SOLVED: Vista laptop won't resume from sleep/suspend/hibernate, shows blank screen

Really Simple Solution Below!


[Update 9/6/2009: I have today confirmed that the cause of hibernation bug is Disk Cleanup, most likely the option [x] Hibernation File Cleaner checked at the time of Disk Cleanup. Did that and found myself with the original symptom. Repeated the solution, was in good shape. The problem/solution reconfirmed.]


SYMPTOM OF ANNOYANCE

Laptop won't come out of hibernate/suspend/sleep after pressing the wake-up button. Shows a few blinking lights and a blank screen. It would wake up if I wait less than 1 minute after putting it to sleep. It will not wake up if I wait longer. This annoyance happened just about anytime I put my laptop to sleep. Laptop is Acer Aspire 5570z. However, I found that the problem appears on other brands as well. 

POSSIBLE BUT UNSUCCESSFUL SOLUTIONS

So it looked more like the Microsoft Vista support issue. I didn't think of contacting microsoft vista support as my laptop was 1 year out of warranty. Googled all over the web for:

acer 5570 sleep blank screen
acer aspire sleep resume
laptop vista sleep resume blank screen
acer screen blank resume sleep
acer aspire wake blank screen 1 minute

laptop sleep 
vista s3
suspend mode
  

I found suggestions that that could be because of the display driver being outdated. People suggested reinstalling display driver. I tried that. Turns out the display driver at Acer website is actually older than the one I got through Vista Update. Go figure. Replacing the display driver didn't help with the blank screen problem.

Some people suggested putting the laptop to sleep by closing the lid. Tried that. Laptop would still not wake up.

Some people saw the annoyance with the AMD processor. Well mine is Intel. Never mind.

Some suggested setting minimum CPU processor speed back to 100% and disabling screensaver. I did that, didn't work.

Some suggested removing ACPI Lid from the System Devices under Device Management. That "solution" is now preventing my laptop to go to sleep when I close the lid, nothing more.

Note: I resolved The ACPI Lid annoyance later here. Easy but interesting.

Some people had problems with not being able to turn the computer on at all (now that really hurt). Solution to that was to take out the battery and press the ON button for like 60 seconds. Weird!

My annoyance was weird too. Especially because the problem appeared intermittently, not every single time. But it happened frequently and the only thing I could do was to push the power button and reboot. With Vista, that takes forever! Vs. just a few seconds when you put it to sleep or hibernate. Plus, I lost some of my valuable data in running programs and lost the system status. Oh, yes the problem also happened with hibernate. Same thing, intermittent.



SOLUTION, FINALLY 

So what is the solution? I finally found it with a guy named Larry at howtogeek.com: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-hybrid-sleep-mode/
 

My memory of recent activities on vista supports the possibility that by a recent disk clean up I erased or disabled the hibernate file. Great job Microsoft! The solution is to restore the hibernate file, see quote below. The procedure takes about a minute. Restoring the hibernate file worked for me! It is incredible this solution still needs to be invoked in 2009, two years after the problem was found!

Quoting the solution:

 
From Larry @ howtogeek:

Frankly, Vista is just a poor, beta-level OS.


The hybrid sleep feature and the hibernation feature in Windows Vista may become unavailable after you use the Disk Cleanup Tool (or fix hibernation not working)
[updated 12th March 2007 21:03]
This particular problem went round the internal discussions groups – having told people how to turn on hibernation and suggested a KB article on it, Armelle O’Neal told me that is has already been written up in KB Article (928897).
SYMPTOMS
After you use the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows Vista, you may experience the following symptoms:
You cannot see the Hibernate option in Power Options.
When you use the sleep feature, the computer does not recover its settings if power is lost.
CAUSE
This problem occurs when the Disk Cleanup Tool disables the hibernation file. The hibernation file must be enabled to access the hybrid sleep feature and the hibernation feature in Windows Vista.
When the hibernation file is disabled, and the hybrid sleep feature is enabled, a backup of open programs and open files will not be saved to the disk when you use the sleep feature in Windows Vista. Additionally, if the computer loses power while the Windows is in sleep mode, open programs and open files will not be recovered, and any unsaved work will be lost.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem in Windows Vista, run the powercfg -h on command at an Administrative command prompt to enable the hibernate feature and the hybrid sleep feature. To run this command, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, click Run as administrator, type powercfg -h on, and then press ENTER.

