Laptop HELP!!!!!!

You guys have come through before on questions like this, so ...

My wife's laptop is in perpetual hibernation mode. We've turned it on/off, taken the cord out to let the battery run out so we could start it up again, did the ESC, the control/alt/delete routine, so my computer knowledge is now expended.

When we turn it on, it goes into hibernation and won't come out.

Before Mrs. Birdscribe has a stroke, how do we extricate ourselves from this?

I thank you.....

 

Can you start it in safe mode and see where that takes you? Or go into the boot menu before it starts and do a diagnostic thing?

 

Might be a video-driver issue --- they're inextricably bound up with power management.

Can you boot it from the CD or DVD that came with the computer?

Oh .. what computer? What OS?

 

It's a Toshiba running Vista.

And 21, we just started it up normally, like we always do. First, it started with "Windows is resuming...." perpetually. Then, it kicked into Hibernation mode when we started it up again.

 

Have you had it less than a year? The Vista telephone support line should still be available to you.

 

Birdscribe, can you dig out the documentation and tell me what the video card is from the specification listing? (I'm betting it's nVidia, but I'm willing to be surprised.)

EDIT: If it's in warranty, call Toshiba. Vista is known to have problems on wakeup from sleep/hibernation.

 

If you hit the safe mode command during the reboot (it's an F-something, you have to watch the screen), it might take you into the system so you can adjust those sleep controls.

I (unfortunately) have Vista on one of my computers, my tech guy told me to disable the hibernation function altogether.

 

Frequently recommended. The last testing version of Vista had very good power-management support, but somebody made a code change before it was released to manufacturers and that change horribly wrecked things.

Never thought I'd see the day when a "mainstream" Windows release was so far behind the "hobbyists" running Linux (the most recent power management updates seem to have fixed whatever problems were left).

 

Thanks, guys. I somehow got it to work by pushing and holding the power button for several seconds before releasing. It came back on to her login screen. Another bullet for the (limited) arsenal.

Appreciate the input.

 

New question:

My laptop, which used to give me 3 hours of battery time when fully charged, now only gives about 40 minutes. Do I need to buy a new battery?

 

Probably.

How old is your laptop?

 

Only about a year old.