Windows 7: PC reboots after going into Hibernate mode

After almost a year of "no problems" operation my PC has suddenly developed a strange will of its own on shut-down.
I always put my PC into hibernate mode rather than switching it off. I use the START/Shut Down/Hibernate series of steps. Suddenly recently, my PC still goes into hibernate, as previously, but after approx 2-3 seconds the PC suddenly restarts! The only way to end PC use is now to shut it down completely which is a pain as it takes far longer to restart next time I use the machine.
Help please.

Run SFC SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
And perform a System Restore

Try running the SFC tool as mentioned by Yowan R. and perform a system restore on safe mode if cannot be done on normal boot.

The hibernation feature may be convenient for some people to use, but it doesn't work well in many computers and it's more trouble than it's worth.

Try running on Last Good Configuration
and also try running in Safe Mode, and see system configuration utilities (i.e. Msconfig ) and search for unusual and relative (to restarts and hibernations) configurations...

Do a system repair with your Windows 7 Installation Disk (If you have one) if problem still occurs.

Please provide your system information and previous phenomenon that happened and might be the caused, including those with low probability, since such is an unusual conflict if problem still occurs.

Also try removing the keyboard from the system to prevent a keyboard to send key stroke due to instability. (Low Probability) if problem still occurs

~

Very many thanks for you detailed reply/instructions. I ran the SFC verify only but it came back (eventually) with the message that all was 100% OK.
While this is reassuring it is difficult to know where to go from here.

Does the same thing happen if you use sleep mode?

It is also possible that a program is crashing during Hibernate and causing a BSOD and an automatic restart.

• "Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure", as shown in "Option One" here:
  Windows Update - Enable or Disable Automatic Restart
• Initiate the system Hibernate.
• If your system BSODs, write down the STOP error code, as well as any written out error message back here. The STOP error will always appear, but the message may not. You are looking for this:
  

Please reply with those error messages!

If it does work properly and without adverse consequences, it's certainly useful. System reboot out of hibernation is much much faster than a "cold boot" from a previous total shutdown state.

I've had THREE separate problems with hibernation, which have influenced whether or not I use it on a given system:

(1) WinXP SP3 "broke" hibernation, by modifying either the approach or mechanism. Obviously, this couldn't have affected 100% of the installed WinXP SP2 user base (unless almost 0% of WinXP users also use hibernation and thus didn't notice the SP3 defect) but it certainly affected 100% of the WinXP SP3 systems I was involved with. The symptom was loss of network adapter, loss of sound, and other very major and obvious effects, when the system was brought back up out of hibernation.

The solution was to use "SAFE MODE" to replace the four broken DLL's in SP3, with their earlier SP2 versions: WSCSVC.DLL, WZCDLG.DLL, WZCSAPI.DLL and WZCSVC.DLL.

Once restored to the SP2 versions of these DLLs, WinXP SP3 hibernation (which actually was now SP2 hibernation) once again worked perfectly as it always had before SP3 broke it. No more loss of network, sound, etc., after coming out of hibernation.

(2) One of my Windows 7 systems (Supermicro C2SBX motherboard) has a UPS, which has software that runs on Windows 7 which can automatically induce hibernation if there's a power outage that lasts long enough to drop the battery capacity down to "5 minutes remaining".

The UPS is connected by a USB cable to the PC, which is how the software and UPS box hardware communicate.

Well, there are problems that arise if I manually put that machine into hibernation, when I bring it back out of hibernation. Either the UPS finds itself in an odd state, or maybe the software restarts before the USB connection to the UPS is reestablished, or something else odd that I'm not describing correctly.

Whatever the real story, it just turns out not to be worth it to fight the aggravating messages and problems which arise when the hibernated machine is brought out of hibernation... tied to the USB-connected UPS.

I simply shut this system down when it's not required (although now it's my HTPC and is up 24/7... as I don't let it sleep or hibernate though I know I could/should, because of this UPS-related issue).

(3) A second Windows 7 system (ASUS P5Q3 motherboard) used to go into and come out of hibernation perfectly. However about six months ago the machine began to show signs that either one of my SATA hard drives was failing, or perhaps that the connected SATA controller on the motherboard was beginning to flake out, or something.

Symptom was that coming out of hibernation that drive would be "gone"! BIOS would show it not present, and of course Windows 7 kind of missed it too.

I've replaced the drive with a new one, tried three different motherboard SATA connectors, reseated the SATA cable at both ends, and even changed the SATA cable. Each corrective action was successful... for a while, and then astonishingly the symptom would return and I'd have to try something else.

Anyway, at the moment, the latest combination of "kick starts" has seemingly accomplished a 100% successful stable state, and I have not seen the drive "disappear" in about two months now.

However... I also have a SCSI hard drive in the machine, running off of an Adaptec 29320 SCSI controller. And strangely, as of late, when coming out of hibernation the hard drive itself had also seemingly "disappeared"... just as the SATA drive had done six months ago.

Getting into the 29320 BIOS at boot time, it sure looked like the drive was there. And if I then re-booted after examining things in the 29320 BIOS, sure enough the drive would once again be present. But fairly consistently, simply coming right out of hibernation that drive would simply be gone.

I'd then have to RESTART (essentially doing a full cold re-boot, through SHUTDOWN was not first required to cure the problem) to correct things. Sure enough, after a true normal restart (or, coming out of a true SHUTDOWN state), that SCSI drive would always be present.

I've now just taken to no longer hibernating that machine. I simply SHUTDOWN and accept the longer startup when I next bring it back up.

It's interesting how I used hibernation on this system for about 1 1/2 hears (including under WinXP, before migrating to Windows 7) and never had trouble. But obviously something about the OFF/ON transitions involving hibernation have taken their toll on the motherboard, SATA controllers, Adaptec SCSI controller, hard drives, etc.

Perhaps it's better just to leave it on, let the drives spin down after a period of non-use as a way of reducing wear-and-tear, noise, heat, and electricity usage, and just let it be available 24/7. Or, if you're going to be away from the system for an extended period, just do a real SHUTDOWN.


Anyway, that's just my own personal experience with hibernation. I'd like to use it all the time, but it's apparently a bit "delicate"... depending on configuration.

Just in case you don't know this, but hibernate, unlike sleep saves your RAM into your harddisk and shuts down your PC. Then, the next time you start your PC, you can resume everything from before 'cause it was saved on your hard disk. So it's suppose to shut down.

Note to criccio, the problem is that the machine restarts after the shutdown.

Simple fix is to
1.Search for power plan.
2.Click on power plan
3.Select advanced settings
4.Expand sleep section
5.Expand allow wake timers.
6.Disable both of them.

More complex fix.

1.Search for task scheduler.
2.Go through each task checking the Conditions.
3.If you see "Wake the computer to run this task" ticked then untick it (need to right click on task and select properties).

I suspect the problem is how some laptops support this.

Note that the culprit on my machine was "mcupdate_scheduled" which is Media Centre update. "Start Recording" was also ticked but not scheduled

I too had a same case of task scheduler thing which @monkeymiles has mentioned. After unticking the "wake" checkbox, my system hibernated without a problem and did not reboot. Need to see if it has been fixed permanently.