avast Home prevents hibernation

[bmn]

Yesterday I installed avast! 4 Home and I noticed that when avast! is running, Windows XP won't hibernate. The hibernation screen shows up for a split second, but hibernation doesn't continue. After disabeling avast! from the taskbar hibernation is working again.

I noticed one or two topics in this from the beginning of 2004. Does anyone know by now what causes this problem?

I use the Dutch version of Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all the latest updates.

[Eddy]

It is not Avast itself that causes this.
Hybernation will only take place if the system has nothing to do.
So if there is still a application/service is running that Avast needs to scan (and YOU set the options) or if Avast is running the VRDB, it is perfectly normal that the system won't go in hybernation.

PS:
Hybernation is advised to be turned off. It causes a lot of problems on many systems.
If you want to safe power, just turn the system off when not in use.

[Lisandro]

If you run VRDB manually, will it work after that?
VRDB could take some time to finish.

[bmn]

I'm always shutting down my PC in hibernation mode (power off after dumping memory do disk (c:\hiberfil.sys)), and it always worked no mather which programs were running. Also never experienced any problems with restoring from hibernation.

VRDB was disabled...

Perhaps I should prevent avast! from scanning "hiberfil.sys" ?

[DavidR]

My XP Pro system used to go so deep into hibernation it on occasion never woke up and the only choice was a hard reboot. My only suspicion was the wireless keyboard was effectively unable to communicate with the system to wake up. So I only use stand by which came out of standby fine with the wireless kb. I have subsequently got rid of the wireless kb but still only use standby.

[bmn]

A wireless keyboard sounds like USB and often motherboards (bios) are default not enabled to have the power tunred on from a USB device.

I'm using a wired USB keyboard and can't turn on the power from there also. So I'm always using the power button on the PC to turn it on and let Windows resume, which always works.

[Lisandro]

Perhaps I should prevent avast! from scanning "hiberfil.sys" ?

It won't harm and you can test...

[DavidR]

A wireless keyboard sounds like USB and often motherboards (bios) are default not enabled to have the power tunred on from a USB device.

Not in this case, the USB devices and wake up on USB/keyboard, etc. were enabled. I ended up just putting my old ps2 keyboard (kept as spare) back on.

[alanrf]

I am running Windows XP/SP2 and having no problems with hibernate. 

I am only running the Internet Mail, Standard Shield and Web Shield providers (all at default level).  VRDB set to generate when screen saver running only.

One thought that occurs though it may not be relevant is that I have the Windows Indexing service disabled.

[DavidR]

One thought that occurs though it may not be relevant is that I have the Windows Indexing service disabled.

Yes a prime candidate a real resource hog as well, mine has been disabled since I installed XP Pro, not to mention the old MS Office Fast Find (hog).

[bmn]

The General configuration settings of the Internet Mail service has a setting for Timeout for Internet communication. When this one is checked hibernation will abort (on my system).

I unchecked it and hibernation works fine again!

Perhaps the avast! support team can document this feature, and solve it in a next release?

[igor]

It's strange... Are you absolutely sure it's this particular setting? I.e. can you repeatedly reproduce the problem just by checking this option (nothing else), and get rid of the problem again by unchecking it?
Thanks.

[alanrf]

That setting causes no problem for hibernation for me.

Is it possible that you are using a newsgroup reader or some other service that is keeping up a regular connection to the net that pevents hibernation?

[Boris]

I do not believe you should be running the Hibernation for the following reasons. 1. It does pose a security risk as the file is a memory dump and contains image snapshots of your system. Any one who wishes to spy on you can read the hiberfil.sys and get the information they seek.  2. The Hibernate function produces very large files and can slow your system down after a while. To delete the Hiberfil.sys file, if you wish, disable the hibernation and reboot your system. The hiberfil.sys file will be deleted. If you want, you can select to have your monitor sleep after 10 minuites, 15 minuites or more. I have had no trouble with Avast when running hibernation. I just forgot to disable it.

[bmn]

It's strange... Are you absolutely sure it's this particular setting? I.e. can you repeatedly reproduce the problem just by checking this option (nothing else), and get rid of the problem again by unchecking it?

That's excactly what I did!

First I disabled the services on by one and discovered that the Internet Mail service was causing the problem. Then I tried some of the Internet Mail configuration settings and found that with the timeout option checked my sytem won't hibernate, and with the option unchecked it does.

I repeated it a few times and it is reproducable!

Altough I use the LAN connection now to connect to the internet, my modem is still enabled and there are two dial-in connections configured, but I don't use them anymore. Perhaps this has some effect on the behaviour of the timeout setting?