2003

Rasputin666 said:
Surely the games copy protection would only kick in when you run the game? I can't even go into standby mode when I just boot up the machine.

i think it may conflict only after running the games, but i'm not sure about it;
so maybe your problem have another cause; Do you have USB or PCMCIA devices pluged in? try to disconnect them first;

Greetings from
Duracell

scarecrow · May 29, 2003

The reasons a machine can fail hibernating are too many to mention... in fact I've read a highpoint documentation today regarding one of their controllers, where they mentined 101 different reasons that their controller might hinder proper hibenation- one of the reasons was the presence of an Adaptec SCSI card, or in some systems just the presence of Adaptec ASPI!!!
Of course this is not your case, but IMO you must sit down and document the saftware you have installed just before you encountered the problem.
I never had this problem in my own Laptop (Toshi satellite 1800 series), but after installing something that i don't really know what it is, the fecking thing crawls like a snail... the 386SX25/4MB RAM /120 MB HD laptop that I had 10 years ago was just slightly slower!

weboneando · May 29, 2003

The best way to avoid ending in the same situation would be to do a fresh install of the system and inmediately after that make a rescue image of the hd so this way you can try all your apps one by one untill you find the one that´s messing up, also another option is to use recovery points.

Rasputin666 · Jun 2, 2003

Thanks everyone for your help....

I've (finally) figured out what the problem is - an unsigned driver used by Kerio Personal Firewall 3 beta 6 (FWDRV.SYS). I just tried KPF 2.1.5 and it has the same problem BTW.

I hadn't even considered the firewall as a potential problem as I use this beta on both my desktop machines (two vastly differing specs) without encountering this issue.

I'm going to try a few different firewalls now to see what works, though to be honest Kerio was my favourite (sob! sniffle! sigh!). I've submitted them a bug report so they know about it - hopefully it'll get fixed at some point.

Regards,
Rasputin666