Vaio Z: Sleep Mode on Lid Closing (Failure)

I have my Z set to go to sleep when I close my lid. It usually does that, except there are times when it doesn't. Today, I closed the lid, put my Z in its Vaio neoprone sleeve, and then put the whole thing in my case as I left my apartment. After an hour or so later, I took out my laptop, and found out that not only was it still on, but it was superheated due to the accumulation of heat from not having turned off. The sleeve and the case simply insulated the laptop, preventing the heat from escaping the confine of the sleeve.

Well, when I opened my lid, the part of the screen closest to the fan (bottom left corner) was completely dark due to the screen being heated beyond its threshold. Rest of the screen was fine. As the laptop started cooling, that darkness/blackness slowly started to fade until it disappeared. But the laptop stayed quite warm/hot for a while, as it cooled off. The entire aluminum piece where the keyboard is was very warm. So was the carbon fiber case (top and bottom).

The laptop not going to sleep mode when I close my lid has happened couple times to me before, but not until now has it made such a huge negative impact.

Has anybody encountered this phenomenon? Now I think the left portion of my screen is slightly dimmer than the right. You can't really tell just by glancing at it, but if you look for it, you can see the slight dimness.

I don't think I can use my accidental warranty as I am sure the technician will not be able to find or notice this dimness. But man, it will bug me now as another flaw on my laptop (along with the Express PC card cover not flushing nicely due to bad spring or something).

But at the least, I need to make sure this doesn't happen again. Anybody encounter this problem and know of a solution? Why even if my settings are to go to sleep on closing the lid, that the laptop doesn't?

 

I have the same problem, my Z won't go to sleep when I closed the lid (I've changed the configuration in the control panel.)

 

I don't think we have the same problem. My Z is configured to go to sleep upon the lid closing. I have this setting defined through Vaio Control Center. Problem is, sometimes, it freezes or something happens that prevents it from going to either sleep or hibernate. Even if my lid wasn't closed, the computer should've gone to sleep/hibernate mode within 5-10 minutes when it is on battery. It never did. It just remained turned on the whole hour or so.

I just called Vaio support and they're having me send my laptop to San Diego for possible repair. I don't know if the guy will even be able to notice the dimness. Any one have any experience with the San Diego repair center? Positive negative?

 

i think he does have the same problem... i'm assuming he originally had it set to sleep when the screen closed, but it wouldn't sleep, so he changed the settings.

 

I am having a simlar problem, and also have my computer turn itself back on after I have put it into hibernation. I don't use sleep mode, so I have mine set to hibernate when I either close the lid, or push the power button. I thought I wasn't doing something right, but now that I keep having this little mystery where I open up my computer and it's already on (and very warm), I am closely paying attention that I am watching the computer hibernate.

I'm just getting ready to call up Sony, but thought I would search here to see if this was something that was being experienced by others with respect to sleep mode, not going to sleep, etc. It appears so...

 

to the OP. I don't understand why you didn't turn it off right away when you found out it was hot. that's the best way of cooling it off quickly.

I am not sure if it's an hardware problem. to me it seems more on the SW side, but again, I don't know what component is in charge of sending the notification when the lid closes.

 

might be wishful thinking, but do you think bios update could remedy this problem?

 

I don't think this is the machine's problem. It's more like windows' problem. Did your sony come with original software installed or you did performed some to optimize the software? if you did then that's prob the cause of the problem.

 

are you talking to me?

in any case. I think that's the first place I would look if this is not an hardware failure. bios is the first bridge from HW to the OS

 

no, i was just saying that in response to OP's problem, perhaps the bios update would fix it.

 

It seems 100% like a software program. Others have reported Avira antivirus among other antivirus programs preventing shutdown, hibernation, etc.

As much as it may stink, WindowsOne does not cause any crazy shutdown/hibernation problems. Either way, im sorry to hear what happened! That really does stink, call sony customer service and get a replacement. But, i wouldnt blame the hardware for this one...

 

Could I ask someone to try the following procedure out, as I want to make sure its not a common thing that is found in all the Z500 series laptops.

