Windows 7: Desktop doesn't always wake up.

Win 7, 64bit, desktop computer doesn't always wake from sleep mode.





I have to switch off the computer and then power up again. Screen states "resuming windows".

Windows button>shut down shows only a sleep option (no hibernation option shown)

Power option is set to "Balanced", display off 25min, put to sleep 40 min

Allow hybrid sleep is "ON"

Hibernate after is set to "never"

You do not see hibernate as a shut down option because hybrid sleep is enabled.
If you disable hybrid you will have hibernate as a shut down option.
If you disable hybrid I expect you will also get an error message when you restart the PC after a wake up from sleep failed.

Hybrid sleep uses both Sleep and Hibernation when the PC goes to sleep.
It saves the Windows session to RAM (for sleep) and hiberfil.sys file (for hibernation).
If there is an error waking up from sleep, the PC resumes from hibernation.
That is why you see the "resuming windows" when the wake from sleep fails.

I'm not sure why the wake up fails for you sometimes.
One guess is it could be an issue with maintaining the necessary low voltage required for the RAM while sleeping.
If the PSU or MB don't maintain the required voltage to RAM for sleep, seems like that could cause this issue.
Perhaps sometimes the Windows session is not written correctly to RAM when going to sleep.

How do you wake up the PC (Power button, Keyboard, Mouse, etc.)?
Do you get a single beep when the PC wakes up correctly?

First off this is a recent problem with this desktop. I guess my error might have been to not do a restore when it first occurred, anyways.

If by "beep" you refer to one of the Windows sounds the answer is no on both counts. The machine sounds the same either way. The difference is, when it isn't gong to wakeup the hard drive light on the front doesn't flash and there is no HD activity sounds.

I will send the machine to sleep either by the sleep key or by a mouse click on the screen.
The machine is set to awake by touching the keyboard. I disabled the mouse as a wake up option. That selection predates this current problem.

In the middle of this reply I sent the machine to sleep using the sleep key. The machine would not awake. I turned the machine off and restarted using the power button on the computer. Windows resumed to this page and what I had typed was still there.

my responses are below in bold

Sometimes you have an error and wake-up from sleep does not work...
IMHO the issue is more of an annoyance than a critical error, as you still do have data integrity with hibernate...

I'm not sure how to explain what caused this recent change for you, but if this happened to i would:

1) Create an OS backup image, clean install Windows, see if the issue continues...for me this is a "free" option.
2) Test a new/different PSU - for me this is more costly/difficult (and i build my own PCs...)

hth,
David