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Previous: Keyboard design | Main | Next: Wrist brace tag
February 10, 2005 05:42 PM
Broken: HP PC "hibernate" feature
David A. writes:
My Hewlett-Packard laptop has a really nice Hibernate feature- except when the battery goes low.It seems to think that whenever my battery meter hits 10%, I want it to give me the "Critical Battery!" warning, and promptly hibernate. Even if I plug it in before it hibernates, it staunchly refuses to stay on.
You'd think that Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, could code a small line of software that cancels the Hibernate command when it's plugged into the wall.
You'd think.
This broken item annoys me repeatedly - especially when I'm finishing a project for a class that begins in only ten minutes, and I want to have it done and printed, but can't because it takes way too long to wait for the hibernate, then the reinitialization.
Sorry, Microsoft and HP. This is broken.
You can change that feature through the control panel. Once again, don't blame technology on the stupidity of people.
I'm not familiar with HP laptops (Only IBM), but I would assume each has their own control panel (or lack thereof) distributed by the manufacturer. HP might not have such an option.
But it was nothing to do with Microsoft.
(Ha! This post finally saya exactly what I wanted to say!)
I bet most people don't know this can be changed in the control panel.
To fix this type of issue, Microsoft should add a link to the warning message dialog to the control panel applet for changing the settings.
Its easy to change when it turns to hibernate... and hibernate takes but a minute to a minute and a half to shut down and reinitialize, unless your computer is extremely slow... but all that stuff is easily changed through the control panel
It is a pretty annoying *default*, though. I had to tweak similar settings on my laptop to get logical power management for the way I work.
It might be an annoying default, but it's a safe one. I expect everyone complaining about this feature would be complaining a *lot* louder if their laptop just let the battery run down and lost all of their work. This way, you might get interrupted, but you won't lose any workflow.
And the settings can be customized in the appropriate Control Panel.
My beef wasn't with the hibernate feature. It's with the fact that there's no way to cancel it while it's happening.
I vote for NOT Broken in this case.
Your first problem David is that you chose to buy an HP laptop. I would own no network server other than an HP/Compaq Proliant, but for production desktops & laptops...no way.
The hibernation feature can be set to your own personal preference either in Windows Control Panel / Power Options, or by tweaking some HP utility which came preloaded.
The hibernation feature is such that it basically records every minute detail of your current Windows environment into a huge, protected file (sometimes gigabytes in size). You can see that once the process is started its pretty much going to run its course and nothing short of an unexpected outage will stop it.
I make a habit of immediately addressing the power saving features in all laptops I care for. To tell you the truth, I rarely set PCs to hibernate, the next best setting, Standby is a little more forgiving: no need for massive amounts of hard drive space, much quicker to complete & re-initialize, and almost conserves as much energy.
Jim is correct about this not being MS's issue, and also correct about IBM laptops, I specify no other brand and their product line covers every possible type of usage. Scott is correct as well; these Power Mgmt features can be very helpful and have saved many a laptop user’s bacon.
Happy computing!
I agree with David. How many times have I hibernated my laptop only to realize I forgot to do something?
Also, why would your battery go down to 10% while plugged in?
...or is it coming up to 10%?
Nothing broken here in my mind.
You need it to hibernate before zero power. The problem is that the system can't perfectly sense the power level of the battery. It *SAYS* 10% but it might be off a few points. Also, the system doesn't know exactly how long it's going to take to do a forced shutdown--some programs may not obey and the system would have to wait for the timeout period on them.
As for why it hibernates anyway when you plug it in--it's already initiated the hibernate before you got that plug in the wall. It's the same as once you click shutdown there's nothing you can do to stop it.
If anything were to be done differently I think it would be a warning that comes on a little bit before the system initiated shutdown.
Do we have to stoop so low as to insult people on this site. I thought this was a place for intellegent posts relating to user interface.
Actually if you catch it within 30 seconds you can stop a shutdown... you can go to start run or command prompt and type shutdown -a and then click ok...
The post about IBM and HP is almost completely unrelated. Control panel is a feature of Windows, not the computer itself, and the only way the manufacturer determines what appears in the control panel is by adding little features. And if they do affect the adjustability of your power settings, they are broken.
I completely understands David's frustration. I have an HP compaq nx9010 notebook (Not completely my fault!), and I have headaches with hibernation. Don't understand me wrong: I love the feature!
But my problem is: When I press the power button (As set up in Power Options), my PC says "Hibernating..." and then hangs. I know hibernating is a Windows feature, but in this case I think it is the PC itself causing this.
If any one of you wise persons have an answer for me I will be soooo greatful! (I know that something is broken).
You CAN set it so it won't hibernate... I have a Presario 2100 and it's just fine.
Happy footballing!
Hello,
I have a Presario 2100, It was many issues with my windows shutting down forever plus the pops ups and viruses I shipped my laptop to http://www.800tech.com for free estimate... The price they give me is $75,00 for everything. But they told me that there is no warranty on this. Since this is software issue and I might have this again sometime. Can you guys give me your opinion ?
Rita
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Previous: Keyboard design | Main | Next: Wrist brace tag
Wouldn't be windows- the IBM Thinkpads work fin in this regard, and have tools that allow you to set where the Critical level is exactly.
Thinkpads rock.
Posted by: Jim King at February 10, 2005 06:03 PM