Laptop refusal to sleep or hibernate

My Acer TM8172 TravelMate happily connects to my home network, which also contains two desktop computers, another larger laptop and a network printer. The TravelMate and both desktops run Win 7 Pro. The other laptop, which doesn’t get much use, runs Win 7 Home Premium.

The TravelMate is a lower power laptop designed for long battery life. It has an i3 processor and has been very successful but takes forever to boot. Therefore I usually try to put it to Sleep or tell it to Hibernate rather than fully shut it down. It will always go to sleep or hibernate correctly if neither of the desktop machines is running but if one or other of the desktops is awake about one third of the time the TravelMate hangs while being put to sleep or hibernation. The screen goes black and nothing else happens no matter how long it is left. Control can then only be regained by holding the power switch off for some seconds. One night I experimented by leaving it in the hung state. Result – totally flat battery next morning.

I never have the problem:
1.When I fully shut the TravelMate down, regardless of whether or not the desktop computers are running.
2.When the TravelMate is connected to any other network elsewhere. It connects and disconnects automatically with the network at work and has been connected at various times to many private and public networks both locally and overseas. I’ve never had it refuse to go to sleep or to hibernate in those situations.

The larger laptop, an Asus, has never shown the same problem, however it doesn't get used in the house often enough for that to be definitive.

The TravelMate's behaviour is a real pain. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

If this is still the factory install that is the worst possible install of Win7 one can have, larded with bloatware and duplicate utilities that interfere with much better versions built into Win7. I would do what most tech enthusiasts do and Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

Until then you can Clean Up Factory Bloatware to see if it helps.

Sleep issues are mainly Display driver issues so enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) to Check For Updates, install all Important and Optional Updates which may include drivers and patches needed to make your hardware and software run correctly.

If this doesn't resolve the sleep issues then work through the steps for Sleep Mode Problems - Vista Forums

Thanks gregrocker. I did a clean re-install after the problem first arose, however the Win 7 I used came from the hidden partition (its an Acer) rather than via a clean Windows iso. Even then I had to seek some help from the computer shop (proper one, not a Staples or similar) that I bought the machine from.

I'll dig my way through the whole process again, when I've got a day or two to spare. There's a trade-off between the inconvenience of the problem and the time required to establish a hoped-for cure:)

If you're reasonably happy with the install you have now then you can start with troubleshooting the Sleep Mode Problems - Vista Forums.

I'd check Windows Updates for drivers, if no newer then check the PC's website for the latest display driver which is what causes sleep problems in many cases.