DID THE SOLUTION HELP YOU?

Did this solution help you? I want to hear from you! Go ahead and post a comment below and let me know if the solution worked for you!


RELATED POSTS 

Maybe the solution did not help you? It's possible, of course. If you feel that hibernate is not your problem, but suspend and sleep is, here is anoter possible solution: Vista Sleep problem solution #2.

Are you tired of your troubles with Vista? Windows 7, Microsoft's new operating system will make your life simpler.

Do you feel the stress you are putting your laptop through is causing problems with your laptop? 4 ways to protect your valuable computer in style.

100 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was having the problem when i closed my laptop when it was still on when opened it up again it was just a blank screen and wouldnt come out of sleep mode. This solution seems to have worked. Thank you very much

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your post, but didn't seem to work for me. Exact same problem, also and Acer Aspire (tho 5315).
Keep up the good work tho - you're more helpful than Microshite

Matt @ Annoyances-Resolved: Laptop Troubles Resolved said...

Hello, you 2 guys, thank you for your feedback, both of you. Glad the solution seems to have worked for one of you. Question for the Aspire 5315 owner: Does hibernate work for you now after you've followed the directions above? If yes, I have just posted a new solution which could help you further. Here it is: Vista Sleep Problem, Solution #2 Let me know if that worked for you, or describe more details about your current problem. Thanks!

Gordon R said...

My Dell Latitude D600 is sleeping and I can not get it to wae up! tried removing battery trick but still no joy! Help please........

Matt @ Annoyances-Resolved: Laptop Sleep Problem Fixed said...

Gordon, the battery trick is ok. Did you actually try the solution under "RESOLUTION" above? Let us know what exactly happens, button presses, lights, sounds.

Disclosure said...

Gordon: On a second thought, are you able to boot up the machine at all? If not, You need to look into another post: Computer won't boot post There are some great advice and comments about booting up.

Bismillah said...

Hi,
I am one of those who cannot wake the notebok ANYHOW. i have an asusX51R, and previously i could wake it by taking out the battery and waiting for a while. now i left it w/o battery and off current for two days, rebooted like 300 times but there is simply no way to make it active. blank screen, i hear it processing, but it just stays in sleeping mode...
any ideas? :S

Disclosure said...

Bismillah, you sound like you have a boot problem, not sleep problem. There is another post that talks about this. Here: Laptop won't boot problem SOLVED

Anonymous said...

I have a dell laptop and if the scrren is moved the slightest little bit it turns the whole computer off, then i cant get the computer to come back on with the power button, the only way i can get ti to turn on is if i use the touch keys at the top of the keyboard that are supposed to start the dell media direct.... is this the same problem or do i need to keep looking for resolutions?

Anonymous said...

I have an acer laptop and that seeemed to work. Nice job. I also went to power options to make sure once i did the fix, i made sure the option were all on hibernation mode and it really worked. Again, nice job.

Matt @ Annoyances Resolved said...

Anonymous 2, Thank you for your feedback and praise. I really appreciate it. It is good to see that this post was helpful for you! Greetings. Come back later. By the time you come back, there will be many other resolutions to pressing annoyances available ;)

Anonymous 1, No, it is not the same problem. You need to keep looking elsewhere for resolutions. Let us know if you found a good one for you!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for posting all this information!! I have a desktop computer running windows Vista and am FRUSTRATED by the fact that the monitor does not come out of sleep mode. I see that I am not alone, but after reading your comments, I'm not sure which solution am I supposed to use? I read about the (powercfg-h) and something about hybrid sleep and something about hiberanation file at disk cleanup. Can you help me? I'd really be greatful. Thanks!!

Matt @ fixed vista sleep problem said...

Anonymous, long story short, here is what I recommend (the very last part of the OP):

RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem in Windows Vista, run the powercfg -h on command at an Administrative command prompt to enable the hibernate feature and the hybrid sleep feature. To run this command, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.

