Windows won't resume from standby or hibernation?
Having trouble getting Windows to wake up?
A common problem users experience when running Windows Home, Professional, XP, or Vista - is that it won't resume from standby or hybernation. In particular, while Windows will go into standby or hibernate, on occasion it won't wake up. Or - it will sound like it's woken up, and your keyboard lights may work, but your monitor won't come back on.
While the cause of this may have to do with your Windows installation, or hardware or application drivers (such as graphics drivers in the case of the monitor not waking up - if this is the case, try updating your graphics drivers), we've found that it's a lot more likely to be caused by memory leaks in applications. Next time Windows won't resume from standby or hibernation mode (actually, you probably want to try this before 
try the following:
Close out web browsers before standby or hibernate
Try closing out your web browsers, in particular Firefox, which is known for its memory leaks. You should check your task manager to confirm that the web browser processes have been terminated. For Firefox and Internet Explorer, for example, you'd look for the firefox.exe and iexplore.exe processes. This solved the problem for us, and since we've made this change we haven't had problems getting Windows to wake up from standby or hibernation mode. If for some reason your Windows continues to get stuck in standby or hibernation mode, post below and the CWD community members will help you troubleshoot.
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Post a CommentMy laptop won't wake up from
My laptop won't wake up from hibernation if I have the charger plugged-in, the button just keeps flashing.
If I unplug the charger from the laptop, it starts right away.
What can cause that problem if it won't wake up with the charger plugged in, but starts when I unplug it?
This is absolutely useless
Are you kidding me? How on earth is this supposed to help me get my wireless connection back up and running? This is the most useless article you guys have. Unfortunate, because most of your stuff is pretty high quality!
Help, help? My XP machine
Help, help? My XP machine won't "Resume Windows" after hibernating, and I can't get in to make the (promising!) fixes described above. I have unplugged, held the power button in to 'flush' any residual 'memory' (sure those aren't the terms, but it sure used to work for me), multiple tries... unresponsive to F8 or F12 (held in or tapped like a rat at a food lever)... project due, really hope someone has an idea or two based on your experience! Thank you in advance.
Hi Mark, Are you basically
Hi Mark,
Are you basically saying that you can no longer turn on your PC? That could be a whole 'nother problem in itself. How old is your computer?
This is what solved my sleep/resume issue..after several years!!
You heard me. It took me several years of just not putting my desktop Windows XP PC in sleep mode before I figured out what was going on. I finally stumbled on a Microsoft help article related to some other situation so I thought I would give it a try. Of course this may not work for you as there are may things that could cause this condition but if it does please post back.
I opened control panel/system/hardware tab/device manager/USB and disabled USB enhance host controller. Naturally you will get some complaint about USB can be connected to a faster controller etc.
Then I tried to put the computer in sleep mode and after a few seconds to bring it out and viola! Worked flawlessly!
Then I just uninstalled the enhanced host controller and rebooted the machine. Of course Windows recognized and reinstalled the enhanced controller and standby still works great. Problem (in my case) Solved!! 
This worked for me too!
This worked for me too! Fantastic. I can't pretend I fully understand why, and lord knows i would never have thought to try this otherwise. But after years of simply never letting my computer sleep or hibernate, finally I can!
Thanks very much
USB enhanced host controller
Very interesting that reinstalling the enhanced USB host controller worked. We're so happy it did and that you're able to put your PC into sleep more and re-awaken it. Thanks for taking the time to share with our readers!
Please help me *Windows XP*
I will turn on my computer and play online or Diablo 2, etc. Then after anywhere from 5-20 minutes *estimate* my screen goes blank, and on my computer above the power button, one light is orange and the other light is green. Please help me!
Some more info
After 5-20 minutes of having your PC on the screen goes blank? Does this only happen when playing a game, or no matter what you're doing? Have you tried just letting your PC sit there and see if the same thing happens?
Check your power settings and make sure your PC isn't set to sleep/ screen saver/ hibernate, etc. after a certain amount of time.
