Laptop troubleshooting forum: Help! My laptop goes to sleep and won't wake up, unless it feels like it.

Personally, I do NOT believe it's a software problem. If you have removed ALL power from the computer, then there is NO LONGER any interruption by software/OS.
This must be some sort of hardware problem, and I'd be willing to bet it's either a connection problem in the battery compartment, or some other power related problem.
Probably when you are beating the computer up to get it going, is when you somehow create a connection again, and so you are able to get up and running again.

I really don't think it has anything to do with sleep settings etc., BUT the fact that you have Vista is a good reason to at least update your OS to 7 or 8 at some point soon.

Have you ever spilled any liquid on the keyboard or power button? Any buttons that are sticking, could be causing you not to properly start the computer as well.
Perhaps your power button is sticking to the point that you have the problem you are having.

Again, I really think it's unlikely to be any of the sleep settings if you've taken power away for long periods of time, because it appears that the computer won't even power on, or hard drive spin-up to get to the Hibernation/Sleep files on the drive.

Sorry for the separate posts, there's no way to edit them together! And these are thoughts that have come to mind as I've considered past problems I've had.

I'd like to repeat, Get Rid Of Vista!!!!!!

If the power supply was removed and the battery removed for a while, it's possible that a cold boot is the result.

With newer computers it's hard to know for sure whether taking ALL power from the unit would force a fresh start.
In the OP's case, it seems that no amount of effort will get it started, which to me suggests hardware anyways.

The message was directed to the OP. None of the comments were directed at your comment! I noticed it after posting and c|net does not allow editing or deleting a post, making it hard to correct anything.

use one of the linux discs provided by some magazines, operate as live and give the hard disc a complete cleanup and then a machine specific reinstall of its own operating system, by my own experience worked. it was a sleepy hp, grats Frank in New Zealand

First, there are several different sleep modes. I won't go into them here, but I'd suggest looking up "Hibernate" and "Standby" and "Power Options" to make sure that YOU understand what the differences are. Since you have VISTA, Ill try to work with that.

First, make sure that you are completely up-to-date on your Vista patches. Ss some will say, consider a different OS such as Windows 7, Windows 8 or Linux. Next, scan your computer, usually by looking at your control panel "Add/Remove Programs" section and see if you have any power control software. This includes APC, Tripplite, Dell or some other software that you may think is either power-oriented or maybe laptop-specific software (I admit I didn't check: this is a laptop correct?). If you have anything suspect, please make sure you have the latest versions and that you don't have more than one piece of software dealing with your power that can sleep or shutdown your system. They could interfere with each other.

Now, lets look at settings. When you cold boot (power-on) the system, there is usually a key that you can hit that will put you into "Setup". Find out what that is and go into setup. Look through ALL of the settings and see if there is something power-related, such as "Power Options".

So, what options do you need? First, there are usually two option sets: One for if you are plugged into wall power with either a powercord/adapter or a docking station. The other set of settings will be for when you are running "On battery". By the way, if you use a UPS, do you realize that, for a laptop, you already have a built-in UPS? It's called the battery. If your power goes out, the battery in the laptop will continue to hold power on.

Here are some recommendations:

Use a power scheme or custom scheme that does not shut down anything as long as you are plugged into wall power. The answer to what time to shut down things should be NEVER. There is no reason to. If you worry about your screen or you are really interested in saving electricity, you can always use a screensaver. Or just do a proper shutdown if you are going to be away for awhile. That should cover the mode when you are plugged into the wall power.

For when you run on battery as away from the power cord, you have a little bit of discretion as you might want to save your battery say, on an airline flight. However, you can always shut down as soon as you stop using the machine. One thing I would NEVER do is to shut down the hard disk(s). I just won't do that. Sometimes software just does not want to wait for disks to spin back up.

So, where do you need to make these changes or to check the settings? First, as I said, go into the computers "setup" screen when you boot and look for "power options" and check in there.

After you get into Vista, go to your control panel and look for power options there. Make sure the settings are as you wanted them.

Next, go into your display properties and make sure you visit the screensaver tab. Don't have the screen saver kick on too quickly. Also, under screen saver there should/may be "power options" there to. Make sure you confidently make sure everything is in sync.

As DXJANIS said, change your setting to not put the laptop in sleep mode when you close the lid.

Finally, remember that when you do go into a sleep mode, it sometimes takes awhile to wake up (especially if your disks are not spinning). While some sleep modes can wake the laptop when you hit the "enter" key, many sleep modes require you to push your power button momentarily. If you hold too long, your machine will instantly shut down. If you need to do this, you will probably be looking at a couple of minutes for the drive to load up and for the image to go back into memory.

Another thing to verify is that your system clock is working. For a few times, make sure that the windows time is correct. A thing you might want to replace is the "CMOS battery". It is usually a small bettery on the mother board. Check your system documentation to see if you have one and how to replace it.

Finally, you may want to test the main battery on a laptop. Maybe it is not holding a charge or if your charger is not working. If all of your power opions say to NEVER turn things off when plugged into the wall and things are turning themselves off, maybe the system is not registering that the charger is indeed working.

Good luck!