2. Right-click Command Prompt, click Run as administrator, type powercfg -h on, and then press ENTER.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your help. I did the powercfg -h on, but nothing happened. Should the computer respond to the command in some way? It just moves on to the next line. I tried it last week - computer still is tempermental about sleep. The monitor wakes up occasionally, but it usually fails to respond. I have also set the computer to sleep never, yet I find it sleeping! Any other wonderful ideas? I'd really appreciate any help or feedback. Thanks for your ideas.

Matt|annoyances resolved said...

Okay, thanks for the feedback, anon. Yes, the computer will normally respond by giving you the next command line. These command lines are quite quiet. They'd say if something went wrong usually. Do you see any other difference in the computer behavior? You should set your computer to hibernate instead of suspend. Try that. Also, give me the model of the computer, the operating system, service pack, and describe exactly what happens when you try to bring it up from sleep/hibernate. That way I'm better able to help.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Thanks for replying. I will try to give you as much information as I can. Dell computer inspiron 531s, running windows Vista Home Premium - I think 64 bit?, I don't know what the service pack is - sorry. I also don't know how to set the computer to hibernate rather than suspend.

As far as I know, the computer is otherwise functioning normally. When I put the computer to sleep or if it goes to sleep on its own here is what happens: I return, push the space bar or any other key (I have also tried using the mouse to wake it up) the computer itself fires up - the power light stops blinking and becomes solid and I hear the computer fire up - but the screen stays black. I end up holding down the power button until the machine shuts down, then I use the power button to turn it back on. Next, I get the black Dell screen - on the bottom it says, "resuming windows." It almost always returns directly to my computer screen with any windows I had minimized right there as if the computer was just waking up from sleep. I would be greatful for any ideas you have. Thanks so much for replying to me again.

Disclosure said...

That all looks very normal. What is the main problem now and if you still have the problem, can you reproduce it now and describe it?

Anonymous said...

Main problem is that the computer monitor remains black when I try to wake the computer up from sleep. I can try to reproduce it now, but the description should be the same as I listed above, - unless I shut the computer down using the power button I cannot recover from sleep. Do you want me to try it?

Disclosure said...

Yes try it repeatedly. I found that patience pays: http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2009/10/vista-laptop-not-booting-again.html Take some good notes about what exactly happens and if you really get blank screen always.

Anonymous said...

I'll try it right now.

Anonymous said...

I put the computer to sleep approximately 9:25pm. Attempted to wake it up at 9:34pm. I used the space bar, then the mouse and then mothodically went through every key on the keyboard trying to get a response. Monitor remained BLACK - as if the power wasn't even on - which it was. Computer tower however, responded as usual. After 3 min. of black screen, I held down the power key and shut the computer down manually. At 9:37pm I had the black Dell screen back up, then resuming windows, then the monitor screen switches between black and blue screens until finally at 9:40pm my computer screen was back to where I left it when I asked the computer to sleep. By 9:42 I was able to get back on the internet as the computer was running all it's whatever it runs each time it comes out of a shut down.

How do I set the computer to hibernate rather than suspend? Thanks for your help, were my notes detailed enough?

Disclosure said...

okay, I think you are already using hibernate. I would do check disk for all the disks you have especially system disk c:\ (under windows explorer, right click on c:\ properties then tools, check disk for errors, check both options) you will have to reboot. Do that and report back if you see any changes in the booting process.

Anonymous said...

Please forgive my ignorance - I'm tyring to do what you suggested. I can find windows explorer by using the search option, but I don't see how to get c:\. If I click on windows explorer it opens my documents. If I right click on it I get a list that says: open, open file location, run as administrator, pin to start menu, add to quick luanch, send, copy, cut, delete, properties. Sorry I'm not better with the computer.

Anonymous said...

I have logged everyone else off the computer and I am going to try putting it to sleep again. I want to see if it will respond this time. If I do not come back until tomorrow, you will know it didn't work. I appreciate your help tremendously. If you have a chance to walk me through the disk c: thing I will try it. I messed around with the computer and found something about system disk c:\ - my only options were to clean up only my files or everyone's files. I'm getting close to the thing you were talking about, but I didn't see the options you wanted so I didn't do it. Thanks again for all your help. I hope to hear from you again soon. It is 11pm here despite what the computer says.

Disclosure said...

okay that should be simple: Just follow check disk directions here http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-vista/how-to-use-check-disk-in-windows-vista/
and let me know if you notice anything different once you reboot. Do not put it to sleep this time. You have to reboot/restart the computer in order for it to check disks after you've followed directions above.

