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7274
August 24th, 2004 19:00
Password not accepted after hibernate problem fixed?
I have a problem with my Inspiron 1100, and apparently I'm not unique based on this forum. When I come out of hibernate mode, Windows XP won't accept my password. Yes, I'm sure I am typing the correct password.
Searching here I see that the best recommendation was to turn off Fast User Switching, and that someone had done this and after awhile turned it back on and the problem had gone away. I don't have my laptop with me right now, but I'll try that when I get home.
I was wondering if anyone knew the source of the problem, and if that problem had been corrected. I wanted to know if a BIOS patch was needed, or if Windows XP Service Pack 2 would fix the problem. I don't, personally, see turning off a feature of the operating system as a solution to a problem.
I have an Inspiron 1100 running Windows XP Home with Service Pack 1 installed.
Oh, and someone needs to inform Dell Support that this problem exists. I phoned Dell two nights ago and the person at the support desk was worse than useless. I had to explain the problem 3 times. His solution was to have me turn off power management features so that the computer didn't go into hibernate mode (this in spite of me telling him that this happened after I deliberately put it into hibernate mode). After I changed my power settings, he said that was all he could do. It seemed obvious that he was going through some sort of script or help document. When he realized that wasn't dealing with my problem at all, he told me it was a Windows XP problem and gave me the phone number for Microsoft. I had to put back my power management settings and I still had the problem. I was not impressed.
Any help with this issue would be appreciated.
agoodall
4 Posts
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August 25th, 2004 12:00
As a follow up, I tried turning off the Fast User Switching last night. I hibernated the computer and started it back up immediately and it seemed to work okay. I hibernated the computer when I was done last night and turned it on this morning. The same problem manifested itself: it would not recognize the password. Worse, since I had turned off Fast User Switching it gave me the log on dialog box without the option of restarting the computer. It said the laptop was locked and I needed to type in the password!
I powered down the laptop completely and started it back up. This time I could type in the password, so my near heart attack was unwarranted. Still, this is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed.
Does anyone have suggestions of who I should contact, and how, in order to have this problem addressed?
DELL-Corey
2.6K Posts
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August 26th, 2004 18:00
Thank you for using Dell's Community Forum.
As a test, I would try disabling all programs running in the background and then let the system go in to hibernation.
The problem is most likely caused by software running in the background that is preventing the system from completing hibernation correctly.
agoodall
4 Posts
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August 26th, 2004 18:00
Hi, there.
What do you mean by "programs running in the background"? When this last happened, I had shut down all of the programs that were running. The only things left running were the items in my system tray. The only item that I could possibly turn off is my Palm Hotsync program. I guess that could be the culprit. The other items are Norton Anti-virus, and the items that start up automatically with windows.
Nothing else was running on the computer. As I mentioned previously, hibernation mode works if you drop into it and then come out of it in a fairly short time (15 to 30 minutes, typically). It doesn't work for longer periods (overnight, for example). This suggests that it's initially writing the hibernation data properly but something is wrong when the computer tries to read it.
I'll try shutting off Hotsync and report back if that helps the issue.
agoodall
4 Posts
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August 30th, 2004 19:00
An update to the hibernation problem.
I looked at the programs that were running in the background and found two that could potentially cause problems. One was the Palm Hotsync application, the other was AT&T's internet accelerator. I changed the set up so that Hotsync would only start up if I launch the Palm desktop. This is no hardship, as I kept getting an annoying dialog box when the computer booted if I didn't have the USB cradle hooked up (which was most of the time). As for the AT&T Worldnet Accelerator, it has problems in other areas so just shutting it off seemed the best plan.
I don't know which of these two was the culprit, but when I put the laptop into hibernation overnight, it worked fine.
Saturday night I did the hibernate thing again, only this time I had two programs running in the foreground (HTML-Kit and Mozilla Firefox). The same problem happened: the system wouldn't recognize my password when I tried to restart, and I had to reboot (which shut down the two applications that were still running).
So, there's still an issue with hibernating, though I can still use the feature if I make sure I shut down all running programs before hibernating the laptop. It looks like there is more than one program having problems with hibernation, but all 4 of the potential culprits are relatively recent (the Palm Hotsync program is the oldest of the four). I still suspect there's a hardware issue, or a hardware and software issue, but at least I have a workaround. Interestingly, Stand By mode works just fine regardless of the programs that are still running.
Thanks for the help, Corey. I'll keep looking in to see if this problem has been resolved.