I concurred with Greg, Hibernate, sleep mode has always been an issue since introduce in XP, Unless you use the battery it is a wasted function. Now MS has fixed it mostly by the time W7 came out but I have notice the same problem with "force sleep" when shutting the lid on my 1 month old Lenovo. Start the machine in the morning or whenever and when you know you will not use it for a few hours ..power it down, shutdown....othertimes use the screen saver or shut off your screen.

The battery trick has been posted millions of times on the net.. Oh and when you configure energy saver, do not connfigure it for when plug it to wall.

Hello Carlie,

It appears to me that you may end up having a hardware problem with one of the Laptop components or even the part that connects and controls both the power cord and battery ( Start and Shutdown button as well ).

I am hopping not, it's also possible that your hirbernate file could be corrupted. The hibernate file is a way for Windows to maintain the most usable applications and maybe files that your are working with and they are store on a certain part of the hard drive. Please remember that - it's just a copy of what you where using - but the problems is that having the hibernate enable, and you put the Laptop to sleep, some applications misbehave, and they try to load many of their own files again, even though Windows save them in the hiberfil space allocated for hibernate.

When these applicaitions try to load part of their own program for the second time, windows goes into errors since windows already know that those programs services are already store in the hiberfil allocation.

I am going to give you 2 choices, in the hope that one of them could fix your problems.

1- Turning the hibernate file completely off.
For this purspose, please make sure you have all applications, Gadgets closed.
Click on the Start Orb.
When the list opens - at the bottom is the search box - please type -- COMMAND PROMPT.
The command prompts is a block icon.
Mouse over and put the pointer on top of it.
Right click it - a menu will appear - Choose - Run as Administrator.

Now you have the Command Prompt Window which is a DOS Window.

Type the Following in lower case or upper case and press ENTER.

powercfg -h off

This command will clear the entire hiberfill section on the hard drive allocated by windows. You just turning it off not loosing anything.

When you press Enter, you will just get another prompt reading C:\Windows\System32>

That means that you executed the command correctly.

Type Exit - The DOS window will disappear.

Please RE-START your Laptop from the Start Menu.

If the error, was happenning due to a Corrupted Hiberfill file, then you should be able to return to the desktop.
If everything is ok so far, look for the battery icon on the right side near the time and date.
Click the Battery Icon 1 time, a menu will appear - choose the label:
More power options.

In the new windows that opens, every choice presented to you, will no longer have the choice to put the Laptop in hibernate mode. It would be just sleep, Shutdown or Do Nothing.

From here, make your choices for what happens when you close the lid, press the power button, or press the sleep button.

After you choose, if you select put the computer to sleep when pressing the power button, then test it to see if it now works.

I DON'T RECOMMEND - that you turn the hybernate mode back on - but if you want to, all you have to do is repeat the steps above to get to the Command Prompt and type - powercfg -h on and press enter.

2 - Microsfot has a fix it page that fix some issues automatically by you running the Fix it for me automatically.
Here i am giving you - First the page to the fix it for power issues, and second the MAIN Fix it Solution Center.

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/windows_battery_power_settings/

http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/

If you would like, you may try to run the Fix it for me Automatically first ---- if you feel unconfortable about my first step instructions.

In either case, since I beta tested Windows Vista and 7, I would recommend to all that you turn off the hibernate, it does nothing but take space in your hard drive and causes people to think that is Vista or 7 problems, when in deed most of the issues relating to hibernation are due to misbehaving applications in wanting to load its associated more then once.

You still have the choice to put the computer to sleep, and by now Vista loads fast from sleep and Win 7 even faster. So you loose nothing but gain the opportunity to wake from sleep without the corrupted hibernate file.

At the end, if neither of these steps help you, it may end up being hardware related.

Good Luck.
Geo

Many people have software problems that cause computers to not wake up when using sleep or hibernate mode. It is very common. That is why I never use those features.

I spent the better part of a year beating my head on the wall because my desktop kept going to sleep at random intervals, and sometimes when I would wake it up, it would drop right back off, sometimes before it even finished waking up.

I finally figured out that my "sleep" key was stuck. I didn't even know I HAD a sleep key! New keyboard, computer is all better. Is your power button sticking?

Hi,
Your problem could be a failing component in the power supply circuit; does it happen after a full shutdown or only when you've let the pc go to sleep ? If it's failing to power-up from scratch then all this talk of windows and drivers is a waste of time.
Assuming we're looking for a software issue:
Sleep & wakeup rely on correct operation of the bios and driver software for the components in the laptop. It's well worth checking for updates at the Dell website (go to support, drivers & downloads, & then "choose from a list" and select your model. )
I had a look and there's a bios update dated april 2010 which might be worth trying.
Another thing that comes to mind: have you checked Windows Update, particularly to ensure that you have the latest Vista service pack ?

If those don't help I would consider a fresh install of windows+drivers, or a factory restore as detailed in an earlier post..

This is a good suggestion. I had a lap top that was hot enough to cause the fan to race up and down in speed. I determined which was the intake and exit vents on the unit and blew air into the intake and put a vacum on the exit vent. It is now running fine.

have you tried changing the power cord it may work