Anonymous said...

I followed the directions - thanks for the perfect link!! I did run the disk scan - took at least 2 hours so I think I did it correctly. Then the computer went right to my screen without telling me it found any errors. Hopefully corrected some if it found any? I was watching the initial stages of the scan and it said it found 0 EA records, 0 unindexed files and 0 of something else. I will try putting it to sleep and come back later. Thanks again for all your support!

Kelly S said...

I have been having this trouble for months and rebooting all the time. This simple fix WORKED. I am so happy. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I wish I could say the same as Kelly. I ran the disk scan, restarted the computer then put it to sleep - no change!! I still get the black screen when trying to wake up the computer. Do you have any other ideas? Thanks again for all your help.

Disclosure said...

Kelly, Thanks for your success story! You can use the Bookmark button on the bottom of the post to bookmark this page with Twitter or Facebook.

Anonymous, yes, there are several other posts (some are mentioned in this comment thread) for more ideas. To be sure you don't miss anything, look into the Archive.

Kristi said...

The thread that you sent me Nov. 16th 9:18pm or a different one? I looked back at the link from Nov. 16 (9:18pm) but I didn't see an archive. I did find a link labeled Fix All Vista Errors (ww.PcDocPro.com) is that what I should look at? Sorry I always need clarification. Why oh why couldn't my computer have just responded like Kelly's and others?? Thanks for ALL your help. At least I figured out how to add my name to the postings.

kristi said...

I figured out the thread and archive. I will read as many as I can. Thanks for your help. Feel free to post other ideas if you think of any!

Isidora said...

hi, same problem but in windows 7! should I try your solution or is it not applicable for windows 7? thanks!!!!

Matt|windows 7 not resuming from sleep said...

Isidora, Yes, You should definitely try on Windows 7. Let us know of your success here. I've seen many problems solved here in this blog apply to Win 7.

Anonymous said...

i run win 7 64 biy and when i put my laptop to SLEEP when i want to restore it it restarts, i tried the solution but its not working...can anybody help me?

Anonymous said...

It worked fine to me. Thanks. But when I use Acronis True Image Home 2010 backup, hibernation stops working again. I would like to know if there is a way to put the command powercfg in a shortcut to execute every time I use Acronis True Image. Other solution to me is if Vista can do this command when it is closing to hibernate.
Thanks in advance.
JGoulart

Disclosure said...

Anonymous 1, yes there are other ways you can fix this problem. But first, from what you see and hear, how are your symptoms different from the symptoms described in the original post? Have you changed your default sleep operation to hybernate? You may not have the same problem, so also see other posts in this blog.

Anonymous 2, Great to hear about your success. And yeah, your suggestions probably will work! Let us know how you do with them! Another thing you could do is write to Acronis!

Anonymous said...

i have a dell xps m170 gen2.when i was browsing the web suddenly the screen would go white with shards of gray and freeze.i then have to restart laptop then every thing was fine the same happened again after 30 Min's.i restarted it again then it lasted 5 hrs then the screen froze again.i decided to run diagnostics in set up. every thing passed accept dst failure alarm started to sound.then when i switched laptop back on every thing powered up apart from screen.it seems dead any ideas anybody

Anonymous said...

Anonymous1 :)

Mentor Matt

I tried almost everything in the power manager options including updating the latest drivers.. i didnt spoke about my brightness issue, that i cant increase or lower the light of screen. Im really want to fix this things... i have lenovo g530- 4446-A12

Nicole said...

I have a Sony VAIO laptop running Vista and this appears to have worked! This is the first solution I have tried, so I never tweaked any other settings with the sleep modes, just did the powercfg -h on command and that was it. Before, I had to do a hard reboot to get laptop out of sleep mode, now laptop comes out of sleep mode after I hit the space bar. T H A N K Y O U!

Disclosure said...

Nicole, Thanks for your great testimonial! You can help others by social bookmarking this post. There is a bookmark bar at the bottom of the Original Post. If you bookmark it's also going to help you get back here if you ever need more help !

