Windows 7 64 freezes during long idles

I have windows 7 64 bit on a home grown computer and experince a freeze once the pc is left idle for along period. It isnt consistent in that some of the time I can shake the mouse and after a short nonresponse period the os kicks in. Could use ideas and/or help. Thanks.

Crosshair III
Phenom II x 4 965
Ati Radeon 5870
Corsair 8 gig

Welcome plugerman

It could be that you have some hardware set to go in to "sleep" mode after a short period of time. Can you check your power plan options and see if your hard drives are set to sleep when idle for x minutes?

Yes in advanced power options the hard drive was set to sleep in 10 minutes. So can I expect to have non responses from the OS due to power options set?

Set hard drive to not sleep yet still have the same problem. But thanks for your thaughts, anyone else have an idea?

Hi plugerman

Can you right click your task bar > Task Manager > Performance Tab and just let it run until the system freezes, and when it does can you unfreeze with mouse (if possible) and take a screen shot of Task Manager.

I have the same problem with Windows 7 64 bit,

This is a brand new laptop (Compaq) with an AMD processor. If I leave it on for too long, it freezes. On a regular basis.

For example, I'll let it play a movie out while I go to sleep and when I wake up, I move the mouse and the screen turns back on, but no response from mouse or even when I press the start menu button on my keyboard and I have to manually turn my computer off by holding down the power button.

This could be a common problem. Will search for another solution elsewhere.

I found a solution on another thread in another forum:

Matthew, What you are referring to is Sleep mode and after a certain amount of time this sleep goes into hibernation mode.
For it to work properly you need the latest BIOS update for your motherboad, check with Compaq just to be sure you have the latest. The feature in the BIOS you need is called ACPI.
-also, and this may well be YOUR issue, -
In control panel - device manager check all the Human Interface Devices listed, and all the keyboards and mice ... right-click on each one and any that have a Power Management tab, make sure they are NOT checked to allow the computer to turn off this device to save power and make sure it IS checked to allow this device to wake the computer. Try these two things - they may solve your problem.

*** I'm not sure if disabling hybrid sleep will help but even if you do, you should also check the above items

If the problem persists,
In BIOS there may be an ACPI setting you can change. I have seen settings of S1, S3, S1&S3 for this feature and someone suggested if S1&S3 isn't working try just S1 (S1 and S3 are two sleep states with S3 being deeper).

If it still persists,
If you go to control panel - power options you are supposed to be able to control the period of inactivity required before Sleep and Hibernation occur, by setting your own power specifications in advanced settings. Note, the main purpose is to save battery life on laptops (I suppose a second purpose for desktops etc is to save energy, be more green) so you really do WANT it sleeping but I know it's frustrating if it won't wake up.

Finally, mine does respond to the mouse and keyboard and wakes up my screen but other stuff seems to not wake properly because my very next action causes my system to freeze so I have found if my keyboard action to wake the computer is Ctrl-Alt-Delete then it brings up the windows logoff/switch user menu and from there I can switch user and this cycles all my services and my maching does wake up. This isn't great really because I esentially logged off and back on but I figure it is cleaner than pressing my power button for a hard shut down.

Cheers for your assistance. Sleep works fine when I activate it myself, just not when it is an automatic power saving option.