Opinion by Jim Coates : Insomniac computer needs a little TLC to relearn hibernation

I am running Windows XP and have tried various settings using the power options from the Control Panel (and the "enable hibernation" is checked). As a side note, the monitor does shut down after the time specified; the problem is only with the hibernation part, where the computer is supposed to go into suspension until the power button is pressed to cause it to restart. Is there any way to reprogram the automatic hibernate function?

A Problems with those fancy-pants shutdown and slumber bells and whistles in Windows have been vexing Microsoft's customers for at least the past decade. However, there are many variables that cause this common glitch.

First, a word about hibernation. Microsoft defines it as a feature that causes the computer to write a very large file onto the hard drive containing the exact state of the computer before it is shut down. When awakened, the file is restored and things are just as they were.

This not only saves a few watts from the electric company, it also greatly speeds up boot time.

Sometimes — I suspect it is a very large lot of times indeed — computers running Windows undergo minuscule settings changes that can change certain key timing events that then interfere with shutdown settings.

Hibernation settings particularly can be poleaxed by conflicts with the timing involved in playing the sound file that is supposed to tell the user that shutdown is occurring. This hibernation glitch often gets fixed just by changing the sound that plays when Windows exits.

Click on Start and then Control Panel and scroll down to the Sounds and Audio Devices icon. Open it and look for the Tab called Sounds. This is where one can set or change the noises that are made when various events occur, such as mail arriving or a file closing or an error encountered.

Go to the Sound item called Exit Windows and give the little Play arrow a click to make sure it is activated to sound the familiar descending "tum tum ta tatum" exit tone. Now click on the Browse button next to the entry and you will get a list of all of the .WAV format sound files available to be played as Windows exits. Pick one. When you restart the computer, the timing of sound played at hibernation will be different and the problem probably will be fixed.

The next-largest culprit comes from an errant chunk of code that got downloaded when you visited a Web site. Sometimes these Web-spawned routines also monitor events determined by chip speed. This can be harmless, or it can very dangerous if the tiny monitoring program is a keyboard logger that tracks each keystroke and sends them to its creator waiting on a remote computer.

These routines get placed by the Web browser in a special temporary folder. To purge the temporary folder, open the browser and select Tools and then Internet Options. In the tabbed menu, open the one for General and click on the button there to delete temporary files, histories, cookies and so forth.

There are many other possibilities, but these are the most common suspects.