Anonymous 1, not sure you answered my questions above. Is your laptop set to hibernate instead of sleep? And what exactly do you see and hear as you press the sleep button? And as you then try to awake the laptop. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like my problem but I have Windows XP on an HP Pavillion. completely computer illiterate. followed your directions but it said the command was not in a batch file. Do I need to use something different for XP? Help! thanks! Also I recently ran CC Cleaner, so is that what caused this and if so, how do I run a cleanup without this happening again?

Anonymous said...

Dec 20 10:16 PM ME again. After I posted I saw Nicole's post above and was not sure if I had put a space before the "-h" so I tried again. When I tried to log on as Administrator it requires a password. I have NO idea!! Where would I find out what that is? This is my home computer??? Sorry, told you I am not licensed to drive one of these darn things!!!

Disclosure said...

Hi, As for the password, you'd have to ask the person who first installed the operating system, or who set it up first coming from the manufacturer. Or call the manufacturer, they will be able to help.

Anonymous said...

12/20/09 anon again! I am happy to report that I actually fixed it! Thank you thank you for posting the directions, etc. I thought when I put int he cfg stuff and hit enter it would "do something" as scroll information by or something...so I finally decided to shut the lid and see what happened. This AM the screen came right up! I am pretty darn happy. It is great that people are willing to share their knowledge! Happy New Year. I will do a good deed in your honor!!!! You are all the best!

Disclosure said...

Anon, That is just awesome! You did it! It takes guts sometimes ... to shut the lid and see what happens! From now on, no fear!

Anonymous said...

This is insane! I've been fighting this problem for a while. My HP Presario C700 would hang after the machine was left alone for 20 minutes. I realized after I booted in safe mode that it was a driver or similar causing the problem, not CPU overheating or other hardware.

After a series if tests I found out that it was directly related to stopping the disk while hibernating. If the disk was not allowed to stop then the problem did not exist. On a laptop that is not an option.

After searching both HP and Microsnot and finding nothing I started thread hopping hoping someone had a similar problem.

Lo and behold "everybody" had this Vista problem, not just HP machines. Then I hoppped to your site and found this simple solution (powercfg -h on) with a very plausible reason, disk cleanup.

Absolutely insane that MS does not have this solution on search.microsoft.

Thank you so much for your blog. Now I can sleep again...

Cheers,

Zardoz

Anonymous said...

It didn't work. Legacy drivers are preventing me from hibernating: VgaSave

Matt @ annoyances resolved said...

Zardoz, Thank you very much for your comment and your insight regarding stopping hard drive during hibernation for non-laptops. Glad to see the solution helped with your well being! And your computer's! Stop by any time.

Matt @ annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com said...

Anonymous, What are you planning to do about the legacy drivers?

Erin said...

Hi Matt! I am really at a loss. Am having the problem with my HP Pavilion dv2000 where it won't wake up from sleep mode (selected manually, or by shutting lid). I tried the command prompt you suggested (along with the otherwise mentioned battery pull) and it's still happening. Any other ideas? Thanks SO much!

Erin said...

Just a quick update: After hours of searching online and trying countless 'fixes', I found the one that worked for me. I contact HP via live chat and after a couple of tries, the thing that fixed my problem was to update BIOS. The tech sent me link to download and install and I can now close my lid/put computer to sleep and it will wake up when I want it to. YAY!!

Disclosure said...

Erin, Great! Congratulations! Great job for solving your own problem! Contacting the manufacturer is a great idea if you have a problem. Unlike with the car recalls, computer manufacturers have to be called up for you to get the updates. Thanks for sharing with the blog readers.

Amateur with an Issue said...

My friend pawned her Toshiba laptop because she's broke and too lazy for real work. When she got depressed thinking she'd soon lose it to the pawn shop, I offered to get it out and hang onto it till she could pay me back so there was no interest. Now I think I broke it and I'll have to pay HER. I don't know if this is a similar problem or entirely different. The only times my screen ordinarily goes black is if I turn it off or shut it.
I turned it off and the next day it turned back on: fans whirring, lights flashing, things clicking. . . .then blank screen. Can't make ANYTHING visible, even slightly. Going to attempt all fixes I've read tonight, but wanted to post this in case they don't work so the ball gets rolling and I don't have to wait around for days for a response (not sure how long it normally takes).

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Matt @ Annoyances-Resolved said...

