Dell Inspiration 6400 locks up while coming out of hibernation

[A Bad Day]

OS: Windows xp 32-bit Home Edition, SP3
RAM: 4 GB
CPU: Core 2 Duo T7200

I have not made any modification to the laptop, hardware or software, for the past three months. I've used Hibernation extensively for two years and this is the first time it locked up.

I get to the "Resuming Windows" screen, and it consistently locks up at a certain point of loading. None of the keyboard buttons work, including F8 which said, "For troubleshooting and advanced startup options for Windows".

Turning off the laptop and turning it back on, didn't help, including force shutdown. The laptop doesn't have a restart button.

 

[A Bad Day]

I managed to cancel the hibernate by pressing F8 fast enough. However, each time I put the laptop to hibernate, it would keep repeating the lockup.

What is causing the hibernate file(s) to be corrupted?