Dell PC hibernates on its own

[Vesuvius]

I have a Dell Inspirion PC (when I did not need the model # it was everywhere and now I cannot find it), which goes into hibernation on its own.  I had Dell Support and PC Doctor, but every time the PC Doctor ran, it changed the power settings, to hibernate, and my Dell did not respond to the mouse or keyboard.  I press the power button and the disk drive whirls, but nothing happens, so I hold it down for 10 seconds, to force a shutdown, press it once again, but nothing happens.  Sometimes after pressing it a third time it starts and others, it takes 4 tries.  I go into power settings and change it, from Dell, back to a scheme which does not permit hibernation, but every time PC Doctor ran, back it went.  Finally, I removed Dell Support, thinking it would remove PC Doctor, but the PC still wants to hibernate.  I tried powercfg –h off, which took ‘hibernate’ out of the shutdown options, but it still hibernates.  Luckily, it does this once or twice a week, instead of everyday, but it is really getting annoying.  Your help will be greatly appreciated.  BTW, I am legally blind, using a screen reader, which makes it even more interesting.

[Kris_PCD]

Sorry for the wait Vesuvius.

I have been trying to figure out what else could be causing your computer to keep hibernating after you disabled the function and so far I have come up with a few possible causes.

  1. Your Windows installation is corrupted:
     In this case I would suggest either trying to repair or reinstall Windows.
  2. Hibernate is still set to enabled somewhere in your computer:
     Since I don't know which version of Windows you have I can't say where to look, but if it is still enabled in some obscure location that would certainly cause the issue to persist.
  3. The final, and most likely cause in my opinion, is that the issue is actually caused by the hardware:
     My thought on this is that a number of hardware or driver issues could cause your system to not restore from hibernation. Depending on the issue it could even look like your system is going into hibernate when actually it is crashing or hanging.

Unfortunately I can't say exactly what the cause is, and all that I can do is speculate and hope that some of my suggestions are of use. Your best bet may be to get a second pair of eyes on it, perhaps contact your local computer specialist. You can also try reinstalling My Dell, if the issue is with your hardware it may be able to help you track down the problem.

Sorry I can't give you a better solution, but please let me know if you have any questions about our software.

I hope you are able to find a solution to your problem,
Kris

[Vesuvius]

Thank you for the suggestions.  I am using Win 7, on a 64 bit machine.  The problem began when PC Doctor started running its scan, though, each report said everything was working properly.  I never thought of a driver problem, but I do not pay much attention to them and maybe I should start.
I am hoping the problem does not occur again, but if it does, getting someone to look at it is my next option.  Once again, thank you for the time and consideration.