Vista Cannot Wake From Sleep

Hello. I am running vista business 32 bit. From time to time, I am unable to wake the computer from sleep, even though some things on the laptop are working indicating it is on. For example I can eject the optical drive. I have read some people observing similar problems. Anyone have this issue and what is the fix?

 

same here....it happens every now and then i think its the graphic drivers but not sure......

 

What's the make/model of your computer, and have you updated all the drivers, the BIOS, and whatnot from the manufacturer's support website?

 

It's definitely graphics drivers... cant imagine anything else, other than hardware issues which it most likely isnt.

 

it is a T400 but i am not so sure its manufacturer specific as I have seen reports from a wide variety of manufacturers although I cant rule it out either

I am not sure if its specifically graphics driver? Because I am unable to put the system back to sleep after any failure. Nothing else really responds other than my cd drive being able to pop back out.

 

A "T400" what? It may not be manufacturer-specific, but it's usually best to start with the specs from a specific, actual model, not just a hypothetical.

 

That will be a lenovo T400. I don't think its manufacturer specific as I think thinks problem is seen in many manufacturers also or it may be cause we all have defective units with the same fundamental problem.

 

Or just a badly-coded driver for the same graphics processing solution you all have in common. That's why it's so important to check with Lenovo's support website to see if there's an updated driver you haven't installed. Have you checked, yet?

 

I checked with windows 7. Same problem. Any clues?

I have switchable graphics BTW which may be screwing things up also. Any ideas in terms of hardware/software/bios?

 

Have you checked for an updated driver from Lenovo for your graphics card?

 

Yes I have. I slightly suspect it may be a graphics driver or graphics card related problem? Thats cause after I had installed the windows 7 driver for the ATI graphicscard, the screen screwed up on me and the only way I can go back into windows 7 is to switch off switchable graphics in the bios and make it 100% discrete graphics. However, the system still responds, as in even though I cant see nothing I can put it into sleep.

With the problem I'm talking about, once it wakes everything is crashed except for the DVD drive being able to pop out. I am also not sure whether the graphics card has the ability to crash the entire system other than just affecting a black screen?

Also, as far as I am aware it is the most up to date driver. I have checked with the versions although it may be the product of a faulty installation also, since I rmember windows being a bit trippy during my drivers update

 

I just experienced something similar a few days ago. At this point I dont think it has something to do with the graphicscard driver.
A temporary fix that worked for me is to remove the battery and start the laptop with the power directly plugged in. After reseating the battery a few times all is normal again.

I hope someone else can reveal the root of the problem and come with a long term solution.

 

Yes. I am reading around online and is quite prevalent among some users.

So you suspect its the actual Li-Ion battery then and not BIOS battery correct?

It may be possible, cause the sleep mode keeps things in RAM so it needs constant power.

Wierd thing that happened yesterday was I put my laptop on hibernate for like 16 hours (my current alternative to sleep as I have no other options now), but when I turn the compute rback on, it gave me a message about memory being changed or something. Anyway for hibernate this shouldnt be a problem because things are now stored in the harddrive.

 

actually come to think of it, can it be the battery still? I remember being able to crash it while plugged into the wall socket when I do continuous open/close lid a few times and it will crash after a few times.

 

Yes, Im talking about the laptop battery (not de bios battery).

You can do some experiments actually: remove the battery and run the laptop with only the AC power plugged in and try to reproduce the problem when going to sleep mode.
That may help to narrow down possibilities.

 

I made some suggestions HERE.

Please do not cross post the forums.

 

How bad is this for the comp because the last set of experiments I did involved like 10 hard shutdowns by holding power key. This cant be good but what is the damage?

 

It will not damage the computer. It is a power switch. The operating system may develop a hiccup because the power down sequence wasn't followed, but it certainly will not damage the computer hardware.

 

It won't damage the hardware, that much is certain, but it can damage the software. In particular if the registry happens to be written to as you hit the power switch it can corrupt the registry. Now having said that, with NTFS that sort of thing is quite rare. Several years ago, win95 win98 era, it could be VERY dangerous to just power off like that.

