Computer just locks when I put it to sleep

J

jbond5491

New Member
Hey guys! I'm having a problem lately with Vista's sleep function. This problem started a couple of days ago, almost randomly. Whenever I put my computer to sleep, it doesn't actually GO to sleep. Rather, it's like if I had just locked it instead. The display stays on and it just goes to the Log In screen for vista. When my computer used to go to sleep, the display would turn off and so would all the LED indicators on my laptop, expect for the power indicator, which would blink on and off. Now however they all stay on. Any idea on what I should do?

Btw, I'm running a Dell Inspiron 1420 with Windows Vista Basic 32bit. Thanks for any help you guys can give.
 

My Computer

System One

Are you pressing a sleep button, or are you selecting sleep from the start menu? If you're pressing a sleep button (including a keyboard sleep key), you should go to Power Options (type power options in the start menu search), and click the Choose what the power buttons do on the left pane. Make sure the sleep button is set to make the computer go to sleep.

What happens when you press the sleep button after it goes to the lock screen?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP dv5-1120ej Notebook PC
    CPU
    Intel Dual 2.16GHz
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9200M GS, 256MB
    Hard Drives
    320GB internal, 320GB external, 1TB external to come (big download library XD)
    Internet Speed
    Fast enough
    Other Info
    Firefox, Foobar, and AutoHotkey! Go open source!
I go to the start menu and press the "sleep" option. What happens is the display turns off, but the LEDs keep flashing. This continues until I press the Power button, and that is when the computer takes me to the Login screen.
 

My Computer

System One

Is it possible you have hybrid sleep enabled? Hybrid sleep tells your computer to go to sleep, but also to save the whole session to the hard disk (as Hibernate does), i.e. also sleep and also hibernate. If this is the case, it may take a short while until the computer actually falls asleep, until it finishes writing to the disk. What happens if you give it a few minutes? Does it eventually go to sleep?

You can go ahead and check in the advanced power options:
Advanced Power Settings.JPG

The hybrid sleep is between the two highlighted options that follow (Allow hybrid sleep). You can turn it off.
Advanced Settings.JPG
(You can ignore the highlight - I highlighted these for a different thread at a different time)

Let me know if that was it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP dv5-1120ej Notebook PC
    CPU
    Intel Dual 2.16GHz
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9200M GS, 256MB
    Hard Drives
    320GB internal, 320GB external, 1TB external to come (big download library XD)
    Internet Speed
    Fast enough
    Other Info
    Firefox, Foobar, and AutoHotkey! Go open source!
I've checked and hybrid sleep is off. Great suggestion though thanks a bunch man.

I've put the computer to sleep before I go to bed and when I wake up the LEDs are still flashing as if the computer was still active. This problem just recently started; before that my computer was able to go to sleep without any hitches at all. The only programs I can think that I installed right around when this problem started were printer drivers and TVersity (a media server). Since then I've uninstalled the server but kept the printer drivers.
 

My Computer

System One

When you open the computer in the morning, and it's in a locked state, you can log back in no problem, right? If so, I suggest taking a look at the task manager and trying to find anything that may be busy and keeping the computer awake.

Press Control+Shift+Escape to open task manager. In task manager, click View -> Select columns. Make sure that I/O Reads [Bytes], I/O Writes [Bytes], and CPU Time are checked. The first two columns show how much each process is reading/writing from the hard disk since startup and the last one checks how much time is each program demanding from your computer. If you follow these numbers before and after you tell the computer to go to sleep, you'll see which programs run while the computer isn't able to go to sleep. Perhaps one of these programs is keeping it awake. Keep this thread posted.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP dv5-1120ej Notebook PC
    CPU
    Intel Dual 2.16GHz
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9200M GS, 256MB
    Hard Drives
    320GB internal, 320GB external, 1TB external to come (big download library XD)
    Internet Speed
    Fast enough
    Other Info
    Firefox, Foobar, and AutoHotkey! Go open source!
Hello, I had the same problem with my computer although mine is a desktop. I thought I'd post a reply because it bugged me for ages and I managed to sort it.

Its is most likely that media centre is causing the problem by not letting your computer sleep whilst it is "sharing".

When you go to the power options in the control panel and you see the option to select a power plan click "change plan settings". Then select "change advanced power settings". Scroll down to multimedia settings, select "when sharing media" and then select "allow the computer to sleep". Your computer should now go into sleep mode.

Hope this helps :)
 

My Computer

System One

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