My laptop freezes when it automatically goes to sleep (or hibernate) due to Control Panel's Power Options settings. I can not get the laptop to wakeup by pressing any keys including Control + Alt + Delete. Briefly pressing the power button does nothing. I have to hold the power button down for 4 seconds to force the laptop to power off. When it boots up, Windows complains about the laptop not being shutdown properly.
The laptop freezes when I manually put it to sleep (or hibernate) even when automatic sleep (and hibernate) is disabled in Power Options.
Manually sleeping (or hibernating) freezes the laptop even if the laptop is not docked and running on a battery. The only thing connected to the laptop when undocked is my wireless (non-Bluetooth) mouse.
Manual sleep (or hibernate) works 1 time and the second time will freeze the laptop. After a reboot, I can repeat the process (i.e. the first time works and the second time freezes).
Edit 2014/07/15: I replaced the SSD with the original HDD. When I manually put the laptop to sleep and wake it back up, the laptop will freeze a minute or two later. The screen is on and I can see the desktop but nothing responds. I don't even get a chance to put it to sleep the second time.
Docking and undocking the laptop has no effect on the laptop if the Power Options are not set to put the laptop to sleep if the lid is closed.
There are 3 phases to sleep. The first phase lasts a few seconds and flashes the disk light several times with many flashes being very bright. The second phase lasts a few seconds and doesn't flash the disk light at all. The third phase lasts a lot of seconds and keeps the disk light on the entire time but not very bright. The laptop always freezes during the first or second phase… I can't tell which.
I can start and exit Process Explorer several times without freezing the laptop. See this question for more details. If I put the laptop to sleep and wake it up, then exiting Process Explorer will freeze the laptop. It seems the laptop/OS gets into a state after sleeping that anything can cause it to freeze.
I thought about booting into Safe Mode and try sleeping from there. Unfortunately, I didn't see a Start menu option to sleep or hibernate while in Safe Mode.
I tried several other things and put them as answers so that others can upvote them and we can see what generally works.
Here is the configuration of my laptop:
- Dell Latitude E6430
- BIOS version: A14 (12/27/2013)
- Intel Core i5-3340M (Ivy Bridge)
- Intel HD Graphics 4000
- Video BIOS version: 2158v12
- 16 GB of RAM
- 500 GB SSD SATA (Samsung 840 EVO)
- Firmware version: EXT0BB6Q
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Best Answer
This is most likely a driver issue.
Check your driver for the "O2 Micro memory card reader". It should be Version 3.0.7.47,A05. Version A04 shows the behavior you described. See also GnawGnu's Blog.
Get the current driver from Dell support. Enter the service tag, check "Drivers" and look in section "Chipset".
When a problem like this arises, one could disable each device in Device Manager until the problem goes away. This will identify the device and hence driver which is having a problem. One could also use the "driver" tab in Sysinternal's Autoruns to disable drivers.