To help us troubleshoot further, what is the make/ model/ year of your PC? Do you know how old the hard drives are? And what version of Windows XP are you running?
Please Help Me *Windows XP*
Okay it got to the point where it wouldn't even get to the login screen, now, when I turn it on when it should go to the login screen, it takes me to a blue screen saying it can't read windows/system32/config *not sure if exact file info* and dumps physical memory to disk. It's Windows XP Home edition, and the number on the end of the label was X11-45371.
Failed hard drive
It sounds to me like the hard drive has given up the fight. But without being there to troubleshoot, I can't say for certain. You could always take it into a shop and see what they can do. Even if the hard drive is broken, you should be able to recover data from it (in the event you don't have online backup).
Going forward, we recommend you use an online backup solution (read our article on online backups for some ideas), as hard drives all fail eventually.
Please Help Me *Windows XP*
The file is systemroot\system32\config\ or something, I will take it down to the local computer shop as soon as I can. 
Good luck!
Good luck, we hope everything works out. Please let us know how it goes.
Hibernation failed to resume
Hibernation failed to resume. Mozilla Firefox was the cause. I uninstalled it. Now no problems! Thank you very much!
Monitor stuck in sleep mode
Hi there. I was using my computer earlier today. I went out for about 1/2 hour and when I came home my computer was turned off. I turned the computer back on and tried to unsleep my monitor with the mouse and nothing happened. I turned the monitor off and on and it would appear to be okay for about 2 seconds then go directly into sleep mode. I thought it was the monitor so I attached another monitor to the computer and the monitor was stuck also. I thought it was the wireless mouse so I tried using it on another computer and it works fine.
I can't access the computer without having a problem at all. When turning it on I hear the fans but nothings else. Am I having a hardware problem? It is Windows Vista.....please help. I read the above solutions and it sounds like the problem I am having but I have no way to access the programs on the computer......??
Harddrive failure
It sounds like your hard drive might be failing. How old is your PC and your hard drive?
Close WMPlayer
On my Asus laptop I need to close Windows Media Player (or at least stop/pause playing files) before hibernating. Then problems recovering from hibernation mode become much less frequent.
Stuck on Resuming Windows
This post helped me so thought I would add my success story. My PC also wouldn't boot into windows...just stuck on the Resuming Windows screen. I turned off and back on and kept hitting the F8 and had the two choices mentioned above.
- Resume Windows
- Delete restore data and reboot from scratch
This is not the exact words at all...something similar. Number 1 didn't work so tried again and selected number 2. Came up fine and I had no loss of any data (description was a bit scary). No problems since. Hope this helps someone.
Thanks for this post. I have
Thanks for this post. I have been struggling with this issue for the last few days with no help, but your solution worked! For this post I thank you.
Hibernation stuck on the Resuming Windows screen
Don't be happy with that solution yet. That just temporarily gets you out of hibernation and returns to Windows. In fact, the computer is lurking and infecting your master boot record with viruses, etc.: Rootkit.TDSS. This rootkit stopped Windows waking up from hibernation. Go to Kapersky Support to download and to learn how to remove the infected rootkit.
Vista Sony VAIO hibernate issue
If the battery is low or power not plugged in the laptop goes into a hibernate state. I cannot recover from this without the recovery disk(Microsoft Vista DVD). In order to ensure the laptop boots from the DVD:
- Shutdown initially by holding the power button down for several seconds when in the hibernate state(should be zombie living dead state).
- Go into your BIOS - F2 key depressed numerous times when first powering up. In bios ensure external disk enabled and amend the boot sequence so that it boots from CDROM/ internal optical drive prior to booting from hard drive. I suspect that may have been one of Mel's problems. Save configuration. Be very careful of corrupting any entries. Save config.
- Before quitting from BIOS and shutting down the PC. Insert your Windows recovery disk(Vista disk). Shutdown PC in BIOS.