Hi Amateur, Thanks for sharing your story. Since everything else but the picture seems okay, you should try connecting her laptop to an external monitor. Let us know what you find out. Give more details.

Anonymous said...

Hi Matt, after 2 months of smooth working on Windows 7 suddenly my screen(HP550 laptop) couldn't get out of his sleep-mode. I have been working on it a few days and became very desperate. I tried your resolution only with no success. I found out a solution a few might help a bit. I updated my chipset (intel) direct from intel.
Everything seems to work proper since two days.
This could be the answer to a few of your visitors. greeting poffertje

Annoyances Resolved said...

Hi poffertje, Thanks for your tip!

Anonymous said...

Great! that fixed the sleep problem on 2 year old Dell laptop using Vista that begining having problems with not coming out of sleep mode. works fine now, also have the hibernation option that had disappeared from start menu. thanks.

Annoyances Resolved said...

Glad it worked for you! If someone else is in doubt, they should go up to the original post and read it through!

Erin R said...

Thanks for posting these tricks! Unfortunately, neither of your Vista sleep fixes worked for me- but I did learn a lot about adjusting my power settings!

I'm using an HP pavilion laptop, which has up-to-date BIOS and has recently been reformatted by the folks at HP (major unrelated issues). Everything was fine for a couple of weeks, and then the sleep problem began. It happens every time the computer goes to sleep (manually or closing the lid), and the only way to restart is to remove the battery. HP support had me delete and reinstall the ACPI system devices in "device manager" with no luck.

annoyances resolved said...

Erin, Sorry to hear that! If you described your situation in a bit more detail, maybe someone could help. Like whether you are really using hibernation or just suspend? What is the status of your hibernate file c:\hiberfil.sys ? How many tricks from this website did you use and what exactly happens during the "going to sleep" phase and during the attempted "wake up" phase.

Unknown said...

Hey earlier in 2009 I had the same problem where my computer, either when I shut the lid or manually put it in hibernate wouldn't reawaken; it would just have a blank black screen. I tried your solution and it worked wonderfully. Recently my back light went out in my laptop and I couldn't see a damn thing on my screen, so I plugged in my external monitor and set it to be my main monitor for awhile until I could get my laptop fixed. Well I just got my laptop fixed and went back to using it's screen as the main one and not using the external monitor at all. Once again when I shut the lid or put my computer in hibernate it would not re-awake it would just have the same lit blank screen. I tried your trick again, but to no avail it didn't work. It did however peak my curiosity on why this started happening yet again. I looked under my preference settings and found that my laptop screen still registered as screen number 2 even though no other screen was plugged in. I had to go to NVIDIA control panel and just apply my laptop screen as the main screen and it SOLVED the HIBERNATION problem.

Anonymous said...

Worked like a charm!! Thank you for solving this annoyance for me. Cheers!

Blake said...

I have a dell inspiron laptop. the RESOLUTION as you mentioned. my response on the next line was "system does not support hibernation". What should I do now?

Disclosure said...

Jordan! Wonderful, thanks for letting us know! You have helped others who might get into the same issue!

Anonymous, thanks for your report! Cheers back!

Blake, if the system does not support hibernation, then there is nothing you can do that I know of unless you want to really get your hands dirty. Some netbooks I came across simply do not support hibernation (ASUS netbook Eee is one example I had my hands on). However, how badly do you really need hibernation if your battery life is 10 hours and you can use SLEEP (or suspend). Which could probably last 100s of hours..... let me know what you decide to do.

Annoyances-Resolved

Anonymous said...

I don't have hibernate, I disabled/deleted it when I first got my computer. I've always used sleep. However, a few weeks ago I used CCleaner to clean up my laptop (I think this was the cause) and sleep mode hasn't worked since. Once it's in sleep mode, it won't come out of it unless I take out the battery and unplug it. Even holding down the power buttons doesn't work. I've tried your solution and it says that it's an invalid command. I press all the buttons but there is no reaction at all. It's like its off except for the power button being on. Any idea on how to get my sleep mode back to normal?

Sy

SusieQ said...

Matt, you are my new hero!! I've had this annoying problem for several months (six or more) and have tried numerous failed fixes. I am taking the bar exam at the end of the month and was desperate to solve this, as there are three 2 1/2 hour exam sessions each day with short breaks in between. I don't want to have to shut down each time I finish a session, as I don't know how much time I'll have to get set back up. I ran your fix, set all my power management options to "hibernate," and so far, so great!! You are a genius. I'm sharing this on my facebook!

