(m17x r4) Can't resume from sleep

Hello everyone,

I've been a viewer on here for a pretty long while, but in my thread over in the Dell support forums, Dell-Chris sent me back over here with hopes that you folks can help me out.

To save me some typing, here's my original post:

Just as it says, everything works except actually resuming out of sleep, which is such a shame since this is such an amazing machine otherwise.

Chris asked if I had any external devices attached, to which I replied:

However, Chris insists that the problem is not drivers or hardware but within the OS. Can anybody help me?

Thank you all for any input

 

If you have a large external drive and original windows 7 media, I would suggest using windows backup to create a system image and rescue Cd. then do a fresh install with drivers from support site and windows update. Have the drivers all ready on a USB key. That is the quickest way to determine if it is a software issue. Restoring the image is very easy too.

 

Afraid I second this one. A complete reinstall of windows was the only thing that finally fixed this on my R3. A lot of work just to get sleep functioning, originally I just disabled it since startup time is almost as quick from an SSD anyway

 

So is this issue only with sleep or does it affect hibernate as well?

 

Hi, thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately I don't (yet) have an SSD. It's on the list though. You can imagine my lack of patience after having to cold boot this thing every time I want to use it....

I have two HDDs installed, so I chose this route, hopefully it's as effective: I created a separate partition on the second drive, which has basically nothing on it anyway, and installed a totally clean Win7 on it. It wouldn't let me sleep with no drivers at all, so I installed chipset and video (discrete card only) directly from the Alienware disc. After a reboot, I put it straight to sleep and saw the same results when I tried to wake it up. I then installed more drivers from the disc, in case a lack of drivers was the issue, and the problem never went away.

Hibernate is totally fine, boots up to my saved state as normal.

Does this point to a hardware issue after all, or could there be some software issue that I'm overlooking somewhere?

Again, thanks for the replies.

 

Apart from making sure you have updated all the drivers you installed from the disc, it looks like it is some piece of hardware not coming out of low power state. No idea how to track that down though . On mine both failed to work.
Shame you haven't yet got an SSD, but that will bring it's own challenges...

 

It's funny how I got used to shutting down my M17x every time I'm done using it. It doesn't bother me at all cause I have an SSD. Super fast! Get an SSD bro!

 

Ah. I feel like an unlocked BIOS might give me the extra options to sort this out perhaps, but at this point I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I guess I've just about exhausted all of the things I can think of then, it might be time to give support a ring.

I've never had to do the Dell support dance yet, so I have no estimate as to how many hours it'll take before they believe me that sleep is in fact enabled in the control panel and send somebody out. If anyone has any tips or experience to share, I'm all ears.

SSD was one of the things I left out at purchase as one of those future upgrade/not enough money to do this all at once things. I'm certainly looking at some now though.

 

Well, I've called them a few times over the years . My guess for your issue will be. 1. As it's a known problem their knowledge base will have some things they will want you to try. Probably all the things already tried but... 2. Run Hardware diagnostic and see if that identifies any problems. 3. Last shot, a rollback to the factory image.

If all that does not work then they will probably tyll you it has to be returned to the depot as they cannot identify exactly what part to send with an engineer. You might get lucky and they send an engineer with multiple parts but the home engineer call is dependent on them identifying the problem.

Might not be worth all that trouble but I'd say call anyway just to see where it goes.

On the SSD front, you can get a reasonably priced small (32/64 Gb MSATA and just set it up as a caching drive. All the software is already installed (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) so it's very simple to put it in, activate the caching and enjoy a huge speed increase. No need for a windows reinstall and although I have not gone down this path, I have read very good reports from people that have done this.

 

I would say install the latest drivers from the Dell support site, the ones on my CD were all very old.
If you still see the issue, then have a look at this:
Hidden Windows 7 Tool Troubleshoots Sleep Mode Problems

Windows 7 Sleep Problems | Hibernate Troubleshooting

 

Have you tested the RAM for any issues? Have you tried any different RAM sticks at all? The difference between hibernate and sleep is that hibernate writes the contents of RAM to the HDD and then reloads it to the RAM upon waking up, while sleep keeps everything in RAM and wakes up much faster.