T61 + Vista + PATA-HDD does not suspend

[feklee]

I've a T61 with Vista and a second HDD (PATA) in the UltraBay. Now, most of the time, Suspend to RAM doesn't work. I.e. I close the lid and the system just stays on, until is suspends to disk when the battery is almost drained.

Very annoying. What could be the reason for the problem? Is there a fix?

Note: I frequently run Windows update and I frequently run the ThinkVantage update tool. I didn't fiddle with the standard drivers and I didn't install SP1 (since it's not availbe through Windows Update yet). So - aside from the second HDD in the UltraBay - my system seems to be pretty standard.

[feklee]

Anyone? How do I debug the problem? Are there log files that tell me what went wrong?

[Volker]

For the record, I have the same setup with Fedora 9 and it works fine. So its not a hardware limitation.

[icantux]

Vista's probably interpreting the drive in the ultrabay as a standard HDD and not a removable type. Check the settings in vista.

[feklee]

Vista's probably interpreting the drive in the ultrabay as a standard HDD and not a removable type. Check the settings in vista.

IIRC this doesn't change anything. And why should it?

[feklee]

So its not a hardware limitation.

Certainly not. In fact, I don't find it too surprising: Vista is the most unstable OS I've seen since Win95.

[mgo]

So its not a hardware limitation.

Certainly not. In fact, I don't find it too surprising: Vista is the most unstable OS I've seen since Win95.

It sounds like you are not getting too many replies to your problems, so I thought of a couple of things that may help.

By "Suspend to RAM" to you mean "Sleep"? Or, do you mean "Hibernate"?

Do you use the Fn+F4 keys, or the Fn+F12 keys?

Here is a link to some discussions that may help a little:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... leep-mode/

I have five ThinkPads and they all work fine with Vista's Sleep and Hibernate. Sometimes a machine will wake from sleep if I unplug the USB mouse, for example. The thread I linked talks about other things that may wake up a computer in Vista.

For the most "un-wake-able" mode, use Hibernate.

[feklee]

By "Suspend to RAM" to you mean "Sleep"? Or, do you mean "Hibernate"?

Suspend to RAM = S3 ACPI sleep state

I don't want to supend to disk, takes too long to wake up. But, at least, it does work.

[mgo]

By "Suspend to RAM" to you mean "Sleep"? Or, do you mean "Hibernate"?

Suspend to RAM = S3 ACPI sleep state

I don't want to supend to disk, takes too long to wake up. But, at least, it does work.

I too, use a PATA drive in the Ultra Bay and closing the lid puts me into Sleep with no problem. Have you checked the ThinkPad Power Manager settings, especially what action should the computer take when you close the lid?

ThinkPad and Vista have somewhat separate power management controls, but they are supposed to work together ok. Take a look at the Vista power management settings, too to make sure they agree with each other.