Disclosure said...

SusieQ, thanks for your glowing testimonial! And thanks for sharing on FB! God luck with all your exams!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I tried the powercfg -h under admin cmd. But the prompt returns "invalid parameter". this stupid sleep problem is annoying!

Disclosure said...

Anonymous, very strange! What operating system are you using? powercfg is quite a standard program on Vista, Win7 and I believe XP as well.

Be sure to check that your powercfg executable is not corrupted.

Let us know what else you tried.

Anonymous said...

OS = vista home prem 32 bit.

i was able to run powercfg /? to access the command list. but powercfg -h nor powercfg -hibernate works.

Disclosure said...

Ok Anonymous, Sorry for the confusion, but the actual command is "powercfg -h on" (remove the apostrophes). Check the original post to make sure, and a few other comments, for instance one on Nov 7, 2009.

That should make a difference! Let us know!

Anonymous said...

yes that worked! the "on" is exactly the line i was missing! thank you!!!!!!!

Russ said...

Did not work for me. Strange beast this is. Happened after I watch a movie on the computer.

Computer works fine, the only problem is that I have a black screen. My saving grace is that if I press the sleep button on the Vaio , I see the screen for about 4 seconds before it goes black again. Will let you if I find some magic.

Disclosure said...

Anonymous, great! The powercfg error message you reported earlier could be more helpful too.

Russ, If you added more information on what "did not work for you" (describe the exact process you went through) and what "happened" (describe the exact sequence of events using simple facts of what you did, what you saw, what you heard etc.) then we could perhaps help!

thomsk said...

hi, i have a hp dv9700, and i am getting the issue of my laptop not resuming from sleep mode- it goes to sleep fine, but no matter what i press it will not turn back on. i have had to resort to taking out the battery and restarting from scratch, which is a pain.
also when it starts up i get a screen with a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner of the screen which stays for about 5 mins and then it starts up normally again.
finally, i tried your fix ( i had been using cleanup) and the hibenate option came up immediately after, but dissapeared the next time i tried to find it, and i never got the chance to test if it works?

can you tell me how to fix the sleep startup, the normal startup and the hibernate mode?

Disclosure said...

Well, the good next step would be to see if you can get the hibernate option again and if you can get the system to get in and out of hibernate. Let us know how that goes. Just repeat what you did before and report back.

thomsk said...

hi again,

i managed to get the computer to come in and then out of hibernate sucsessfully, but the hibernate option is only avaliable some of the time, and the computer has to be restarted to make the option appear, an option which only works some of the time...

is there something i can do to keep the option avaliable the whole time?

Disclosure said...

I'm just guessing something is deleting your hibernate file. Let's do an experiment. Bring it in and out of hibernate several times. Can you go up to 5x? How many times can you go out of hibernate before the option disappears?

The other thing to do would be to check the free disk space on your C: drive. Provide Total and Free when you write back.

Thomsk said...

hi again,

i can only come out of hibernate once, and when i do so the option disappears. the hibernate option doesnt seem to appear very often, once a week maybe. there is 14.1gb free (of 137gb) on the hard drive.

any ideas?

Disclosure said...

Thomsk, no further ideas. You seem to have sufficient disk space for the hibernate file assuming your RAM is much less than 14 gb.

This link may have a possible solution or two for your problem : http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/66696-sleep-hibernation-modes.html

Let us know what you found out. Thanks!

laptopi said...

A laptop is kind of a desktop computer and a in-built UPS. It can be charged with battery and it will stay on so long as the battery has charge. So, if you act wisely, and keep your laptop charged, you will never have the problem on not being able to work on your laptop because the lights have gone.

Anonymous said...

Seems to have worked for me. When my Vista desk top was put to sleep it wouldn't wake. Seems to be OK now - thanks

Disclosure said...

Anon, thanks for your notice! Glad it worked, come back with any other annoyances.

Anonymous said...

