SOLVED: Windows Vista Sleep Problem, Laptop Not Waking Up

ANNOYANCE: WINDOWS VISTA LAPTOP NOT WAKING UP FROM SLEEP PROPERLY

Are you puzzled by Your Microsoft Widows Vista laptop not getting back from the sleep mode? Don't you hate it when you need to reboot your laptop and lose all your settings and data in the process? You are not alone, I had the problem with Vista sleep, and so do many folks I met online. Read on, this could solve your problem of Vista not coming back from sleep.

PREVIOUSLY SOLVED: LAPTOP HIBERNATE PROBLEM

A few weeks ago I showed you how to fix a Windows Vista Sleep or, better, Hibernate Problem. The problem stemmed from the disabled hibernate file in Vista. Indeed, during the last month or so now, I had no problems with Windows Vista hibernate. However, as I also pointed out, Vista Sleep proper (not Hibernate) still failed from time to time.

WHY MIGHT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH WINDOWS VISTA LAPTOP SLEEP

Here is my theory: Windows Vista Sleep is a combination of Suspend into memory and then, if allowed, Hibernate after a while. Microsoft calls this combination Hybrid Sleep. It is very useful for a number of reasons. Since hibernate part of hybrid sleep now works after the fix, the suspend part comes into question. I realized recently that Windows Vista suspend power requirement is not insignificant. That is opposite to hibernate which takes no power at all. Some claim that suspend could last 60 hours on a full battery. Others report maybe just 7 hours. What if your battery is not new? What if your battery is really really used up? What if your laptop runs out of juice before hibernate kicks in? If it does, you will come back to your laptop, press the "On" button, and you will not be able to recover, ending up with a lights on and blank screen. This is what a lot of people find.

SOLUTION FOR WINDOWS VISTA SLEEP PROBLEM: TIME HIBERNATE PROPERLY

I've played around with this theory and found it makes a lot of sense. So based on this theory, here is my solution #2 to the problem of Vista not waking up properly from sleep. Again, I'm assuming that your Vista Hibernate is already working fine. If not, go back and fix Vista Hibernate first following these directions.

To fix Sleep proper, you want to make sure that Hibernate kicks in on time. You know approximately how long your laptop lasts on battery. I would give it about that much time at most before I'd kick it into hibernate. You can accomplish this easily through Windows Vista Power Settings.

SETTING WINDOWS VISTA POWER SETTINGS RIGHT

Let's set Hibernate to kick in 60 minutes after sleep. If your battery lasts less than an hour, make the appropriate setting less than 60 minutes. Here's how:

In Vista go to Start/Control Panel/Mobile PC/Power Options/. Under your current selection of plan, click on Change Plan Settings/Change Advanced Settings. Then select Allow Hybrid Sleep ON (on battery). Second, set Hibernate (on battery) to 60 minutes. If your battery only lasts 10 minutes, set this to 10 minutes or maybe even just 4 minutes.

Save all settings and close all Power Options windows. That is it. You're done. Your laptop will now come back from sleep alright because it will never run out of juice during sleep. That is, it will kick into Hibernate before running out of juice.

MY PROBLEM SOLVED. WHAT ABOUT YOURS?

This solved my laptop's sleep problem. What about you? Have you been able to follow advice above? Has that helped you not lose data after putting your laptop to sleep? Let me know. Just leave a comment below, thanks!

UPCOMING RELATED ISSUES

Other issues: As I was playing around with the sleep and hibernate options, I got a glimpse of a possible solution to another related problem some people were reporting in the help forums. They found their Vista laptop came awake during sleep repeatedly and they lost all data and found a depleted battery when they returned back to their laptop. If you would like to find a solution to that problem let me know and I will investigate further. If the problem is happening with your laptop, please leave me as much information as you can in the comment below. Or, hit "Follow through Google Friend Connect" on the side.