Hello, I have a question on why my computer won’t wake from the sleep mode sometimes, I have to do an abrupt termination of power to revive. Please forgive me if I am not asking this question in the right area of this site. I am new and trying to learn how this is done. Thanks…

Standby, or sleep mode as it is sometimes called, has always been problematic. Its not uncommon at all for people to experience the same problem you are experiencing.? I’m glad you’re learning the basics of your computer and all the power options it has to offer.? We’ll first look at what could be causing the problem you’re experiencing and then some other options I personally recommend over the Sleep Mode.

Sleep mode has had a lot of trouble with waking up from its idle state due to the nature of what the computer has evolved into today.? Many times, decides plugged into the USB Drives (iPod’s, USB Hubs.etc) can cause this issue as they are not receiving enough power and suck more of the system resources during sleep mode.? I recommend disabling this on desktop computers for this reason that trying to reboot your computer after it fails to restore from sleep mode does not always guarantee/protect your data; thus I turn off the ability for my computer to set itself into that state.

In your computer, go into your control panel and power management settings and turn off standby mode all together. It serves no real purpose on a desktop computer and causes more problems than it is worth. Instead, set your monitor and hard drive to turn off after about 20 minutes or so; this will preserve enough power yet not bring along the hassle of restoring back into use.

Laptops have this problem at times due to a need to Flash the BIOS.? Flashing the BIOS is more or less like updating a piece of software, except the BIOS is very important and the lack of proper procedural technique could render your computer useless.? Check your manufacturer’s website to see if an update is available.

I recommend using the hibernation mode over sleep/standby.? Hibernation writes anything stored on the RAM to a non-volatile storage like your hard drive before it completely powers down the system.? The restoration when you power back on your PC, as if you are turning it on normally, is very quick and saves even more power then standby!? In all my years of owning different computers, I’ve never once relied nor used the standby feature.