What does Windows error code 782 (ERROR_SYSTEM_POWERSTATE_TRANSITION) mean?

ERROR_SYSTEM_POWERSTATE_TRANSITION

the system is moving between power states.

ERROR_SYSTEM_POWERSTATE_TRANSITION indicates this condition. This is a transient power-management status. Windows has begun a suspend, resume, hibernate, shutdown-related, or device-power transition and cannot safely complete an operation that assumes a stable power state.

Where the result appears

• driver or service operations issued while the machine is entering sleep or hibernation.
• device configuration requests during resume.
• storage and network work submitted after power-down notifications have begun.
• diagnostic traces that expose an internal power transition as a Win32 result.

What to collect

• the source and target system power states shown in the formatted message.
• the last PnP and power IRPs for the affected device stack.
• sleep, resume, and Kernel-Power event timestamps.
• whether the caller received a suspend notification before starting new work.

Handling and recovery

Pause new nonessential operations, let the transition finish, and retry only after the operating system signals a stable running state. Drivers must serialize queues with power callbacks and complete or cancel requests according to the device power contract.

Common misinterpretation

This code is not by itself evidence that sleep or resume failed. It often means the request arrived at an unsafe moment and must be deferred.

References

• Microsoft: System error codes 500–999