1420/Vista Sleep Problems Are Driving Me Nuts!

I've had an Inspiron 1420 (7200, 8400GS, 7200rpm h.d.) for three weeks and love it. It's so solid compared to my old Compaq V2000z, super-fast, beautiful screen.

But I want to be able to use sleep mode. About half the time, when the computer goes to sleep (either by closing the lid, pressing the sleep button, or setting a time to sleep in power options), instead of going all the way to sleep (in which case the power light goes on and off slowly), the screen goes off, the keyboard deactivates, but all the front lights remain on, including the hard drive light (which flickers). The only way to bring the computer back to life is to hold down the power button until it switches off completely, and then reboot from scratch.

Often, but not always, it sleeps properly the first time after a reboot, and then fails to go to sleep the second time.

I've seen other threads on similar sleep problems, and I've tried everything mentioned: new Nvidia drivers from laptopvideotogo (I'm currently using 162.50, because they were WHQL certified, but I've tried older ones and newer ones and the stock drivers, with no luck); the two recent hotfixes from Microsoft, an upgrade to Vista Ultimate, and every variation in the power settings I can find, like turning on and off hybird sleep. I've disabled peripherals I don't use, and shut down programs that might be trying to keep something alive, like Skype. Nothing has worked.

I really, really want to be able to use my laptop all day long, opening and closing it to sleep. Anyone else have this problem? Anyone solve it, for good?

 

My Acer 5610 has the same problem. I just press any key on the keyboard and it works again (without rebooting). It works most of the time, but I have a lot of driver issues, so sometimes the system freezes.

 

how about setting your computer to do nothing when you close the lid, leave it at that.

and when you want to sleep, go to start, click shutdown, and put it to sleep mode. it works for me. i can sleep, turn it back on, and sleep again, and turn it back on.

sometimes, dell laptops refuse to turn on the screen when you shut the lid and open it again. my sister's m1210 does that, so i avoid closing the lid when i use it. but yeah.. best thing to do is put it to sleep before you close the lid.

 

Out of curiosity, have you actually tried reinstalling the 1420 drivers from the Dell driver CD?

I had some stability issues with the laptopvideo2go drivers, including hibernation/sleep issues.

Even though my 3DMark05 scores went up, it wasn't worth the "side effects".

-LQ

 

I have the same problem. Did anyone find a solution to this issue?

 

Try disabling TMM:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=153286

 

I had similar problem. I tried everything, even disable the TMM. Re-intall Drivers from Dell's website. Nothing worked.

However, I chatted with Dell support last night. He helped me installed 2 drivers. He remotely does everything while I was away for a while. He told me he installed the newest "chipset" driver and newest "video" driver.

So far, the problem has not occurred again yet. I will report back in couple days to see if it's complete fix.

 

you by chance know the version of the chipset driver that the Dell Tech installed?

 

unfortunately, I don't have it. I was away, and the tech was remotely install everything on my computer. Sorry... If i find out, i let you know...