Restart at resume from sleep, m17x-r2, problem suddenly started after years of smooth running

As the title suggests, I have been happy with my m17x--r2 (with single 5870, running reference drivers) for now 3 years. I always have it plugged in and in sleep mode whenever not in use. Until a couple of months ago, resume happened almost instantly after I open the laptop and everything was fine.

Since a couple of months, however, I have started to get intermittent restarts when I open the lid. It happens once out of 4-5 resumes, I'd say. Power has not been interrupted during the sleep state, and the battery remains fully charged. Windows restarts with a prompt to use safe mode, suggesting that it has lost power or had some kind of enforced shut-down. The event log reveals nothing out of the ordinary, other than showing an "unexpected restart" at varying times but NOT at the time I open the lid of the laptop. This means that the unexpected restart/crash must somehow have happened during the laptop's sleep state.

With the event log not giving any clues as to what causes these seeming crashes during sleep state, I'm not able to trouble shoot much. I have tried a different battery - although the laptop remains plugged in at all times - without any difference.

Has anybody here had the same issue and found a fix for it?

 

Could you run a full memory test program like x86 memtest ?

 

Virus/malware?

 

Did 2 passes with x86 memtest, both passed without errors. Also did a new scan for malware and antivirus with no finds. Any other ideas?

 

It could be battery related so focus there. I know when going sleep mode and removing power cord the consumption is moderate. Have you checked your cell state health with hwinfo64?
If you got a replacement battery pop it in. I bet you it fixes the issue.

 

Have you tried reinstalling the Video drivers? They may be the ones causing it. Have you checked the dumpfiles for bluescreens?

 

Hi buiz123
I've been having the exact issue such as yours. My machine is always on and the battery is always fully charged. Goes to sleep obviously after some time but when come back later or even after a night in the morning try to wake it up, it just shuts down as if power was cut and reboots. Did you manage to find a solution? What did you end up doing to fix your problem?

 

As an update to this, I've now realized that the problem is connected only to the videocard. The laptop resumes properly from sleep, but it crashes when the screen resumes from sleep (the screen's sleep state, not the laptop's sleep state). I have the latest VBIOS and just rolled back from the latest ATI drivers to Dell's reference drivers, with no improvement. Anybody has any suggestions?