System Idle Lock-up

I'm using Returnil Personal v.2.0.1.9002 on Vista Home Basic SP2 x86 on a Dell Latitude laptop.

When I leave my computer to idle for longer than approximately 30 minutes, my computer freezes and I'm forced to do a hard shut down. However, when I hold down the power button or turn off the power strip to power my laptop down, I run the risk of corrupting my files, which has happened 5 times within the last 2 to 3 months. I've let my laptop idle with Returnil off and when I returned, it ran fine. The programs I usually leave running are AIM and a webpage or two on Chromium. I've also had my computer lock up at the Vista sign-in screen (ex. I turn on my laptop and get called away and upon returning it's frozen at the user select screen).

It's become irritating to see my windows files go corrupt and be forced to reinstall Vista, along with all of my drivers, updates, and regular programs.

How could I fix this problem? Would increasing cache size help at all? If so, what size should it be, its currently set at default, 5120MB.

 

Hi dizAndyVan and welcome to the forums

1. Are there any error messages? If yes, what is the text?
2. Please check your event logs (System and Application) for anything related to RVS or anything related to a driver or drivers.
3. Turn off Hibernation - does the issue remain?
4. Use the repair option in the uninstaller and change to memory caching. Does this provide any relief?

Thanks
Mike

 

Thank you very much

There are no error messages, at first it just freezes and I'm able to use my mouse, then everything locks up, including the mouse.

I'm able to idle my computer now. I stopped using the protection for a few days and when my cousin came over I turned it back on. When we went out I had forgotten to turn off the computer. When I came home I was panicky, dreading the possible 5 hour ordeal I might have to face, but my computer was fine.

The first thing I did after my clean reinstall was drivers, updates, security software (including Returnil) and I turned Returnil on right away. Is it possible that that was the problem? I'm estimating that I had only spent 2 to 3 hours, half of which idled for windows updates.

 

This sounds like it goes deeper than a software incompatibility as it is not consistent. If RVS was causing the issue, it should happen every time rather than at random times.

I asked about hibernation due to the fact that laptops can sometimes have issues with it working properly when using Vista. The changes in the 2x series also eliminated any potential for an incomaptibility between RVS and hibernation in Vista...

This probabaly did the most good here. One further thing I would recommend is visiting the DELL support site and make sure you have all the latest updates for your devices and DELL specific software for your laptop.

The next would be to perform a defrag on your hard drive...

A further suggestion is to include data replication and emergency imaging into your lineup. The first (replication) you can do through the Vista Backup and restore feature or use a more configurable program that allows for frequent data backups. I would also throw in a dedicated backup drive (storage is cheap...).

As for imaging (taking an emergency "picture" of your hard drive to restore later) I would suggest taking a look through the threads here in the wider forums. Discussions cover a wide range of alternatives and a leading solution provider (Acronis) has a dedicated support forum here at Wilders.

After this, I would watch the system with hibernation turned off for a little while and then turned back on when you are reasonably satisfied that the driver and system updates have cleared any issues.

Mike

 

I just got back from running off to play video games with my sister for.. approx 2 hours. When I got back I had the problem again. Thankfully, Windows Repair was able to fix the problem and spared me the pain of a clean reinstallation.

I have checked Dell's website and I do have the latest drivers and I defrag my computer regularly.

I'm not sure if Returnil is the one causing this but, whenever I create Windows Restore Points they are deleted after turning RVS protection on. Currently, the only things I'm running are Avira Personal AntiVir, Comodo Personal (Firewall only [Firewall Safe Mode & Defense+ Training Mode), and RVS.

I just switched from system to memory cache and see how that goes.