Okay this worked for my SLEEP function, now I can put my computer to Sleep and it comes right out of it perfectly. But when I chose the HIBERNATE option for when I close the lid, it Hibernated but then when I tryed to resume using my computer out of Hibernation it told me:
Your computer can't come out of hibernation.
Status: 0xc000009a
Info: A fatal error occurred processing the restoration data.
File: \hiberfil.sys

Thanks for any help you can lend my way.

Disclosure said...

Anon, This is really weird as the solution above mainly helped for HIBERNATE, at least for me!

Well, glad you are all set with SLEEP!

Looks like something is awry with your hiberfil.sys file.

Is it on your C:\ disk? Open C:] disk properties, hit "Clean Up" and choose to delete the file (notice how large it is).

Then hibernate again and report back.

Looking to find out more.

Anonymous said...

One of the worst things Microsoft has done is to make this Vista OS. I knew there were thousands of complaints from the end users. I feel now am happy with windows 7..consumes a bit of memory more then XP!


Blank Resume Format

Disclosure said...

Chandra, I am not so sure I agree with you. I have absolutely no problems with Windows Vista for well over a year now.

Do you have any specific experience using Vista that made it less useful for YOU?

Any specific difference between Win 7 and Vista that made YOUR life easier with Win 7?

Anonymous said...

Does windows 7 eliminate this issue? I might just go buy that

Disclosure said...

Anon, no, windows 7 doesn't eliminate the issue of hibernation failing, see below....

See Nov 29, 2009 comment:
Isidora said...

hi, same problem but in windows 7! should I try your solution or is it not applicable for windows 7? thanks!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi! Great post, but...
As you said "Some people had problems with not being able to turn the computer on at all", I'm one of those unlucky few(?). I was working on my Vaio VGN-NR31, using the battery only (not power cord) and when I saw that it was running low (not "dangerously" low, but quite low), I pressed the power button(which in vaios puts the PC to sleep/hibernation, not sure). After 5 min. I connected the laptop to the power cord to continue my work, but the laptop wouldn't wake up! So I turned it off (damn lost that paperwork) and on again only to see that it couldn't boot. Now, when I turn it on, the power supply (green) light is on, so is the orange if battery is connected, the CD drive sounds like working, so is the fan (I think). But the monitor is completely blank (like it is when the PC is off) and the PC doesn't responde at all. I tried taking off the battery and the above power button for 60sec. method too but nothing worked. I remember doing a disk cleanup recently, but I sure had done before and no sleep/boot up problems arose. What can I really do, since the PC doesn't boot at all? Please help me!

Disclosure said...

If the monitor is completely blank, the first thing to do would be to connect a spare monitor, see if something comes up.

Anonymous said...

Hello
Dell XPS 1530 Win7 64 bit went to hybernation and cant wakeup. Power button for 10, 60 more seconds - no luck. Lid open/close, leaving without power cord/battery for few days - no luck.
bios setting to boot from hdd only...
other ram dimm set test - no luck..
system cd accepted when in hybernation?, spins, no eject- stuck (slot tray)-well I've tried (despite bios setting)
other display connected - blank, but doesnt show no signal message...
ANY SUGGESTIONS HIGHLY APPRECIATED. Thanks

Justin said...

Your post solved the problem for me. Just wanted to say thanks!

williamjacobs said...

Son of a gun.
This solution fixed my Windows XP too.

I went into START > Program Files > Accessories > Disk Cleanup
Unchecked everything.
Closed Disk Cleanup and re-opened it, to verify everything was still unchecked.
Closed Disk Cleanup.
Closed the lid.

Normal sleep / standby mode ensued.


Wow, what a WEIRD bug.


Restoring hibernate in WinXP may be possible too, but have not tried. We typically disable hibernate because it interfered with our encryption software.

Disclosure said...

Wow, it worked in XP too, huh? That is called progress.

Folks, follow this blog above to keep up with more wonders from the Windows world.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you - my boss was going spare over this! I think you just saved my job!!! :)))))

Disclosure said...

Always glad to be of service ;)

Anonymous said...

How can i applied the resolution if the laptop doesn't turn on..

Unknown said...

Probably would help, but the screen on my Dell XPS M1530 just won't turn on. Machine powers up, fans running (though it seems quieter and duller than before), but screen is just off. Not black, off. I've been thinking it might be the GPU, cos MSI Afterburner recorded the temperature of it being at 98 degrees sometimes

Post a Comment