[Windows 7] Save and Restore machine state without Hibernation ?

raksrules

raksrules

Level N
I have a peculiar problem with my work computer. At random times, the LAN connection at work just goes off and i get a yellow exclamation / triangle over the LAN symbol (in taskbar) and nothing works. The only option for me is to then restart the computer and hope the LAN does not disconnect again.
I can immediately switch to wifi and i get network again but wifi is useless for me since many applications do not work over wifi.
I usually have lot of windows open which i have to then close and restart the laptop and again reopen those windows.
Is there any way i can save the state of my machine (all windows and open apps) and restart it.
I know one would suggest hibernate mode but that is out of question because that probably saves the LAN state and hence not useful. I tried that.
Another option i tried is disable and re-enable the network adapter but that i am unable to do because it takes forever to disable it and it does not even work.
Removing LAN cord and reattaching i haven't tried but don't expect it to work.
So restart is only option.

Any option to save machine state and resume it back but no hibernation.
 
Never tried drivers, this is work laptop, i cannot and do not do any such driver modification myself.
Also the problem is not with drivers i am sure. It is something to do with MAC binding of laptop to a certain port in office and few days back i used my laptop with another port and since then the problem has started.
I suspect it sort of confirms the port and MAC combination with some central server or something like that at regular or random intervals and when some discrepancy is there, it deactivates that port, thus disabling my LAN.
 
@raksrules - re-installing or updating driver is not a modification .. manufacturers have tried and tested these drivers before release so in most of the cases they should work just fine. Sometime driver files may get corrupted so you need to update / re-install them. So try that. Also try sfx/ scannow option to check and fix integrity of OS files.

Try the aforementioned suggestion by @6pack .. also try with manually setting Ip address.
 
topgear said:
@raksrules - re-installing or updating driver is not a modification .. manufacturers have tried and tested these drivers before release so in most of the cases they should work just fine. Sometime driver files may get corrupted so you need to update / re-install them. So try that. Also try sfx/ scannow option to check and fix integrity of OS files.
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I think he knows that; what he is saying is that he does not have privileges to do that; corporates deploy OS/App images on machine (call them COE images). A user gets predefined set of application, driver, and OS version installed but no privilege to change it.

@OP: Can't you ask your IT to update the driver for you? If it is Mac/Port binding issue; it should happen with other ports as well; try that and tell them to fix it. IMO saving state will not be a solution as all you need is a network reset? Better would be to find the cause and fix it.
 
If i just plug out the network cable and put back after a minute, that does not work, i have to restart to make it work.
As a last resort i will have to raise a ticket to get drivers updated / reinstalled. The admin guy did tell me he removed the MAC/Port binding restriction for my machine.

And yes this is work laptop and i do have admin rights but then there are still things which i cannot do and in many cases I won't do lest i break something.
 
Since this is your office asset the best thing is to let your IT team bother about this.
Also in companies generally you end up getting same IP address even if you change physical ports because your company uses dedicated DHCP servers and your mac is bind to internal IPs for a fixed lease mostly a week.
If you company uses subnets for diff projects/divisions and you connected you laptop in such diff area then such an issue may arise.

Try the ipconfig /release command with the flush dns param and restart once after that. Hopefully this should bring back the LAN connection to normal behavior.
 
6pack said:
There is one way of opening previously opened windows.
experts.windows.com/w/experts_wiki/122.aspx

I don't think program state can be maintained without using hibernation since everything will be cleared from memory during reboot.
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At-least can be done on explorer windows .. worked on windows xp so should work on win 7 as well But I have not tried :
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1222/

Opera, chrome and most other modern browsers gives an option to save session, so Op can try that.
 
Have you actually tried hibernation? It's called suspend-to-disk because it saves the ram state to nv storage and then completely powers down the system. This power down will hardware reset any devices, which may be exactly what's needed. Sleep mode (suspend-to-ram) is what may actually not work.
 
Julian said:
Have you actually tried hibernation? It's called suspend-to-disk because it saves the ram state to nv storage and then completely powers down the system. This power down will hardware reset any devices, which may be exactly what's needed. Sleep mode (suspend-to-ram) is what may actually not work.
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Yes tried and it did not work. Infact i usually hibernate my laptop and once this happened....

Lost network connectivity just before i was about to leave office
Put machine in hibernation
At home resumed and used laptop on wifi for some time, hibernate again
Next day resumed from hibernation and no network connectivity
restarted the laptop and it worked again
 
That's weird because whenever i needed to power cycle a device which wouldn't do so properly by disable-enable in device manager, the hibernate option worked. There was this old pci wifi card i had which needed this sometimes. And try EVERYTHING. Even the lan cable trick. It's weird that a power cycle without a windows restart doesn't work.
 
Share the laptop details - It could be an address conflict OR an issue with Intel AMT, if its enabled. Would suggest to ask the IT dept to fix it.
 
As i mentioned I cannot update or (re)install anything myself so have to go through the people who fix these things.
They too have suggested a format as last resort but as of this point i cannot afford formatting my laptop as i have important timelines to meet in my work. So once things get a bit relaxed i might go for getting it formatted.
So as of now i am dealing with this by restarting machine everytime this happens.
 
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