Windows 7: PC doesn't hibernate; locks instead

Hey everyone,

For some reason, every time I try to hibernate my PC (start -> hibernate), it locks itself instead and goes brings me straight to the login screen. This problem has only occurred recently and I haven't had problems with this before.

The command line "shutdown /h" does the same thing and results in "The system cannot find the file specified. (2)".

"powercfg -a" results in:
The following sleep states are available on this system: Standby < S1, S3 > Hibernate Hybrid Sleep
The following sleep states are not available on this system:
Standby < S2 >
The system firmware does not support this standby state.



Any ideas on how to solve this problem?

My specs are:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Intel core i7 CPU
6gb RAM
Radeon 5770 graphics
I'm running dual boot with windows XP on another partition as well. My windows 7 partition is active and system but the windows XP partition is boot.

The forum has this excellent tutorial, which has helped many. Hopefully it will help you too.

Power Options and Sleep Mode Problems - Vista Forums

Valid for 7 or Vista.

If you cannot find a solution in the tutorial that Robert pointed out, have a read through this: Sleep and hibernation: frequently asked questions. Let us know if you were about to find a solution or if we can help troubleshoot further...

Cheers,
Cassandra
Microsoft Windows Outreac

Hi there, i have the same problem regarding hibernation...
Same error (not finding the file )
Yet the FAQ about Hibernation and Sleep wasn't one bit useful...

It's probably because you're dual booting.

Hibernation uses something inside the windows bootloader partition.
(The 100MB NTFS system reserved partition)

Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management
And verify that the 100MB partition reserved by the system is the one active.

Be careful, this will disable your alternative bootloader.

I had the same problem too. And I found the solution to my case. It was due to I use multi-boot and during the process setting up the multi-boot the active partition was changed.

I use the DISKPART command in Windows 7 to change the active patition back to the Windows 7 boot loader partition. The commands are:

1. Run Cmd
2. Diskpart
3. select disk 0
4. list partition (here you will see a small partition which is the boot loader, in my case it is partition 1)
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. exit

That's it. Then I can do hibernate and funny enough my multi-boot is still working, even the active partition is the Windows 7 partition.

Hope this helps someone.

thank you dude, however, I had Ubuntu 12.04 and your solution damaged my boot and I encontered "Grub Rescue" [Problem] at starting time... and I soleved the problem by following instructions here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Can anyone confirm this?

I made an account here just to confirm and thank the original poster's suggestion.

I tried all of the things documented on the other links listed on this thread, and still no difference.

I dont dual-boot, so I wasnt going to try that above command sequence, but I tried anyways...

And it worked perfectly! Sleep and hibernate work flawless after. All problems solved.

As I dont dual-boot, I can only assume this was left over residual damage from a nasty virus stint I went through a couple months ago. Maybe not, just my best guess...

Definitely run those commands though!

Moving the Active flag back to the 100mb System Reserved partition if it has been moved off might solve your problem as well as others, but it's important that we see a Disk Management screenshot first to better advise you since there are many possible extenuating circumstances.

Generally however you'd move the Active flag if the 100mb System Reserved is intact, then if it doesn't boot run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times which is how the boot files which should already reside there are if necessary further repaired or rewritten.

You can also try turning off and then back on the Hibernate file which can also solve it's failure: Hibernate - Enable or Disable - Windows 7 Forums