M50SV: Sleep mode doesn't sleep anymore?

Hi guys,

I recently discovered that my M50 isn't going to sleep like it use to when I press the Fn+F1. Typically, it would turn off my fan and have the status LEDs do the on and off sequence, similar to what of the Apple laptops. You'll know what I'm talking if you have the M50.

But now, when I do press the Fn+F1, all it does is make my screen go black. The fan continues to run and the two LEDs in the front of the laptop is still lit and the harddrive continues to be spinning. When I move my finger on the trackpad, the screen flashes back and I'm in the Windows logon screen asking for my password. It looks as if the laptop doesn't even enter sleep mode at all!

There hasn't been anything that I installed, if anything, it would be a Windows Update. There was also no settings that was changed in the power options.

Does anyone have a similar problem or a solution to this problem?

Please let me know! Thanks!


Update:
There has been a thread addressing this issue, but no solution has been found. I haven't updated my video card driver or anything that has to do with the display. It's the same thing if I click on sleep from the start menu.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=249946

Update 2:
After I restarted my computer, I let it load its startup programs and such, I pressed the Fn+F1 and the computer goes to sleep with the fan and harddrive turning off!
From the looks of it, it seems like something is interrupting this sleep process, and I need to find out what it is.

After writing this update, I tried it again and it wouldn't do the full sleep again... this is frustrating...

 

Check your power options make sure you have all the different sleep functions enabled there are several different versions of sleep. Also you can set the power button on windows to do a sleep OR hybernate function. Not sure by maybe that f1 shortcut uses the same setting. Kind of sounds like what you used before was hybernate, that or S3 sleep.

 

There wasn't any settings there were changed in the past. For you, does the sleep mode turn off the exhaust (fan) for the laptop?

The problem for me is, when I'm running on A/C power, it doesn't sleep properly (mentioned earlier). But while running on battery, the laptop sleeps like it used to.

 

That's exactly what "sleep" is! I think you are looking for hibernate. Hibernate completely turns off the system, when you power it back on it says "resuming" and all your programs and windows are restored afterwards... You need to go into your Power Options>Choose what the power buttons do change the sleep button to hibernate instead of sleep for the "Plugged in" profile.

 

I'm not sure about that. In standby (sleep) the computer should turn off the fan, and the power leds should blink or fade in/fade out, and the HDD should stop. Unless it's different in Vista...

I would suggest to check the power profile setting for "When I press the Sleep button, my computer..." and make sure Standby is selected (well those may not be the exact words).

Then you could try reinstalling the ATK drivers.

 

standby = sleep

And no, sleep doesn't turn off the fan, the fan RPM depends on the core temperature and it will speed up if it needs to. The harddrive should be in suspend mode and would stop spinning, however i wouldn't say it's completely off.

There are only 4 Power options for each profile; Do Nothing, Sleep, Hibernate, Shutdown. At least in Vista that is.

 

I'm still not sure about that. Maybe in Vista it's different, I have nearly zero experience with it, but in XP, on my computers, the fan does turn off in Sleep (which indeed is just another way of saying Standby, sorry if my formulation was confusing in the earlier post). That's true even if I put it to sleep right after I do CPU-intensive tasks which bring the core temperatures to relatively high values.

 

I uninstalled Power4Gear Extreme and I used the default three settings: Balanced, Battery saving, and High Performance.

In the Balanced and Battery saving, I was able to make the laptop go into sleep mode (fan off, hdd off, flashing power led) while plugged in and on battery. However, in High Performance, I was unable to make it go to sleep while plugged in. I don't believe this is a hardware problem, more of the programs that is controlling the sleep mode function.

I'm guessing that because of being in High Performance, it expect you to put the laptop to sleep because it's not running battery.

BUT:

I was able to make it go to sleep before using Power4Gear Extreme on the High-Performance settings, plugged in. From when it worked and stopped working, I have not changed the settings in the power configuration, so I really hope this isn't a hardware problem.

 

I was caught out with this because of media sharing in Windows. There is an option in the Window Media Player that will prevent the machine from going to sleep if any media is being shared. Of course, now that I am looking for it, I can't find it there.

But, the option is in the options for each power plan. Maybe I am just confused about where it was or Microsoft moved it in a fix.

 

No progress for me... The battery and AC setting is exactly the same and the only way the laptop would go to sleep is when I unplug the the power, close the lid, then plug the power back in.

I hope this is not a hardware malfunction... there has been so many problems with this laptop in terms of hardware it's frustrating.

 

D3X no offence but you're wrong. The fan and hardrive turn off when the laptop is in sleep mode just like when the laptop go in hibernation.

Quich question, does your laptop go in sleep mode when you force it using the the following sequence:
1- click Start
2- Turn off computer
3- click Stand by.

If this works every time then the problem is either that your Windows need to be re-installed (i.e. clean installation), or you've an application, or maybe een a virus running in the background. It could also be your keyboard but I doubt it since you did not complain about your keyboard.

 

Ok here is what solved this same problem for me. None of the power options seemed to work for me until I changed my Multimedia settings. I noticed that windows has programs idling in the background pretty much at all times. My "plugged in" multimedia setting was on "allow computer to enter away mode...." This prevents vista from sleeping while idling. It goes into a sleep/away mode where other devices and computer can still access your media files, unlike the typical sleep characteristics that we are used to seeing. So here are the steps I used to get normal sleep mode in high performance

Control Panel > Power options > (High Performance) Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > Multimedia Settings > When Sharing Media
--Change the plugged in setting to "allow computer to sleep" or "prevent idling to sleep" for whichever suites your needs. Hit apply and give sleep another try.

 

You saved ME!!!!!! Thank you for the answer!!!

 

The same happens with me. I keep a lot of programs and websites open so I always use sleep so i can get started quickly. For some reason, mine does the same as yours, turns the screen off and wakes up on mouse touch. For me, Sleep is fn+f 5. I set all the buttons in the start menu and the keyboard to sleep but it doesn't happen anymore. And I don't think I confused it with Hibernate because I usually used the Start Sleep which said 'Sleep'. Clicking that now just turns the screen off...