Sleep Problem -- Not Quite What Others Are Experiencing

My problem with Vista's "sleep" mode continues even after I disable "sleep"
mode. My Gateway MX8711 with Vista Home Premium and sleep mode ran fine
until late June, when I think a Windows Update was applied. The computer
refused to come back from sleep mode, and I had to do a hard reboot. Very
annoying.

To try to remedy this, I disabled all sleep features, set all "turn off
monitor after" and "turn off hard drive after" to never, even disabled the
screen saver. Now, if I walk away from the computer for more than twenty
minutes and come back, all of my programs are still open on the screen and
the mouse moves, but the moment I click on anything (a button, window,
Minimize), that program stops responding. I can switch to another program on
the task bar, but then that one will stop working after a single click. No
new programs can be started, Start Menu won't come up, CTRL+ALT+DEL does
nothing, and eventually I have to hard-restart the whole computer (even
though the mouse still moves -- no blue screen of death).

I tried disabling the anti-virus, even running a little program that
"presses the Shift key" every five minutes to try to keep the computer alive
-- no help. The problem occurs on both battery and AC power.

I can "hibernate" the computer, and it will come back fine.

If I am actively working on the computer, there's no problem, but if I leave
it alone for twenty minutes, then I have this "pseudo-sleep" crash. And no,
the cat isn't jumping on any keys in my absence!

Restart your computer, then download and install the
following new updates:

An update is available that improves the compatibility
and reliability of Windows Vista:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938194

An update is available that improves the performance
and reliability of Windows Vista:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938979

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Timothy W." wrote:

My problem with Vista's "sleep" mode continues even after I disable "sleep"
mode. My Gateway MX8711 with Vista Home Premium and sleep mode ran fine
until late June, when I think a Windows Update was applied. The computer
refused to come back from sleep mode, and I had to do a hard reboot. Very
annoying.

To try to remedy this, I disabled all sleep features, set all "turn off
monitor after" and "turn off hard drive after" to never, even disabled the
screen saver. Now, if I walk away from the computer for more than twenty
minutes and come back, all of my programs are still open on the screen and
the mouse moves, but the moment I click on anything (a button, window,
Minimize), that program stops responding. I can switch to another program on
the task bar, but then that one will stop working after a single click. No
new programs can be started, Start Menu won't come up, CTRL+ALT+DEL does
nothing, and eventually I have to hard-restart the whole computer (even
though the mouse still moves -- no blue screen of death).

I tried disabling the anti-virus, even running a little program that
"presses the Shift key" every five minutes to try to keep the computer alive
-- no help. The problem occurs on both battery and AC power.

I can "hibernate" the computer, and it will come back fine.

If I am actively working on the computer, there's no problem, but if I leave
it alone for twenty minutes, then I have this "pseudo-sleep" crash. And no,
the cat isn't jumping on any keys in my absence!

Thanks, Carey, but even after I installed the updates as instructed, I'm
still experiencing the problem. All these restarts can't be good for the
hard drive!

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

> Restart your computer, then download and install the
> following new updates:
>
> An update is available that improves the compatibility
> and reliability of Windows Vista:
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938194
>
> An update is available that improves the performance
> and reliability of Windows Vista:
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938979
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Shell/User
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Timothy W." wrote:
>
> My problem with Vista's "sleep" mode continues even after I disable "sleep"
> mode. My Gateway MX8711 with Vista Home Premium and sleep mode ran fine
> until late June, when I think a Windows Update was applied. The computer
> refused to come back from sleep mode, and I had to do a hard reboot. Very
> annoying.
>
> To try to remedy this, I disabled all sleep features, set all "turn off
> monitor after" and "turn off hard drive after" to never, even disabled the
> screen saver. Now, if I walk away from the computer for more than twenty
> minutes and come back, all of my programs are still open on the screen and
> the mouse moves, but the moment I click on anything (a button, window,
> Minimize), that program stops responding. I can switch to another program on
> the task bar, but then that one will stop working after a single click. No
> new programs can be started, Start Menu won't come up, CTRL+ALT+DEL does
> nothing, and eventually I have to hard-restart the whole computer (even
> though the mouse still moves -- no blue screen of death).
>
> I tried disabling the anti-virus, even running a little program that
> "presses the Shift key" every five minutes to try to keep the computer alive
> -- no help. The problem occurs on both battery and AC power.
>
> I can "hibernate" the computer, and it will come back fine.
>
> If I am actively working on the computer, there's no problem, but if I leave
> it alone for twenty minutes, then I have this "pseudo-sleep" crash. And no,
> the cat isn't jumping on any keys in my absence!

If its any consulation, I am experiencing the same exact problems as you but
unfortunately do not have a solution for you. After reading about vista
issues from several diffrent sources it seems that it is definitely and os
issue and not caused by any drivers etc. I am seriously debating returning
this pc and going back to xp...good luck!

"Timothy W." wrote:

> Thanks, Carey, but even after I installed the updates as instructed, I'm
> still experiencing the problem. All these restarts can't be good for the
> hard drive!
>
> "Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:
>
> > Restart your computer, then download and install the
> > following new updates:
> >
> > An update is available that improves the compatibility
> > and reliability of Windows Vista:
> > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938194
> >
> > An update is available that improves the performance
> > and reliability of Windows Vista:
> > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938979
> >
> > --
> > Carey Frisch
> > Microsoft MVP
> > Windows Shell/User
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > "Timothy W." wrote:
> >
> > My problem with Vista's "sleep" mode continues even after I disable "sleep"
> > mode. My Gateway MX8711 with Vista Home Premium and sleep mode ran fine
> > until late June, when I think a Windows Update was applied. The computer
> > refused to come back from sleep mode, and I had to do a hard reboot. Very
> > annoying.
> >
> > To try to remedy this, I disabled all sleep features, set all "turn off
> > monitor after" and "turn off hard drive after" to never, even disabled the
> > screen saver. Now, if I walk away from the computer for more than twenty
> > minutes and come back, all of my programs are still open on the screen and
> > the mouse moves, but the moment I click on anything (a button, window,
> > Minimize), that program stops responding. I can switch to another program on
> > the task bar, but then that one will stop working after a single click. No
> > new programs can be started, Start Menu won't come up, CTRL+ALT+DEL does
> > nothing, and eventually I have to hard-restart the whole computer (even
> > though the mouse still moves -- no blue screen of death).
> >
> > I tried disabling the anti-virus, even running a little program that
> > "presses the Shift key" every five minutes to try to keep the computer alive
> > -- no help. The problem occurs on both battery and AC power.
> >
> > I can "hibernate" the computer, and it will come back fine.
> >
> > If I am actively working on the computer, there's no problem, but if I leave
> > it alone for twenty minutes, then I have this "pseudo-sleep" crash. And no,
> > the cat isn't jumping on any keys in my absence!