So I have the Z570N. Could you guys try the following steps and confirm whether you observe the same thing or not? Doesn't have to be Z570N.

1) Set your brightness to full 100%
2) Open up a white background (like notepad maximized).
3) Sit equidistance from both left and right edges of the screen.
4) Is your left edge of the screen dimmer than your right? Its a very slight dimness that occurs in a gradient extending maybe about an inch from left edge of the screen that most people may not notice at all (if this problem is not unique to my laptop). In other words, if you had to find the dimmest part in your screen, where is it located? Left edge of the screen?
5) Now move your head left and right, and compare the brightness on both edges of the screen (try about the same angle from both sides). Notice any difference?

Like I said, its hard to spot it unless you're looking for it (once again if this problem is not unique to my laptop).

This could just be the way the screen is lit in the back, or it could be that the heat damaged my LCD or the LED lighting.

Before I send my laptop off for repair, I want to make sure that there is a problem to be fixed.

Thanks for your help!

 

I've also had the problem once of the computer not sleeping, and in fact running at full power in my backpack, getting extremely overheated, but not damaging the screen, I don't believe. I've had lots of problems with sleep switching to hibernate, which, upon resume ends up being a clean boot. Rather annoying...

Re: reaborg's test: on a pure white screen I see a few variations in brightness across the back. with perhaps the left side slightly dimmer than the right. Unless it's really noticeable to you (or maybe get someone else to look at your laptop who doesn't know about the problem), it might not be worth trying to get fixed, since I don't think the light is ever perfectly even.

 

Try reinstalling Vaio power management.

 

I don't trust the lid switch. I always use the power button to let it sleep as hibernate sometimes causes the notebook to hang after hibernating, resulting in a Z still powered in my bag. I have a 14 inch lady's bag which gives the Z plenty of space in the event it might turn on.

 

I got my laptop back from repair but they were unable to see the dimness problem on the left side of the screen. So now, I am checking that spot every time I pick up my laptop. So annoying! Wish they'd just have changed the screen out.

 

Regarding my Vaio Z570N:

Last night, I closed my lid, and my laptop went to sleep mode. But few minutes later, it awoke from sleep (the light turned green) and started doing something. I figured some automatic updating thing was running, and it will go back to sleep mode upon completion.

The next morning, the green light was still on. It never went back to sleep. I opened up my lid, and although the computer was on, the screen was blank. I had to hard reset (hold down power button) to get it to restart. When I go back to windows, it goes to desktop, but I can't access such things as task manager, our get outlook to download emails, etc., as something seems to freeze the computer. I can click open programs, and browse the net while this is happening though (so not a total freeze). I figured I would restart the computer.

It goes in the "logging off" screen, and it gets stuck there. I had to hard reset once again. This time, when it restarts, I don't log on to my account, but I software restart immediately when it reaches the logon screen. And finally it then behaves normally.

No idea what is causing this. If I had to guess, I would say its the power management tool. But I don't know. Anybody experience this as well?

 

I have the same problem (and I hate it).

However my workaround is that I de-activated the Li-Closing switch and always press the PowerOn/Off Button.

That so far does the trick for me.

Rambler

 

Old post, but recently maybe after some windows updates (vista64) my Z randomly freeze when going from sleep to hibernation... scren went to black but laptop still running and have to force hard reboot.

I noticed that disablet Eset Smart Security issue is gone... so may i have to keep antivirus software away from this machine??
Any ESS and Z user can confirm?

 

run power management through windows, not the crappy vaio software

 

I had the same problem with mine AW serie. Its simple to fix this. Go to battery configuration and choose advance settings in windows. There is someting called wake up or something when in sleep mode. Choose >> no

 

I had similar problems (Z waking up on its own and having a black screen, forcing an unclean shutdown). On a completely different laptop (running Vista 32-bit) I previously could close the lid and have it go into sleep mode. Now it will only do this in 'balanced' power mode - it will not sleep (at all - whether from closing the lid or choosing sleep from the shutdown menu) in high performance mode. I suspect this is due to a Vista update since nothing else has changed on the machine.