- Powerup and boot from CD/DVD.(option for boot from DVD/CD - press enter. Takes a while to load from DVD, should hear the disk spinning. Select keyboard regional options then select repair and fix startup options.
- Do not select the CD/DVD option 2nd time around and the laptop should start from the hard drive.
- Remove CD/DVD I have had to do this several times and it has really been inconvenient.
If you take your laptop anywhere take the recovery disk. I have now gone into control panel and amended all my settings so that the laptop never goes to sleep. And if this does happen again/hibernate still enabled I will attempt the F8 key.
My laptop appears to have absolutely no life, apart from power in the hibernate state so it is unlikely to work. I think I did attempt this and almost every other key when I lost my laptop to hibernate while in a hotel for a week.
PC desktop Vista won't wake from hibernation
Anybody got a fix? I unplugged and then held down the power button. Still not booting. I'll not use hibernate again - but what can I do to get it back on now?
Not sure if it's the exact
Not sure if it's the exact same problem but mine wouldn't boot! Best I could hope for was the power button making a noise! Fans on etc. For some reason I tried removing one stick of ram and I got the:
1. Resume
2. Delete
screen! I was using ASRock Instant Boot (a force hibernate type program). After deleting the hibernate file (option 2 at the aforementioned screen) I turned off Instant Boot and removed hibernate from the start menu! I restarted with both sticks of memory and all seems fine!
Everything (drivers, boot menu etc.) was up to date! For what it's worth I'd 2 sticks of 4GB RAM so unless it was a big memory leak I don't think that's the whole issue!
hp 210 mini laptop frozen
My daughters mini is frozen. It freezes on the "resuming Windows" screen. The laptop turns on and opens with the logo page. I've tried hitting the F9 and F10 keys but pressing these seem to do nothing to help this issue. I cannot press F8 on the "resuming Windows" screen. Any help out there? This computer is used lots for school.
Thanks
HP Laptop Frozen as well
My HP laptop is also frozen on the screen with the message "Windows is resuming". Anyone help please.
When Hibernate Won't Resume
I searched for help concerning the same problems spoken about here. My problem deals with trying to resume Windows from being in Hibernate mode...
All I had to do to remedy the problem was press & hold the power button until the power shut off (you don't always have to press & hold it; sometimes you just need to press it). Then, I pressed the power button again, to turn it back on, and I kept tapping the "F8" key (about once per second) until I got the boot options screen. At that point it gave me two choices...
- Continue resuming Windows. (in so many words)
- Delete resume state and reboot from scratch. (in so many words)
I chose option 2 which stopped the resuming Windows process and booted up normally from scratch, instead.
Yeaaaaaaaa!! I'm soooooooooo glad this worked, because I didn't know what else to do. I even tried re-seating the memory which was suggested on another site. That DIDN'T do the trick. Buuuuut the solution above that DID work is MUCH easier anyway. {:-)
I hope this helps many others, as well.
Peace out, y'all!!
PGulezian
I also add my thanks.
My next move was to throw it in the river, but you've inadvertently helped to save the planet as well as what's left of my sanity. Thank you.
Wow, thank you!
My daughters computer was stuck on this also and for months we tried to fix it. Now in three minutes time I had it back up and running for her. Thank you!!
This is what worked for me
I tried lots of things, but PCG'S solution worked liked a charm.
omg awesome
dude it was killing me to fix that problem.. this worked like a charm... thanks a ton.
Re: When Hibernate Won't Resume
Thanks PGulezian, that worked a treat! Fastest solution to a PC prob that I've found online yet.
Cheers
Johnno
Hibernate or sleep
What version of Windows are you using? Try disabling the hibernate or sleep feature (or switching "hibernate" to "sleep" only) and see if that makes a difference. These are typically found in your Control Panel under "Power Options." You can access the setting directly in Windows 7 by typing "Power" into your Start menu search box and then selecting "Change power-saving settings" under the "Control Panel" search results.
great blog thanks for sharing
great blog thanks for sharing that with me i will be using that soon you have alot of great info on here.