You should avoid doing it, if you can. Try to get to the root cause of the problem preventing you from shutting down.

Gary

 

I am trying to figure out but i really cant. I tried everything now. If sleep works fine with other people then it might have something to do with hardware? I dont know.

 

Sounds to me like it is time for a reinstall of the OS.

Gary

 

This is a problem with windows 7 also. (although aint saying much).

I dont think its the OS fault? I have no clue. I also tried reinstalling.

Could it be RAM is loose or som,ething? But I doubt they are 'loose' cause mine is a brand new machine and they prob design it so you can't get loose connections easily.

 

I just reread a bunch of the posts here, and it sounds as if the real problem isn't that the system will occasionally fail to wake from sleep, but that sometimes when it wakes from sleep, everything has crashed.

That does sound like it's either an issue with the battery not keeping a tight, clean contact, a loose RAM module (it can happen on occasion even fresh from the factory), or possibly a bad RAM module.

Is there any wiggle or jiggle with the battery when it's seated in the slot at the back of the computer? Do the metal contacts on the battery (or their partners on the computer) show any signs of dirt, smudging, or burn marks?

In terms of the RAM, if you're comfortable opening it up, take adequate anti0static precautions, open the access panel for the RAM, then remove and firmly reseat each RAM module. After that, run a memory test such as memtest86, to see if any of your RAM shows up as bad.

 

I tried this but it is still a problem. I am wondering if its an issue with windows also? I have 3GB Ram but basically I have no phyiscal memory free (like a few Mbs). I have already disabled superfetch. Is it possible theres an issue with writing to the Ram when it tries to goto sleep?

 

No, not unless you've disabled other services, such as the page file. If you really do have superfetch disabled (which is not a wise thing, in my view), then what do you have that occupies 3GB of RAM?

 

I have no idea either!

When I start a computer I have ~2GB ram free.

As I open programs and even as I close them, I start getting less and less memory categorized as free. The rest are cached. By the end of the day I may be up to 6mb free physical memory.

Is there a way to clear the cache.

Could it possibly have a problem affecting sleep issue?

I have enabled ready boost, and I have a second HDD working that takes 6 GB page file, with 1GB pagefile on OS disk.

 

Then you've got something going in there that has a serious memory leak, or else you've got some malware on there. Have you done a really thorough A/V scan recently?

 

Really? Well my notebook is surposed to be brand new.

I have Symantec and I always run regular scans.

See right now it states 732MB free. I have no windows open except task manager. I have 3GB total with discrete graphics which isnt taking any of the Ram.

When I first booted up this morning it had 2GB free. I have stopped superfetch in services.msc already and rebooted to make it take effect.

I have given it 7GB total of page file even.

 

How many processes do you have running, for all users, not just yourself, and how much memory is each process consuming?

 

roughly 30 but most are small

i added them roughly and it comes to about 150mb. my page file is also 1gb.

 

Well, something's eating up your memory in a way it's not supposed to, which might also be the source of your problems with waking from sleep.

Perhaps you could take a screenshot of your processes running list and post it up so we can all take a look at it? (Just make sure you edit out any personal info that might identify you).

 

I wouldnt know where to add pictures.

But so youre saying if I have 3GB total Ram, and I have a 7GB page file, and that I have superfetch switched off, that when I close certain programs, the physical memory should NOT remain 'cached' right? It should return everything back to 'free'? And that windows does not use close to the amount of cached memory?

 

Have you ever received a "low memory" error?

 

I have never seen such prompts of an error with those sorts of messages.

Yea its nuts casue right now I'm running windows vista 32 with nothing opened. and the cached memory reads 1612MB right now. This is not normal right? This is after half a days use, but I am by now closed everything except task manager and some background stuff still on, which shouldnt take close to this much right? Not even Symantec.

 

By the way, I notice a discrepancy in the numbers. Before I restart my computer: this is what I see in task manager:

Memory bar tells me 881MB for physical memory usage.

The bottom, the numbers are:
2998 Total Physical Memory
1620 Cached
871 Free

Numbers don't add up? Or do they make sense?