[Tfug] suspend to ram question

[christopher floess]

> Note that your laptop *should* be smart enough to at least alert
> you to this impending possibility and/or automatically wake up and
> save everything on disk (i.e., a restorable memory image).

I assumed that in suspend to ram, a dying battery would just die. I
wonder if my lappy is smart enough to wake up and save things to disk.
Seems like a tall order, but I just set my laptop to "Hibernate" when
battery is "Critically low". I don't see myself testing this by
suspending just before my battery gets critically low, but the next
time that I forget to plug my computer in, I should see something
test-like come out of it.

> What is more insidious is the connection between your battery
> and the laptop itself.  Some can be quite flakey.  E.g., some
> older Sony models dangle the battery pack off the back end
> of the laptop and often lose integrity in one of the two
> catches/latches responsible for holding the battery onto the
> laptop.  If the laptop becomes *electrically* disconnected
> (i.e., it could still be MECHANICALLY connected but the
> electrical connection might be compromised in transit) for
> "long enough", the machine's state could be corrupted.

hmm, I wonder if my lenovo t61 is susceptible to this? I wouldn't go
so far as to say that the battery "dangles" out of the back, but it
does stick out of the back – I have one of those lenovo extended
batteries (9 cell, I believe).

I'll test it a handful of times on the way to work. I'll commute with
it suspended without anything precious open.

Thanks -- Chris