So all of a sudden sleep doesn't work?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SwampYankee
  • Start date Start date
S

SwampYankee

Greetings,
Vista Business edition on a Dell Inspiron. No problems for 6 months. All of a sudden
sleep does not work. I press the sleep button, the screen goes dark, some disk activity and
then the laptop remains running with sporadic disk activity. Never does go to sleep. this is
a considerable pain in the butt since I now have to shut the laptop down every time I want to
put it in my bag.
I didn't change anything, any idea how to start tracking this down?
thanks
 
I'd recommend that you backup your data and always store your data on your
HD in a seperate partition from the Windows folder.

My computer crashed due to a sleep error and I'm faced with the prospect of
losing all my data.
 
Best to just power down the computer and switch it off.

Don't use sleep or any of the power saving modes.

It seems quite a lot of other users are also experiencing the same problem.

My system is an Asus notebook with Intel Core Duo, Nvidia 8800GTS graphics
card, 2gig ram and 200 gig hd etc.. It works fine- except that it won't wake
up from sleep when it goes to sleep - despite doing all the (graphic card
etc..) updates etc..

Its most likely a problem with the Nvidia graphics card as other users who
have non-Nvidia cards apparently don't have the same problem. Do you have a
Nvidia graphics card?

Best thing to do at the moment is to just switch it off.
 
Have you turned on any sharing options in any media programs ? Are any files
being shared on the network? Are the power options set to maximum
performance (see multimedia settings) ?
These conditions will prevent the computer from powering down / sleeping.

Michael
Vista Home premium
 
Nvidia
Click to expand...
Nvidia it is. It seems these things just happen with computers. Something that was working
one day still works, but works less well. I'm going to try reinstalling the driver and see
if that helps. Sometimes if I turned of the wireless first it would sleep but now that makes
no difference. I'll try reinstalling that driver to. As usual this means it's probably just
a matter of time until I have to do a format and reinstall. I hate doing that because
everything is "just right" now.
 
I'd recommend that you backup your data and always store your data on your
HD in a seperate partition from the Windows folder.

My computer crashed due to a sleep error and I'm faced with the prospect of
losing all my data.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty good about backups. I back up my ipod weekly too. Which felt great when it died
yesterday after a few years. Replaced and resored in the same day. I love when backups
work!
Anyway, if I do have a hard crash or do have to reformat do I have to "deactivate" Vista and
Office through Microsoft? Since they are activated won't the reactivation fail?
thanks
 
Nvidia it is. It seems these things just happen with computers. Something that was working
one day still works, but works less well. I'm going to try reinstalling the driver and see
if that helps. Sometimes if I turned of the wireless first it would sleep but now that makes
no difference. I'll try reinstalling that driver to. As usual this means it's probably just
a matter of time until I have to do a format and reinstall. I hate doing that because
everything is "just right" now.
Click to expand...
OK, found it! The problem was that the "media sharing" was turned on in Windows Media
player. Thanks to the group for all the helpfull sugesstions.
 
Believe you will find many posts about Vista sleep issues. I purchased a
new Acer PC in March. The sleep mode worked for a while, but after a few
updates it no longer works, there have been numerous errors but most
frequent is that it will not recover and must be manually restarted.
Members of my PC club are also having same problem with other brands.. PC
manufacturer has been unable to correct problem. MS blames it on video
card, video card mfgr blames it on MS, neither one has offered a solution!!

Suggest you turn off the sleep mode and hope that Vista gets fixed soon.
 
Interesting and timely comment for me. New computer,Dell Inspiron, and I'm
having an issue with Sleep. Here is what I learned troubleshooting it. As
long as I am connected to the Internet the computer will go into sleep and
then within a few minutes wake up. By disconnecting or disabling my
internet connection sleep works just fine. when I first got it I was
connected via a wireless connection and did not have any problems with the
sleep function--don't know if that is still true because I moved the
computer it's permenent location and did not go back to wireless. I think
that I will try it just to see if it is the Modem activity that is causing
the wake-up problem. Also, I did update the Vidieo card with it's latest
drivers with no happiness. be very interested if anyone comes up with a
solution. Based on my experience I'm almost inclined to blame the Modem
since sleep mode is just fine without the ethernet cable hooked up.
MLD
 
Your system is probably set to 'wake on LAN activity'. Turn that feature off
by:

run 'device manager'
select 'network adapter'
right click on (one of) the network card
select properties
select the 'Power Management Tab'
the phrasing in this window will vary by manufacturer but in general you
want to enable the computer to turn off the device, and you want to disable
anything that says wake on activity or magic packet.

Michael
Vista Home premium
 
Thanks for your comments--I was just going to post essentially the same
thing. Found some comments elsewhere regarding the network adapter having
the capability to wake up the computer. I essentially folowed the same
steps as you outlined in your comments. It was just what the doctor
ordered--worked just fine---put the computer in sleep and let it sit for
about 10 min. without it coming out of sleep as compared to about a minute
or so. Just wanted to let you know that you hit the nail right on the
head---thanks again. Interesting enough, the Dell Tech Support Rep I spoke
to didn't know how to resolve the problem.
BTW, I also learned that the optical mouse can also cause the same problem
and "mouse" in devise manager >properites>.power managemt--has a check box
for "allowing the mouse to wake up the computer". Hope this helps others.

MLD
 
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