When I first got my laptop, I set it to hibernate after 2 hours of non-use. Like all good computers, it did what it was told. For a couple months. It soon stayed on all night without going into hibernation, or even standby. It's gone into hibernation mode by itself twice since February, and in the past few days, it's gone into hibernation mode when it's supposed to every time it's supposed to. Did it randomly fix itself, or what? Is there a logical explanation?

My Power Options change occasionally for no apparent reason.

When this happens I just turn off or change the option (say from 2 hours to 1 hour) then change it back.

"Is there a logical explanation?"

Probably... somewhere... If the issue returns we can try to track error messages.

The Event Viewer might be helpful:
Start/Run/ eventvwr

Or:

Also view your Error Log via:
[1] Start Menu
[2] Help and Support
[3] Pick a Task
[4] Tools
[5] Advanced System Information
[6] View the Error Log

Was this on battery or AC adapter or does it behave the same with both?

http://groups.google.com/group/micro...+issues&qt_g=1

This was only on AC power. I've never left it alone for more than 10 minutes on battery. I've tried time and time again to reset my power settings, but no dice. It would still refuse to behave. It'd still stay on 24/7.

On a side note, I took a look at the error log, and I have an average of three errors a day. Is that normal? Also, what in the world is a "fault bucket"?

Thanks so much.

I have 3 network services that fail to start on every boot & are thus logged in my event viewer every time I boot. I am not on a network and never bothered to trace the service settings as they produce no problems.

If those same 3 errors repeat on every boot it might be a similar issue.

If you want to search Event Viewer Errors:
http://www.eventid.net/search.asp

If from the error log either google the error or post back the full error messages.

As to the buckets of faults:

It would appear that certain elements with the system can produce errors that are checked by the system and, if possible, corrected. When this occurs, a 'message' is left in a 'bucket' (no, I have no idea why it is called a bucket :shock: ) and when this bucket becomes 'leaky' (ie over full) it then generates a 'real' error message to let the operator knlow that there is something wrong.

Errors that produce messages that get transmitted to this bucket are: If the interrupt service routine gets called but no device is found to have raised any interrupt, only a leaky bucket counter is incremented.

The hardware unit is suspected only if the leaky bucket counter overflows due to spurious interrupts happening repeatedly in a short interval.

My computer has now returned to not cooperating with me. It's stopped going into hibernation mode at all and it's now returned to being on all night after hours of inactivity.

As for the error messages, some are "CD drive has bad block," "IP address lease has been denied...", "Time out waiting for application gateway service. service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.", and "Hanging application IEXPLORE.EXE, version 6.0." A bunch of them are hanging or fauling applications, and a few say "Fault bucket (lots of numbers)."

What is the exact make & model & # of this laptop?

It's a Gateway M520, model M520CS-3400307

I have looked at the manual & FAQ.

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/...501916nv.shtml

I wonder if you find any difference between Hibernate & Standby?

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/...915faq28.shtml

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/...915faq34.shtml

As: "Hibernate - Also called Save to disk, writes all current memory (RAM) information to the hard drive, and then turns the computer completely off."
I wonder about your errors:

"CD drive has bad block,"
"IP address lease has been denied..."
"Time out waiting for application gateway service."
"Hanging application IEXPLORE.EXE"

If the computer is trying to write to disk & services are hanging; waiting; being denied:
Then the computer probably lacks the ability to close.

To test this theory I would see if the computer will go into Standby rather than Hibernate.
Just as a test.

Do those same errors appear on a regular basis?