Solve Windows Vista sleep problems

Hi, I�m Molly Wood from CNET.com, and you look tired. Maybe it�s because your Vista laptop can�t sleep, and it�s keeping you up at night. I�m here with some tips for solving Windows Vista�s legendary sleep problems. If you own a PC running Vista, you�re all too aware of this problem. You close the laptop lid or use the Start menu options to put the computer to sleep � but a few minutes later, it pops back awake again like a stubborn toddler! ANNOYING! First, let�s try to figure out what�s waking up your machine. It could be hardware, like your mouse, keyboard, or network adapter. Go to the Control Panel, here. Choose Hardware and Sound and then Device Manager. Right-click the mouse and choose Properties. Then click the Power Management Tab. Uncheck the box next to, �Allow this device to wake the computer.� Now, if you�re doing this with your mouse, just be aware that you won�t be able to jiggle it to wake the computer. Trade-offs. Try this step with your keyboard and your network adapter and anything else you think of. Now, here�s another possibility that it took an insanely long time to uncover. Your multimedia sharing could be the problem � like if you�ve got network-attached storage or if Windows Media Player is sharing files. Yeah. Insane. Go to the Control Panel and choose Power Options (just switch over to Classic View here, it�s a lot easier to find things). Under the selected option, choose Change plan settings. Then choose Change advanced power settings. Scroll down to Multimedia settings and expand it, then expand When sharing media. In the dropdown menu next to �Plugged in,� choose "Allow the computer to sleep." PLEASE. Allow the computer to SLEEP! You can also just disable media sharing if you don�t need it. Open Windows Media Player, select Library, and choose Media Sharing. Uncheck the box next to Share my media. That�ll probably keep the RIAA off your back, too. If you don�t want to monkey with all those settings, you could just consider using Hibernate instead of Sleep. Hibernate is useful if your computer won�t be plugged in for a while, because it saves your settings in memory, and then completely powers off the machine. It draws slightly less power than Sleep and can preserve your battery better. And because so many things can affect your computer�s sleep, I�ve had sys-admins tell me Hibernate is more reliable. If Hibernate isn�t enabled by default on your Vista machine, you�ll have to turn it on in the command line. You�ll have to be an administrator on the machine. Click Start and type CMD to open the command prompt. Then type powercfg -h on This turns the Hibernate function back on. Now, you should see it there when you click the arrow next to the lock in the Start menu. Vista�s sleep problems are complicated and sometimes very system-specific, but HOPEFULLY one of these tweaks can help you and your computer get some much-needed rest. If not, visit the Windows Vista forums at forums.cnet.com � you�ll find a lot of helpful tips there. For CNET.com How To, I�m Molly Wood, and you�re welcome.