Crashing when idling

Hi. I don't know if this is the right place to post this since i don't know wheter the problem is hardware or software.

In short, i sometimes let my laptop(see sig) idle or downloading sometihng with utorrent for several hours. When i do this i turn off the screen using Fn+F11. Sometimes when i turn the screen on again i get a black screen and the laptop is just frozen. The power LED is on and the fan is going, but no keys work, not even the power button. The only thing i can do is hold the power button down for a few seconds to turn the machine off. When i turn it on again, it works perfectly fine.

I noticed that this happens much more rarely if i close the lid instead of using the Fn combination.

The OS is vista ultimate x86 sp1.

Thanks in advance.

 

Well, its clear that you should just close the lid instead.

But, try pressing the Fn+11 key multiple times. (and wait ~10secs. inbetween each push)

Try that, it may work.

 

On your laptop, what is the function of Fn+F11, is it to turn off the LCD or to switch it to an output mode? If you are putting it into an output mode, you might need to hit Fn+F11 three because of the settings on some laptops, it will go like this.

Laptop Screen > External Screen > Laptop + External Screen > Laptop Screen

That is the order mine goes in, I am unsure about yours.

 

Nope, Fn+F11 turns the screen off. Output mode is handled by Fn+F5, and it doesn't do anything if no external display is attached.

Err, i don't get it. You mean do this everytime before i let it idle? Or just once? The problem is that it's extremely hard for me to test, since the freezeing doesn't always happen. And i really don't understand how that can help. Do you think it's a BIOS issue? Or is my mobo fried

And isn't turning on and off very quickly bad for the LCD backlight?

Thank you