Does Windows XP hibernate take too long?

I recently ran into a problem with “hibernate” on my Windows XP Dell Latitude D830 starting to take 5+ minutes. My laptop used to take roughly 20-25 seconds to complete the hibernation process, but recently it started to take way longer. I did not realize it initially because I would kick off hibernation, close the laptop, and put it away in my laptop bag. Then one day I found that my laptop was incredibly hot and the next time I actually observed the hibernation process take place painfully slowly and I knew I had a problem.

Yes, this problem was on the same D830 laptop that I have been experiencing freeze issues on. I had been fiddling around with various changes on my laptop in the hope of resolving my freeze issues and I figured that one of my changes must have caused this hibernation slowdown. I had done several things including installing Windows XP SP3, updating drivers, and disabling various programs, but none of them seemed like the root cause of the issue other than SP3 which seemed like a remote possibility. Then, I recalled that I had also disabled “write caching” on hard drive in the hope of fixing my freeze issue. Well – turning that back on fixed my hibernation slowdown – I am back to being able to hibernate in 20-25 seconds. Now, why this behavior happens is not something I have bothered to research, but I am happy to be past this as I use hibernation extensively. Of course, am hoping that “write caching” does not re-excite my freeze issue or else I will no choice but to live with a slow hibernate process.

Cutting out all my babble – if your Windows XP hibernation process is taking too long, a possible reason is that write caching is turned off for your hard disk – turn it on and you should be good!