my laptop will no longer hibernate

Noob here and first post. Please redirect if I am in the wrong place. Since downloading the Tuesday patches my laptop will no longer hibernate. The screen goes black quickly as it always did before but the hard drive keeps flashing intermittently and the power button stays lit. Eventually the system gives up trying to hibernate and gives me what appears to be a BSOD with an error message about a Driver Power State Error. I restart the machine in safe mode and all seems ok. A full stop and then start after the safe mode run seems to restore everything but it is not possible to run a restart or a hibernate action. Also, on occasion now, when running Symantec virus scan the scan seems to get hung up. If I use the manual "stop scan" the scan eventually stops running but an attempt at a new scan gives me a message that a scan is in progress. Checking the scan log I can see an open, running scan ( the one I manually stopped) with no activity. A complete shutdown of the system restores Symantec so I can run a virus scan.
Any suggestions to get the hibernate function working again would be greatly appreciated.

No one here recommends Symantec which is pretty awful bloatware. Try uninstalling it and use a free lightweight solution like the recommended Microsoft Security Essentials.

Norton is so pernicious it requires a special Removal Tool to clean it all out: Download and run the Norton Removal Tool to uninstall your Norton product

Was your Display adapter Updated recently? If so try rolling back to the previous version in Device Manager. If not try Updating the Display adapter.

If the Updates caused this issue, you can roll them back using System Restore. If this causes hibernate to work again, then reinstall the Updates singly to find the one causing the problem and post it back.

Thanks, Greg. No, my display adapter has not been updated so I will do that first then try the other possible solutions. System restore was my first attempt at rectifying this problem but it would not allow me to access a restore point prior to latest Tuesday patch. I'll look at that tutorial you linked and see if I can find a way around that problem. My hunch is that the update that caused the problem was the 4th one in the update list as my system got hung up trying to download it. Hate to part with Norton as I have been using it since my first PC way back in the dark ages and have never had a virus or trojan horse problem. But, if it needs to go, it needs to go.

I'll post back once I have followed all your suggestions. Thanks!

You may need to use System Restore from System Recovery Options

gregrocker said:

You may need to use System Restore from System Recovery Options

I tried to run a system restore and the initiation sequence hung up. After 45 minutes of watching the "toilet flush" while the screen says "Please wait while system restore is initializing" I am giving up and headed to the Geek squad.

My wife tells me I should get a better laptop. My laptop was fine until I downloaded the latest critical patches. I need a better operating system.

So which method for System Recovery Options did you use to System Restore? If it fails from from F8 then use the disk since the onboard WinRe might be corrupted. The Disk along with everything else possible that can be done is in Fix Unbootable Win7

Geek Squad will be almost as expensive as buying a new PC and you'll still end up with the crappy preinstalled Win7 with all of the bloatware and duplicate Utilities which interere with better versions built into Win7.

That's why the last resort in Fix Unbootable Win7 to rescue your files, boot the Win7 installer provided to delete all partitions and Reinstall is actually the Best Case Scenario. So you really can't lose. We've helped tens of thousands of users get perfect Clean REinstalls without a single complaint.

Otherwise everything possible that can be done to start Win7 is in the blue link. It take patience, the will to learn and the desire to save hundreds of dollars while learning how to repair your PC and/or get the best install of WIn7 one can have which is priceless.

I specificallly said to use System Restore from System Recovery Options and not Windows for that reason. You even quoted it in your reply.

But if you're ready to do the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 then read over the steps closely and type your questions into the reply box so we can get you going.

gregrocker said:

I specificallly said to use System Restore from System Recovery Options and not Windows for that reason. You even quoted it in your reply.

But if you're ready to do the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 then read over the steps closely and type your questions into the reply box so we can get you going.

Like I said, I am a noob and misunderstood. I first need to get to a start screen before I can do anything further. So, since the machine is hung in the "initializing restore" operation do I press and hold the power button until the machine goes off, then restart it hoping to get into safe mode?

Thanks, Greg, and pardon my ignorance here.