Task Scheduler Puzzle

[Whomever]

When you say you've disconnected all USB devices, does this include the mouse (sorry to be obtuse).

Mouse has not been disconnected.

Latest report: A few days ago, I did some more Google search about "Vista wakeup lock up", and found quite a few threads, few of which seemed to apply to my situation. However, I did find one about a setting that I had made many months ago and had quite forgotten about, the ability for the system to turn off the Network Adapter to save power.

HP had provided me with a list of updates, at least one of which did not apply, even though the list was supposedly for my computer model, as it referred to an update for a hard disk type that is not in my machine, but did not mention a NIC update. While I was looking at the NIC setup, I let the computer search for a driver update, which it found and installed; I also disabled the turn-off function for the NIC.

Yesterday morning, I put the computer to sleep for an hour or so, using the keyboard sleep button. I then woke it, using a mouse button, and the wake up worked correctly. Based on that experiment, I reset the power option to put the computer to sleep after two hours. Some seven or eight hours later, using the same mouse button, I woke the computer.

To my dismay, it was locked up, with the cursor unable to be moved, the keyboard doing nothing, etc. I waited perhaps five minutes, to no avail, so resorted to using the power switch to turn off/turn on the machine. I then checked Event Viewer, which, unlike more recent wake-up failures, showed only one brief delay error message; I interpret that lack of warnings to having not allowed the NIC to be turned off. (I don't have any way of proving that theory, of course, it is just another in a frustrating long series of guesses.)

This just does not make any sense to me: Why did a one-hour sleep period have no deleterious effect, but a longer sleep period did?

 

[Frostmourne]

Deselect the option for the NIC, allow this device to wake the computer. Also flash the BIOS.

 

[Whomever]

Deselect the option for the NIC, allow this device to wake the computer. Also flash the BIOS.

The NIC option has been turned off for about one and one-half years; the BIOS is the most recent version.

I believe that I may be on to something, as my most recent testing has shown that putting the computer to sleep manually works, whereas using the Control Panel/Power Options does not.

Last night, I used the keyboard "sleep" to put the computer to sleep; this morning, I used the enter key instead of a mouse key to wake the computer. It not only woke up, but it was kind enough to then proceed to allow me to use it. The night before, I had used my usual Power Options settings to put the computer to sleep, and it hung as soon as I woke it up.

I'm going to repeat last night's experiment, but tomorrow morning, I'm going to use a mouse key to wake up the machine. I did that a few days ago, for an hour, and the machine woke properly; if it does so overnight, then I believe I can conclude that there's something wrong with the Power Options.

 

[lemur]

Excellent job, Whomever!

 

[Whomever]

Excellent job, Whomever!

Thanks, I appreciate the kind comment.

Of course, it was entirely due to my inherent genius.

[Translation supplied by automated "Whomever Is At It Again" system: `This was just another example of my being too stubborn to know when to quit'....]

This morning's report:

1. Computer put to sleep last night, using the keyboard sleep key, by my wife (which probably affected something.)

2. This morning, I actually remembered to use a mouse key to wake machine. Wake-up process seemed to take a while, but when it was done, computer was, again, left in a usable condition.

2a. One oddity: There was a "new updates available" icon showing, but when the start-up process ended, the icon was gone. I checked Windows Updates, which had just run and found no new updates. I suspect this was just a temporary glitch.

3. I'm going to try having a small task run tomorrow morning, while the computer has been put to sleep using the keyboard. (I could likely get the same successful wake-ups using the Start menu's sleep command, but the button is easy to use.)

 

[lemur]

Please keep us posted.

 

[Whomever]

Please keep us posted.

Small task ran correctly at 0330; computer was asleep around 0415, and ran correctly when I woke it up using a mouse key.

Have set GenieSoft to run daily backup at 0330 tomorrow morning. I shall report results of that test.

[EDIT]
GenieSoft ran correctly, computer went back to sleep, and then woke correctly when I later pressed a mouse key.

Granted that the GenieSoft test was only for one day (and, using Power Options, I have had at least a few successes recently), I believe that it would be reasonable to conclude, based on my recent experiments, that there's something wrong with Power Options file(s).

 

[Whomever]

De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum - Of two evils, the lesser must always be chosen (Thomas a Kempis)

I chose the lesser, which turned out to be rather scary, but it appears to have worked. The greater evil would have been to have given up and never have restored the computer to its previous, proper, operation of sleep/backup/wake-up.

Briefly:

1. Control Panel/Device Manage/System Devices. Delete the four entries that have "ACPI" in their names. When you delete the fourth one, the computer appears to hang, but eventually becomes active and tells you to restart.

2. When you get to the log-on page, the Windows logo is huge, but you can enter your password. You then get a desktop that is really odd looking, with very large icons.

3. Windows starts searching for drivers; apparently removing that fourth ACPI entry removes quite a few links, which is what it was doing when the computer appeared to hang.

4. During this process, you'll see messages telling you to restart while it is still searching for drivers.

5. I believe it was the fourth restart (including the one after doing the deletions) that restored the log-on screen and desktop to normal.

6. Run a quick test of sleep/GenieSoft/restart; that worked.

7. For two nights, sleep/no tasks/wakeup; those worked.

8. Set GenieSoft to run at 0200; on wake-up, lock up. Ponder, check setting for Network Adapter, find it had been set to allow it to be turned off; change that.

9. Look at Task Manager, note that, for the first time recently, GenieSoft had run correctly at 0200, with the task finishing as soon as the backup was completed, rather than not finishing until I woke the computer.

10. Continue testing; one morning, get warning about needing to turn off Aero due to video memory being low. Restore video driver to original version.

11. Continue testing a few more days. All seems to have, at last, been fixed: Removing the ACPI entries removes the power management system, which Vista then restores during the process of searching for drivers and restarting.

My sincere thanks to HP for their assistance, as I'd not have had any ideas at all as to what the root cause of the problem was, nor did I ever find any such clues in all my on-line searching. I surmise that power management was damaged by the original problem, the USB printer that had failed and caused lock-ups upon waking the computer.

Again, the process of removing and replacing the power management system was rather scary, as it kept doing things that I had certainly never seen nor expected to see, but it did work.