Hibernation Trouble

[gmorse]

Since installing 93.10 I've had a strange hibernation problem. My system has no problem waking up and going to sleep during the day before and after recordings, but every morning I find the computer running and I have to manually put it back to bed. I'm wondering if there's a process during the EPG update that's remaining in memory causing it to not hibernate. I didn't have this problem with the previous version and was wondering if anyone else had the same issue?

[pwtenny]

Since installing 93.10 I've had a strange hibernation problem. My system has no problem waking up and going to sleep during the day before and after recordings, but every morning I find the computer running and I have to manually put it back to bed. I'm wondering if there's a process during the EPG update that's remaining in memory causing it to not hibernate. I didn't have this problem with the previous version and was wondering if anyone else had the same issue?

I don't have an answer, but I'd like to note that you may be confusing terms a little. Hibernation is a zero-power mode where the compter is esentially shut off. Stand-by is a low power mode where the machine is still running in a reduced state, and can come back to a full running state on it's own.

If you are accidently putting it into Hibernate mode, it will never wake itself, because it's literally not running at all.

[gmorse]

You haven't accidentally changed the EPG update time, or your wakeup time perhaps? Have a look at the system logs to see when it started up and any other system log messages.

No, wake time still is at 3:00 AM and nothing peculiar in the logs. I just realized I haven't shut down the system in almost a month, so maybe there's something hanging out in memory I haven't noticed. Probably should have done that first thing. Time to experiment a little bit I guess.



It's definitely set for Hibernation and not Stand By. I've yet to have it not wake up, which I guess is better than it not going back into Hibernation. I just hate walking into the living room in the morning and it being a steambath (probably be good in the winter though) . Amazing how much heat modern processors throw out.

[pwtenny]

Not true! And whilst it might be true for your MB. It isn't true for all.

I wasn't talking about hardware. Anything that's recent is going to support ACPI, which is nothing more than an access API for Operating Systems to control power management. APM on the other hand leaves the bulk of that management to the BIOS.

Modern PCs can even wake themselves from a full 'Power off' at a preset time.

See the section below about how hibernation works.

The Original clock in the original PC had an 'alarm'. Newer motherboards have simply connected the 'alarm' to the 'Power on' button and when shutting down they put the next wakeup time into the clock.

I've never heard of such a thing, I think you're just unfamiliar with what's really going on behind the scenes.

The original clock could only set an alarm in the next 24 hours (i.e. the alarm only had a time, not a date), so some PCs have to wakeup every 24 hours just to set the next wakeup time. I expect (hope) that this is no longer the case, but I'm not sure.

The only part of the system that contains logic outside of a running operating system is the BIOS, and as you put it, 'modern systems' use ACPI which puts the OS in control of power management.

Stand-by is a low power state where the hard disk is shut down, as is the monitor, but the system memory and CPU retain power. Without them running or without hibernation, the OS would have to reboot to do anything since killing power to system memory would wipe it out.

Hibernation is a power off mode where everything in the system memory and other required stateful information is written to disk and the power is shut off. When restarted, that information is loaded directly back into memory so the system can resume. This is handled by the OS with the BIOS only turning power on and off. You can unplug a system that's in hibernation from it's power source and it will retain its state because it's on the hard disk.

If your system is in hibernation, it's off and not coming back on until somebody hits the power button. Otherwise, you're talking about different levels of stand-by.

Like I told you, there's quite a difference.

[pwtenny]

My computer uses more on standby than running, as measured it's
On and Idle 88 watts
Standby 96 watts (yep, just try and explain that!)
Hibernate and power off 17.5 watts
Which means it uses more in power off than my 'cheapie' VCR does running!

I doubt your VCR is sporting 100 million transistors though How are you measuring this?

[andlju]

If your system is in hibernation, it's off and not coming back on until somebody hits the power button. Otherwise, you're talking about different levels of stand-by.

I can't really say I'm an expert on computer hardware, BIOSes etc, but I can tell you that my system has absolutely no problem to wake up from hibernation without me pressing any buttons (and yes, I mean true hibernation - where the memory etc has been written to the hard drive and the computer is off).
Try it yourself! Set your GB-PVR to update EPG in about 10 minutes (and make sure the "wake up"-box is checked). Put your computer in hibernation - and wait..

[stefan]

I agree with andlju. Mine wakes up just perfectly from hibernation, too :-)