System Freezes After Idle for Long Period of Time

Since I've had this Vista machine (since 2008), this is the first time I've ever had this issue. About 85% - 95% of the time, when I leave my computer idle for a few hours and come back, everything is frozen. I can leave for any length of time, and it never unfreezes on its own. Ctrl + Alt + Dlt doesn't even work. The only way I can get out of it is if I unplug the power cord from the back of the machine, then plug it back in, and hit the power button to start it again. Of course at this point, I get the black screen which asks if I want to start Windows normally or go into Safe Mode, etc. It's starting to get old, and I need to find the resolution.

Just so that there is no confusion, I don't have 'Sleep' activated in the O.S. itself, and I never have. The only thing that goes to sleep after about 20 minutes is the monitor itself, which wakes up immediately when either moving the mouse or tapping any key on the keyboard.

Fist thought is that maybe there is a virus causing it. I've done a full system scan with Malwarebytes, and it found nothing. The next step I was going to do along those lines was to perform a full system scan with Nortons, because from my experience, sometimes malware is found between the two full-system scans, when one of the anti-malware/virus programs doesn't catch it. It might not even be related to malware, IDK, so that's why I'm asking for help on the next troubleshooting step. Thanks.
 

My Computer

Hello-

When you go to Control Panel, Power Options, what do you have it set for?

If you select Change the settings for this plan and Advanced Settings and select Restore default plan settings, does this help?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Cyberpower
    CPU
    Intel Quad CPU Q6700 2.67 GHZ
    Motherboard
    NVIDIA 780i
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster SB Audigy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VG2436
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung HD 105SI
    WDC WD20
    Case
    Apevia XJupiter
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech MX 3200
    Mouse
    Logitech MX 600
    Internet Speed
    30 Mbps
Hello, thanks for the reply. I have it set to high performance. And just to update, hopefully whatever the issue it was, it cleared itself out because I haven't had it happen in about a week. If it happens again, I'll restore the settings to default like you said, and see if that helps, but in the meantime, I'll keep my fingers crossed that the issue doesn't resurface. Thanks again.
 

My Computer

Great! Hopefully your problem is solved.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Cyberpower
    CPU
    Intel Quad CPU Q6700 2.67 GHZ
    Motherboard
    NVIDIA 780i
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster SB Audigy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VG2436
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung HD 105SI
    WDC WD20
    Case
    Apevia XJupiter
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech MX 3200
    Mouse
    Logitech MX 600
    Internet Speed
    30 Mbps
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