Aug 12, 2010 10:45 GMT  ·  By

A hotfix is available to users that have experienced problems waking up their Windows 7 machines from hibernation. According to the Redmond company, customers running the latest iteration of the Windows client have reported issues in which they are unable to resume activity after their computer goes into hibernation.

The software giant explained that in some cases, the computer screen will dim after the users log on to resume from hibernation. This issue is related specifically to Windows 7, Microsoft stated.

“Consider the following scenario:

- You have a computer that is running Windows 7.

- You configure the power button to be used for hibernation on the computer.

- You change the setting of the Password protection on wake up setting to the Require a password (recommended) option.

- The computer is put into hibernation.

- You press the power button to resume the computer from hibernation. You are prompted to enter your user account credentials.

- The computer is put into hibernation again while you try to log on to the computer. For example, the computer is put into hibernation because of low power or because the power button is pressed by mistake.

- You press the power button to resume the computer from hibernation again.

In this scenario, the computer screen dims after you log on to resume from hibernation.”

Microsoft explained that the problem reported by users is generated in scenarios in which two threads are attempting to fade out the monitor simultaneously.

A simple workaround to the issue is for users to log on and then log off the machine.

At the same time, Microsoft has made available a hotfix set up to deal with this problem in particular, and affected users are advised to download and deploy it.

Hibernation is a power-saving state for Windows 7 designed specifically for mobile computers.

“While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk, and then turns off your computer,” Microsoft stated.

“Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power,” the company added.

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