Dreaded black screen!

Every now and then after putting the machine into Sleep mode, it will not come back on. I have to turn off the machine and restart in Safe mode. then when that has booted up, I can go to Restart to get back into the full version.
Running Windows 7.
Spybot and Malawarebyte etc found no baddies in the system.
Any suggestions. Remember I am a non-technical silver surfer.
TIA.

 

Background processes and programs can cause this. Just before entering sleep mode, check out the icons next to the clock (usually bottom right corner) and close any that you don't need to be running.

 

Had same issue tried everything to solve but just created further problems. In the end I just got a new Asus X series laptop end of line in PC world.

Got a good deal.

I think modern laptops only have a shelf life of say circa 3 years.

Good luck!

 

Thanks.
This is a PC not a laptop.
There only programs running are ones which should be, like Antivirus etc.
I have the whole lot backed up, with Mirror image etc. on an external drive, but I would prefer not to have to format the hard drive on here.

 

I will try and be as non geeky as possible:

Every modern computer (laptops and desk tops less than about 5 years old) have what is know as ACPI built into the motherboard.
The ACPI is an interface between the power control/management of things on the motherboard and the Operating System.
Now what happens is that some manufactures don't implement the ACPI in it's entirety or interpret the specs to their liking and what happens is the OS does not have full control over it.
However, having said that, Windows 7 is also at fault as it has known bugs with some ACPI implementations which are spot on (HP laptops come to mind).

The problem you are having, is more common than you think and the only real "solution" is to set it to never go into sleep mode.
You can set things like turn monitor off after certain amount of time, like wise with the hard-drive/s but set the sleep/hibernate mode of the whole PC (or laptop) to "NEVER".

Apparently there are "fixes" available (updated ACPI drivers for specific motherboards) but it's a bit of a gamble as those "fixes" do not take into account all peripherals that you may have connected.
I have also heard of reports of the whole PC being borked after a "fix".

 

What Dave said, just set it to turn the monitor off and never sleep. As Dave said updating the motherboard/BIOS can be risky business.

 

The odd thing is that it only does it occasionally. I can understand it going off every time, but why only a couple of times in a week?

 

The ACPI actually has several states of "sleep", S3 - S5 are the deepest sleep.
Modern CPU's can control their own speed and hence power consumption.
When you are busy with a CPU intensive task, the CPU will step up it's speed (clock frequency) to compensate but it will also consume more power as well.
(BTW, on a laptop, this is normally when the fan starts spinning wildly).

However, when that CPU intensive task is done, the CPU does not revert back to the lowest speed straight away but takes a bit of time and some actually do it in steps.
So it could well be that depending on the current CPU speed (and hence the power consumption) when the ACPI sleep kicks in, it could have a problem with it.