What I remember most about my old compaq laptop (N600) was that, once asleep, it usually refused to wake up.

This was particularly irritating as I had no net access at home so would use Firefox to open upwards of 30 pages (esp when teaching m'self CSS using online tutorials). My expectation was that, once home, I could open the computer and go about with my instruction, moving from tab to tab as needed.

Rarely, however, would this work as the d@mned lappie rarely woke back up.

Now that I'm running XP on a Mac, however, it's a moot point.

IPSO FACTOOOOOO,

it's a hardware thang.

I've noticed that sleep problems often arise when the computer is attached to a network drive or folder.

Wish I could help you Rob, but I have the flip side of the problem, the inability to come out of standby, which my Gateway XP notebook has recently become afflicted with. BTW, great columns, and I always look forward to the online chats, which could only be improved by greater frequency!

I'm not sure you're using the word narcolepsy correctly.
narcolepsy: a condition characterized by frequent and uncontrollable periods of deep sleep.

which is the opposite of what you're trying to express here, since the computer is having problems *going* to sleep. Perhaps you meant insomnia.
insomnia: inability to obtain sufficient sleep, esp. when chronic; difficulty in falling or staying asleep; sleeplessness.

(defs from dictionary.com)

Sarah: Good catch. Perhaps if I had been going into sleep mode on a normal schedule, I would have noticed that I'd used the wrong word in the title before it got posted :)

Bill B: Bad video drivers can cause that sort of issue. Have you checked Gateway's site for any updates for your model?

- RP

There's an issue which I'm sure is related: I would just like MSN/Live Messenger to detect that I'm away for the 10 minutes (or whatever is specified) and register my status as such. I can be away for hours, with the screen locked and Messenger can never work out that the keyboard has never been touched.

Shortly after getting my new XP Pro two years ago I experimented with standby and regretted it. All too often upon waking it up I simply could not regain my internet access. It acted as though my connection did not exist. The only fix was to go back to a previous Restore point. Never did figure it out, but I no longer try standby or sleep modes.

Rob, I know this comment isn't on the "sleep-mode" problems, but I don't know how else to contact you. Is there some way to eliminate the U3 software that comes with so many flash-drives these days? It takes so long to open when you plug-in such a flash-drive, I hate U3. I've tried to remove the U3 software, but have failed. I called tech-support at Memorex, and the tekkie there said it couldn't be removed. Then, there's the problem of having 2 lettered "drives" on the U3 flash-drives. My son says that U3 was invented by the devil, but I'm assuming it was a well-meaning, but misguided human being. Is there a solution?

Sleep mode has never been reliable on IBM/Lenovo laptops. It simply doesn't work. I don't know whether it is a hardware, software, or driver issue, but I don't care. I'm tired of losing data due to failed attempts of sleep mode. I now shutdown as often as I can tolerate it.

If linux had even halfway reasonable laptop power management, I would have abandoned Vista months ago.

to answer your question:

- What's the make and model of the PC?
1. IBM T41
2. Lenovo T60
- What version of Windows are you running?
1. XP
2. Vista
- What anti-virus programs do you have active on it? (I've seen them occasionally block standby mode)
1. Norton
2. none
- Do you have a screensaver set to run?
1. No
2. No
- Does your computer have all the available BIOS updates from its manufacturer?
1. How should I know?
2. How should I know?

Behaviors include:
* failing to go into sleep mode (2%)
* waking unexpectedly from sleep mode and either BSODing or draining the battery until it hibernates (hard to say - this is happening while it is in my bag (3%)
* taking a very long time (> 1 minute) to wake from sleep mode (10%)
* failing to wake from sleep mode, requiring a hard reset (10%)
* working properly (75%)

I recall reading recently (can't remember where) about a new wireless router that was about to be released. This router was reported to be faster, have greater range, have fewer dropouts, etc. than any then on the market. It used some newer technology to achieve these feats.

I do not recall the manufacturer or model or even the special technology.

Can you help?

for Bill Hudson: U3 has a removal tool on its website at http://www.u3.com/uninstall/ . I have used this only with SanDisk 1 Gb Cruzer thumbdrives and had mixed experience: the first time I tried it, the drive seemed to be dead afterwards and my PC would not recognize it. I returned it to the point of purchase, which replaced with another 1 Gb Cruzer. When I ran the removal software on the replacement, it worked fine and I now had a clean drive. Good luck.

Your site today is not reponsive to check here if you have difficulty. No feedback. Suggest you have these fixed.
CLB 8/28/2007

response to slar:

ubuntu 7.04 has a wonderful power management system (at least, running on my gatewayM505). no hang-ups going into or returning from sleep mode. and the boot loader for dual OS is improved, as well (because sadly for school i still need a M$ XP version).

To slar
I use a Dell 1505 n laptop designed for Ubuntu linux. It has excellent power management.
Regarding sleep, my previous Dell Precision 330 workstation would go into sleep mode and could only be reawakened with extreme difficulty. After a few episodes, I made certain that feature was never invoked. I am sorry, I no longer have the computer and cannot provide tech specs. I make certain I never invoke sleep mode in any MS computer.

A key question here is: Does Windows believe that your system is actually idle? With all of the background crud that people load onto their systems today, it's possible that some background procesess are running that keep Windows from thinking it's idle. For example, on my laptop installing the HP 3390 All-in-One print/scan/fax utility caused my processor utilization to be 8% to 12% *all* of the time. Needless to say, I de-installed it and used a workaround instead. If you track down and kill these vampires, this may help solve your sleep problem

Rob, thanks for the thought regarding video drivers and failing to come out of standby. The problem is still present after installing new drivers. I've also tried a "nondestructive" reinstall using the OEM installation disk (and adding no programs after reinstall except zone alarm) and the problem persisted. I think the next step is to do a low level format and/or zero out the hard drive and then re-reinstall.

I have had this problem over four generations of Windows and currently using XP. I am convinced it is with the screen saver. As I remember, the ones that are more exotic provided with the system. I changed to using Pictures for the saver and no problems have occured. I guess I could go back to try and recreate the problem but leave that to you (-:)

This has been an interesting exchange. slar's "How should I know?" points out one of the bigger problems with Windows computing--manufacturers who provide no simple way to check for updated drivers and firmware fixes to their machine. It's those fixes that--I'd hope--ought to address many of these issues.

- RP

A little different problem: My Dell Inspiron 1501 goes to sleep very readily - almost amusingly so. And it wakes up ready for me to log on, with a touch to the Power button.

But if I shut down, the first two boots after restarting the machine end in a BSOD, with some DOS like resource conflict message - interrupt issues. The third boot takes - but none of the systems settings from the previous session are saved. The machine is like a scifi story I read of a man who relived the same day over and over, no new information ever carried over. Ubuntu, eh? Have to look into that.

Sorry to tell you, Windows is broken.

Thats why Standby randomly stops working. Microsoft obviously does not know how to fix the intermittent error or they would have by now.

I reinstalled WinXP specifically because I wanted to get automated S3 working again, figuring if I install almost nothing it would work.

It did, I installed Office, Firefox, and an automation program the first day. Had them all running, and it still went into standby fine.

Today I switched my power profile from the one set to go to standby, to one that just powered down the hd, and then switched back at the end of the day.

Automated S3 standby timer no longer works and the computer monitor just powers down.

Even the hard drive still stays on.

Microsoft makes garbage, there is no fixing the issue until Microsoft specifically addresses the issue and patches it, which will probably never happen.

Why do we buy their OS again?