Thanks for replying. I have Vista Home Premium x64. I expanded "hybrid sleep" but only have the option to turn it off or on. I turned it off, so what will that do? I wondered about my BIOS and if some glitch with updating Avast! changed the settings. Not exactly sure how to get into BIOS, navigate, or exit it.
That is what I meant by my comment "tick both options to 'Off'", so if you've done this
determine if this has helped before going any further. Btw, see my image below and further explanation as to my preferences.
The term "hybrid sleep" is basically a two-stage sleep setting that is new in Vista and and has been carried over into subsequent OS's but isn't really needed and has had issues for some people in terms of waking.
Here is a link that explains this in detail:
Disable Hybrid Sleep Mode in Windows VistaHere is extensive information regarding BIOS in respect to this topic:
Power Options and Sleep Mode Problems You have to take care in changing BIOS settins as you might know (you can seriously disable your computer by doing the wrong thing in BIOS) so if you're not that familiar or comfortable I would consider other options perhaps, but it won't hurt to look at your settings by following the above link which explains everything you might want to know in detail.
I personally use my computer very often throughout the day for various reasons so I prefer my drive to be spinning at all times. It is my opinion (and many other as well) that spinning down and spinning up a drive multiple times a day will inherently shorten the life of the drive. This has been my experience and the experience of many others. In fact were I used to work as a computer programmer way back in the dark ages our department policy was to leave all drives spinning throughout the work week and only shut down for weekends (assuming we were off on the weekends).
This is my setting (you'll notice I "NEVER" hibernate if "plugged in", if plugged in the battery is of no concern and I'm avoiding the stress of always spinning my hard drive up and down every day which will definitely wear a drives moving parts much sooner than leaving the drive spinning unless of course you use your computer very infrequently like once every couple of days or so, but that's just me,everyone has their own preferences) :