Desktop unable to boot up from standby
Dear all,
My friend helped me to build a PC from scratch. Currently I can restart, shut down and boot up my PC without problem. However, if I put my PC into standby, no matter how many time I press the PC power up button, it will NOT boot up. The only way to start my computer is to force shutdown, then re-power up my PC the normal again.
May I know what is the problem?
Thanks!
Bee
I was searching on the web
I was searching on the web for the same thing, found AutoIt, but couldn’t figure out how to run the control panel.I did have problems with cutting and paste on the scripts. The double quotes were being read wrong. I re-moved and re-added them to the scripts and everything started working.
XP Standby problem
My desktop recently failed to go into standby, with a message telling me that my video driver might need updating. My card is an ATI Rage XL PCI. I downloaded and installed the latest driver. Now it goes into standby, but won't come out. The mouse and keyboard have no effect. If I press the power button, the fan comes on, HD light flashes as if it's doing something, but no video or lights on keyboard. I then hold power button until it shuts down. Will then boot up normally. I did try the hint about closing down browsers, but it made no difference.
Thanks, Rich
XP Standby issues
From our experience, XP has serious issues with regards to standby mode. Without actually having your PC in front of us, it's difficult to diagnose your problem. I would recommend downloading a third party power saving utility for now, or consider upgrading to Windows 7.
XP Standby Issues
The 3rd party power saving utility sounds like a winner, what would you recommend? Thanks, Rich
Saving power in Windows XP
I would check out Microsoft's page on saving power in Windows XP first. If you have a notebook, you might be able to take advantage of the Speed Switch XP utility. We have not tested this software, so proceed with caution.
Windows XP Desktop stuck in standby
Hi Guys, I entered my XP run PC into standby yesterday but as it would not resume later, I turned it off using the power button. Now it won't wake up again. I have been sitting in front of a blank screen for 3 hours. The monitor displays "no video signal", so I exchanged monitors but the other one stays blank too. The PC appears to be running but will not boot. I have entered Windows CD to restore but it won't even boot that. Any ideas? I am getting slightly desperate now ...
I should have also mentioned that my cable connected keyboard and mouse are not powering up to through the pc. I am also not able to start safe mode and cannot check any configurations due to the blank screen and windows not booting. I have restarted the PC and monitor several times. I have checked all cables and have even removed any unnecessary hardware to no avail I am afraid.
If you need any more info, please don't hesitate to ask. I would be grateful for any advise.
Mel
PC Won't Boot up From Standby
Hi Mel,
I am a computer technician and I have to say I have come across this problem more than once in all my years working with computers of all types. You state that your system won't boot up at all. Am I right in saying that the fans come on and the power light but nothing else? Power supply units have many different power outputs that supply voltage to your system. Many faults are caused by PSU failures and I would say that is what you are looking at.
Fault finding is a case of eliminating one thing at a time. If possible try replacing the PSU and see if that fixes your problem. If that doesn't fix it then I would say the motherboard itself has failed and needs replacing. Many things can happen to a PC when it is in standby and because nothing is displayed onscreen you can't tell if there are any faults until you try and start the system again.
Finally, if you don't have a surge protector you should get one. I myself have a UPS as it protects the system fully from spikes, brownouts, total power loss and all other power faults. I hope this helps you to sort out your problem.
Thank you!
Thanks so much for your help and welcome to the CWD community. Excellent advice 
Cheers,
- CWD Team
Hard drive failure
Hi Mel,
It's hard to say what the issue is without having your PC in front of us, but a guess would be hard drive failure. Hard drives don't last nearly as long as some of the other components in your PC.
Our advice would be to take your PC into a local tech shop and see if they can restore it to functionality. Whatever you do - don't do anything drastic. 99% of the time your data can be recovered, even if your PC won't boot.
Next time, try out Carbonite online backup. That way, the next time an HD fails (and it will, since they have short life spans), you'll be covered.
Cheers and good luck!
-CWD Team
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