Windows Vista forum: Vista won't shut down or hibernate..keeps rebooting

I have a similar problem. I don't believe the "wake up" function on my keyboard works. Here's what happens.

Instead of shutting down, I'm used to hitting the "hibernate" (new keyboard calls it "sleep") key. OK fine. The machine stops computing, the screen goes dark and the lights on my tower go off. Is it sleeping? I have no idea.

I then push the "wakeup" key on my keyboard. Nothing. I have to reboot, not just hit the reset button, but power off my power strip, power on two seconds later, then hit the start button on my tower. And I have no idea what I've done to my registry.

When I do all that, magically the screen restores to the screen I had when I hit the "sleep" key but I don't think the process was as simple as the "sleep" "wakeup" process was meant to be.

Help?

So I did the standard shutdown/reboot. I learned this: There's no "resuming Windows" alert. Just the typical loading icon in which the vetical lines scroll from left to right with the word "Windows" below them. So apparently, the sleep button works, since I get the "resuming Windows" alert when I power back up. I'm thinkin' this screwy power strip shutoff and tower startup is part of the litany required to wake my machine up.

I don't imagine Gates planned this. Maybe I have a bad Wakeup switch on my keyboard? I think so . . .

The problem is outlined in the entries above. But briefly, my new computer will not wake up from the "sleep" or "hibernate" mode without manually powering off the system from my surge protector, then pushing the power button on the computer.

Why doesn't the "wake-up" button on my keyboard work?

Since the OS reports it is "resuming Windows" when I initiate the reboot described in the first paragraph above, I concluded that the machine did in fact hibernate when I hit the sleep button, but the "wake up" button didn't do what it was supposed to do. I'm stickin' with my earlier analysis, the "wake up" button just doesn't work. I'll limp along with the powerdown/power up process for now.

I took my computer in for a one-month tuneup to my computer engineer and discussed the problem I'm having with the sleep mode (see above). He had a solution.

Evidently Vista does not support the "sleep" mode, which is a level of activity just above "hibernate". So the sleep button on my keyboard was just hard-stopping my computer and it resulted in programs such as internet connections to not reboot when I restarted.

Instead, he re-programmed my start button to allow for a hibernate mode. Go to Control Panel, then System and Maintenance, then Power Options, and finally, "Choose what the Power Buttons Do".

Click on the boxes "When I press the power button" and "When I press the sleep button" and choose "hibernate" for both.

This creates an alternative to the hard-reset you ordinarily would have if you pressed the power button when the machine was activated. If you soft-press the button (just tap it lightly and don't hold it down) it will transition into hibernate. Then when you want to reactivate the computer, hit the power button again and you'll be back up in less time and your programs that were displayed when you hibernated will come back up.

This is a much shorter booting process and saves energy. The only downside is every once in awhile you want to do a shutdown to clear the computer ram.