Sick and tired of hibernate failure....so..

bimmerpc · 09-27-2007, 04:53 PM

... and I have been doing some heavy software lookup including devcon.exe and all that. But no matter how I do and how I connect my usb devices, its alway one or more (varies from time to time which one) that is not working when resuming from hibernate. When resuming from standby, my system is always working perfect with all devices.

Now it seems tempting and convenient to skip all this problem with hibernate and just always use standby which boots faster. My only concern is power. If You look at my profile I have my project thread there. Does anyone have any advice before I install? Do I need an extra car battery?

In my laptop I can set the battery functions so that for example my computer shuts of when a specific amount of battery is gone. But I dont really understand how I should do the cabeling and setup in combination with the car battery, I mean maybe the laptop still takes a lot of power from the car battery to feed my amplifier + all usb devices in standby? It wont be much of help if my laptop is fully charged in the moring when I am off for work but my car battery is dead. I mean when doing hibernate it seems it doesnt matter if I cut the power to my car pc but I guess standby needs a continous power feed...

GiODi · 09-27-2007, 05:04 PM

Do this simple test: Fully charge, then unplug your laptop so it's running on just the battery. Put it into standby and leave it there over night or a couple days. Then bring it back up and see how much of your laptop's battery is drained. I'm pretty sure you'll still be at 99 or 98%.

I use standby on my system (you can check the specs) all the time. I do drive a lot and the longest I've parked my car since I've put the carputer in is a about a 20 hrs. There are power supplies that cut power if the battery gets below a certain voltage. or you can simply use a relay and cut the power to your laptop when the car's not running.

BiG K · 09-28-2007, 03:59 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by GiODi

Do this simple test: Fully charge, then unplug your laptop so it's running on just the battery. Put it into standby and leave it there over night or a couple days. Then bring it back up and see how much of your laptop's battery is drained. I'm pretty sure you'll still be at 99 or 98%.

I tried that with a company laptop, I couldn't wait to leave for the day, so instead of shutting down or hibernating, I put the laptop into sleep mode :P

The battery didn't surprisingly last overnight! BUT when the batteries do go flat, all that happens is the laptop awakens and shuts itself down.

So I would agree, put a switch onto the main positive cable and switch it off at night, so its running only on batteries.

turbocad6 · 09-28-2007, 10:29 AM

my tablet install stands by over night & the next morning it's at like at 76% battery... I think it'd hold out like 2 days between uses, but then the problem becomes what if you just do a short drive... not enough time to have the battery fully return to 100%...

bimmerpc · 09-28-2007, 06:02 PM

well I guess Your battery would be about 60 then

No big deal.

Any way, forget what I said in first post. I just hardtested my standby function again and it is not reliable. I guess my whole laptop just dont like usb 2.0 since all devices seems to work better under usb 1.0. The laptop doesnt have a native usb 2.0 so I have to use pcmcia card to use 2.0 standard. I guess thats where the problem is. Well guess I have to trash my fine ibm thinkpad laptop that I have heard was supposed to be reliable as a tank and switch it for something more cheap taiwanesian noname-brand which might suit me better in terms of actually WORK as a computer should be. MAN! a laptop with standby and hibernate issues is like a car that doesnt run on the reverse gear.

(dissapointed laptop user)

nst6563 · 09-28-2007, 06:42 PM

what thinkpad series is it and how old? I have a T60 (part of my job) and it IS a tank. It's been dropped, had tea and applejuice spilled in it (gotta love kids), runs FOR-EVER on batteries (I can literally get almost 5-6 hours battery time with the screen on full-brightness and only the cpu/hdd being thrown into their power reduced states), and has everything but a built in cardreader and firewire. I've never had a software glitch or driver mishap on it yet. Plus I love the feature that detects if the laptop is being moved and shuts the hdd down until the movement is stabilized.

Thing is still going strong (I did clean the tea and juice from the keyboard though).

so this PCMCIA adapter is what's causing all your headache? What devices do you have in the car that require USB2?

bimmerpc · 09-29-2007, 04:00 AM

Regarding enclosure durability I agreee, it seems very tough. My thinkpad is a a31 with a pentium-4 1.9 ghz. I guess Yours is far better and I guess the 1,8ghz on yours woule be better if there´s a more advanced processor type. Mine is quite slow (512mb ram, 30gb hd) But I bought it about 2 years ago for like 850 $ with docking station.

Anyway, I brought it up from standby this morning with my wireless (eub-362ext) adapter connected to my usb 1.0 native port. it just went back fine and my battery is still fine(disconnected from wall charger of course).

I wondered if it could be power issues causing the devices not to work on my pcmcia card so I yesterday tested with connecting a wall charger to the pcmcia card but I still got the yellow bubble box displayed that windows doesnt recognize the device being attached.

Why I need usb 2.0
External cd/dvd reader, usb soundcard, flashdrive, external wireless adapter, usb card reader, usb hubs, usb bluetooth adapter.............

bimmerpc · 09-30-2007, 06:41 AM

Maybe I am completely out in the woods here but does anyone know if the usb2.0 problems is due to xp and might be cured by switching to another os?

nst6563 · 09-30-2007, 09:41 AM

as far as I know, USB2 issues were encountered back in Windows98. As far as Windows 2000, XP and Vista, they should all automatically recognize and use USB2.0 capable controllers. You might want to just search Microsoft for "USB 2.0 hibernate" and see what comes up, if I remember right there have been a couple KB articles on the subject in the past that resulted in patches.

hithere · 10-25-2007, 01:31 PM

Doesn't anyone use car relays on the power to their laptops? Simple and effective way to kill the possibility of a dead car battery.