In suspend mode, lid closed, Vista pounding the drive

[MonsterMaxx]

I think this is what killed my last drive. I caught Vista doing this again which was a frustrating problem in the past.

Laptop. Vista set to hibernate when lid is closed.

So I get up this morning, lid is closed, drive light is just on FIRE, Vista is pounding the piddle out of the drive.

It will NOT wake up, it will NOT do anything, it's just sitting there pounding the pee out of the drive while it's supposed to be suspended. I watched it for about 15minutes and nothing changed. I suspect it does this often and this merceless beating of the drive is what ruined my last one.

This is not the first time either, I'd gotten in the habit of shutting the machine completely OFF because of this problem, I've actually seen it pegging the processor too (or at least the fans are running full tilt and pumping a lot of heat...with the lid closed and the machine supposed to be in sleep or hibernate.


Anyone have any idea why Vista is doing this? Even if it's just in sleep mode (and not hibernate) why would it beat on the drive?

 

[MonsterMaxx]

I'll also note that this is a dual boot machine.
XP doesn't do this at all. XP behaves exactly as it should, ONLY VISTA is the problem.

 

[roy69]

How much space is free on your harddrive. It may be that vista can not same the memory image onto disk as there is not enough space.
What processes have you got running. One may be conflicting when your computer is going into hibernation.
Have a look in your error logs to see if that will give you any information.
Clear all the junk off your hard drive.

If you need any help with the above tips repost.

 

[MonsterMaxx]

Thanks for the help.
It's a new 250GB drive w/ 25GB for XP and the rest is Vista's.
I know Vista is a pig, but surly 225GB of drive space is enough for it

This lappy was fast enough to be faster than my 2yr old CAD station so for now the lappy is it. For the last two days I've had CAD work to do and am running XP. There's a ton of apps open and files up and I don't want to shut all that down right now.
I'll try to fire up Vista over the weekend and get those log files.


Once nice thing about XP is that it just sits there, quietly, in a low power state, I've got it set to quiet the display in a half hour and sleep in an hour. If I'm not actually using it it's never beating on the drive or anything. I am convinced it's not a hardware issue and there's something in Vista that's causing this problem and likely is what killed my 1st drive.

 

[Scotteq]

Well.. Judging from the tone of this and other posts you have made here, you strongly dislike Vista, so:

(1) Reformat your hard drive completely
(2) Install XP Pro


No point in anyone suffering needlessly.

 

[MonsterMaxx]

Jeez, let's all throw out the baby with the bathwater.

IMHO Vista is not mature enough to be depended on when the job is on the line.

That's not to say that Vista isn't cool. That 64 bit isn't the way to go. That we'll all be using Vista in 5 years, commenting on how reliable it is compared to Windows 2012 (or whatever it'll be.)

It's not a like/dislike answer, it's a ready or not answer. And in my experience, Vista is not yet ready to take the place of XP in a professional environment where people need to get their work done and not be monkeying with their tools.

Computer professionals need to be getting familiar with Vista, reporting problems and checking solutions.

Just don't fall in love with your tools. Use the right tool for the job, be it XP, Vista, Linux or Mac.
I use the first three for various tasks and my mom is on a Mac.

 

[Scotteq]

Very well - Presuming your laptop had Vista installed when you bought it: The first thing I would do in your situation is go to the support team at your laptop's maker. You bought it from them, and therefore it is their obligation to help you The main suspects in this case are (either/or/both) whether the manufacturer has created their own hard disc/power saving management apps which are installed along with the rest of their standard image or a Bios that either doesn't properly support the hibernation feature in Vista, or has it disabled for some strange reason.

Presuming you installed Vista 64 on a laptop which originally had something else (Vista 32, XP, whatever) well... You're basically screwed, since at that point you have made a substantial change to their product so the maker is almost guaranteed to not support you. Your suspects remain the same, though.

 

[MonsterMaxx]

It's an HP8510w, new model last fall, as of today it's still HP's high end lappy. It comes with Vista installed. XP is an option (fully 'supported' downgrade.)

HP's support is worthless to anyone who can figure out the power button, knows that the mouse isn't a footpedle and the CD rom tray isn't a cup holder. You are talking to India, often have to assist in english translation and more often than not are met with 'just reinstall the OS' even though you just did that.
And while I find this level of support terrible, with the export of all the American jobs to a third world where you can get a body for under a buck a day this seems to be the norm for all the computer companies (I've personally witnessed it at HP, Sony, Lenovo, Dell...)


I suspect you are right, it's a flaw in either the OS or the drivers.

 

[sawdustar]

Hey Scotteq......

What I've been wondering since I upgraded to Windows Vista Business Edition from XP Pro....is why does Vista always pound the fire out of ones hard drive...even when its not in use and with noone logged in?

Here's my machine:
Dell XPS-410
Dual Core Intel 2.0GHz
4GB of Memory
500GB RAID disks

I have plenty of machine and plenty of RAM....so why the pounding of the hard drive??? BTW, I've been using Vista for almost 1 year now and I like what I experience.

 

[sawdustar]

HP's support is worthless to anyone who can figure out the power button, knows that the mouse isn't a footpedle and the CD rom tray isn't a cup holder. You are talking to India, often have to assist in english translation and more often than not are met with 'just reinstall the OS' even though you just did that.
And while I find this level of support terrible, with the export of all the American jobs to a third world where you can get a body for under a buck a day this seems to be the norm for all the computer companies (I've personally witnessed it at HP, Sony, Lenovo, Dell...)

Maxx,
I can tell you're not happy and by the later part of your post? I can tell you that I'm not happy either. I've been in Unix Engineering and Windows support for...well...over 30 years now. Many jobs are going "off shore" because land is cheaper, buildings are cheaper and where once can get a Unix Sys Admin for about $11K per year. Remember, this is a global economy and because we have been so lax for so long in helping to run our country? Then all that's ever been fought for is and will be lost forever.

Read up on the "North American Union" if you want more of an eye opener of what's coming to a country near you.

 

[MonsterMaxx]

Don't forget tax incentives, low wages, no expensive benefits required and lax pollution regulations.
I'm pretty up to date on current events and am well aware of what's happening. However, I suspect admin here would frown on political discussions and how, why and by who we've been 'sold down the river'.


But hey, we increased our manufacturing workforce....
...by reclassifying fast food workers as 'manufacturing'.