Sleep Mode Problem

[NVF]

After installing the latest version my sleep mode won't wake through a keystroke but only the power button. After shutting down last night I couldn't start my PC today. I turned the surge outlet off then on and I was then able to start my PC. Perhaps the sleep mode problem and now this power problem--which may be due to having to hit the power button to waken my PC from sleep--is not related to the new Avast version but it'd be mighty coincidental. Whatever the case, I'd to hear what anyone makes of my issue.

Thanks,
NVF

[lakrsrool]

Not knowing what your OS is it's not easy to offer suggestions.  Fact is "Sleep mode" has a very long history of having problems with every OS down the line  that can be attributed to a myriad of contributing factors.  There are so many things that can be tried it's difficult to know where to start, but it would help to know your OS.  It also depends upon what what sleep mode you are you using, i.e. Standby, Hibernation or Hybrid for example and of course many other factors as well, for example "stand by" should be enabled in your BIOS so should "wake on USB" or similar be enabled among many other factors, so it's a problem that is not easy to know where to start.

To keep in simple for starters, my OS is WIN7.  From that standpoint you can try going into your power options and disable "hybrid sleep".

This is done by going to control panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Expand "Sleep" > Expand "Allow Hybrid Sleep" and tick both options to "Off".

See if that helps for starters.

[NVF]

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.

[lakrsrool]

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 Vista

Here 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) :


 

[NVF]

I see now that above "shut down" on my start menu I have both sleep and hibernate. I checked modes with powercfg -a and it says I only have the Standby < S3 > Hibernate Hybrid Sleep mode. I could put my PC to sleep with that start menu option but I'm a bit reticent to do that because of the problem I had with starting the computer the other day. According to one of your links I must've been in hibernate mode because the power button on the tower was the only way to wake my PC. I find this strange though because I never had this problem before; a keystroke worked.

I used to never use sleep at all and shut my PC down nightly. I did a decent amount of reading on it and it seems that while shutting down daily may've been a problem with PCs of old, that isn't the case now.  I shut down last night and my PC started this morning so I wonder if it's worth playing with anything now. As I think you said yourself, sleep mode is generally problematic.

[bob3160]

Sleep Mode and Hibernate have always had their problems.
My system is either ON or it's OFF. There is no in-between.
I've also never had a problem with those settings.

[lakrsrool]

I see now that above "shut down" on my start menu I have both sleep and hibernate. I checked modes with powercfg -a and it says I only have the Standby < S3 > Hibernate Hybrid Sleep mode. I could put my PC to sleep with that start menu option but I'm a bit reticent to do that because of the problem I had with starting the computer the other day. According to one of your links I must've been in hibernate mode because the power button on the tower was the only way to wake my PC. I find this strange though because I never had this problem before; a keystroke worked.

I used to never use sleep at all and shut my PC down nightly. I did a decent amount of reading on it and it seems that while shutting down daily may've been a problem with PCs of old, that isn't the case now.  I shut down last night and my PC started this morning so I wonder if it's worth playing with anything now. As I think you said yourself, sleep mode is generally problematic.

I would go back to not using sleep at all like you had been doing before that you mentioned here.  If you want to shutdown nightly that's your choice and shouldn't be a major problem really. It is an undeniable fact however that it is at boot-up when computers will generally fail if they're inclined to i.e, hard drive failure, power supply failure etc. etc.

If at some point you continue to have any further issues booting-up, for example the power button doesn't always start your computer which I'm mentioning here because in your initial post you stated "After shutting down last night I couldn't start my PC today. I turned the surge outlet off then on and I was then able to start my PC." in that case there could be two things to consider that may be involved: 1) Your surge outlet may be getting a bit sketchy (best case scenario) or 2) Your computers power supply may be getting weak.  This can be attributable to how old either is, for example your computer is probably close to 8 years old considering Vista was a short lived OS from late 2006 to early 2007 if I recall correctly so because it's this old your computer power supply could be getting a bit sketchy. On the other hand, of course if your surge outlet is that old (7-8+ years) as well then that might be something else to consider replacing, that is if in fact you have similar issues going forward regarding starting your computer as you've mentioned.

Good luck. 

[NVF]

I got my PC in late 2009 and I did wonder about the power supply regarding the start-up problem, but my first intuition was the power button presses to wake it from sleep mode was the culprit. If you don't know you needn't respond, but is it possible that the original Avast! update reconfigured my system to create the sleep mode problem? It seems awfully coincidental that the problem cropped up immediately after I updated.

At any rate, I thank you for your time and responses.

[lakrsrool]

I got my PC in late 2009 and I did wonder about the power supply regarding the start-up problem, but my first intuition was the power button presses to wake it from sleep mode was the culprit. If you don't know you needn't respond, but is it possible that the original Avast! update reconfigured my system to create the sleep mode problem? It seems awfully coincidental that the problem cropped up immediately after I updated.

At any rate, I thank you for your time and responses.

My best guess is that it actually is coincidental as I doubt very much Avast would have anything to do with your "sleep mode problem", for one thing I can't see how or why Avast would change any "sleep mode" settings or make any changes to BIOS for that matter.  Any keystrokes, mouse move etc should cause a wake from sleep mode without the necessity of using the "power button".  Sleep mode is notoriously problematic.

So then disabling Hybrid Sleep mode by following the link instructions provide earlier didn't help?

I've had issues with variations of "Sleep mode" off and on going back to WIN98, so it happens.  It would work some of the time, other times no response which in that case I had to reboot.  It just seems that depending upon variables the OS can lose it's way sometimes and fail to detect user activity at times when in "sleep mode".   New machines are better, as they get older with more software added it starts to get a bit sketchy sometimes.

So you probably got a really good sale price at the time you bought your Vista machine, WIN7 (which btw, is a  much much better OS) was already out by the time you purchased your computer. Fortunately for you MS has extended support for Vista w/ SP2 until April 11, 2017 (SP1 unsupported).  WIN7 (SP1) will be supported until at least 2020.  I love my WIN7 so will probably keep it past support on some computers.

[NVF]

I haven't tried to use sleep to check if things worked because I fear having to press the power button and the consequences that may have for a shut down and reboot.    Maybe I'll try it soon.

I did get a decent price for my machine with a Win 7 upgrade, but since my graphics card is integrated I really don't have the RAM to run 7.

[bob3160]

I haven't tried to use sleep to check if things worked because I fear having to press the power button and the consequences that may have for a shut down and reboot.    Maybe I'll try it soon.

I did get a decent price for my machine with a Win 7 upgrade, but since my graphics card is integrated I really don't have the RAM to run 7.

If you can, upgraded the ram, install Windows 7 and wait for the free upgrade to Windows 10.

[NVF]

I thought about that but I'd want to upgrade my graphics card too, at which point I may as well get a better PC.