Yet another computer question...

[Scott Douglas]

I had to take down my computer system so the room could be cleared out for new flooring.

I've hooked it back up and got it started OK. Only problem is, it is having a hard time waking up from 'sleep' mode.

I'm running Win 8.1 64-bit on an AMD A8-5500 with a Radeon HD Graphics 3.20 GHz and 8GB's of RAM.

Is there something I can check to see why it isn't waking up?

When it tries to wake up, the screen shows the desktop photo but none of the icons for programs show up, nor in the task bar at the bottom.

Is my HD about to take a dump on me?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I'm starting to think I got lucky in that I didn't have to label any of the wires. My stereo may be another story though.

[John Rogers]

You might try starting it in "safe mode" to see what happens. Sometimes Windows will not start up completely if it is trying to do OS updates if they have not been done in a while or other words the Windows takes control away from you.

If you want to try this it might also work. Try starting and let it sit a while then do ctrl-alt-del and start the task manager. Look to see if "Windows Explorer" is running in the "processes" column. If not then select file -> run new task and select Windows Explorer. I think the OS can't read you directory named "Desktop" on your "C" drive under your user ID?

[Scott Douglas]

Thanks for the reply John.
I'll give it a try later today.
Still overwhelmed with the disruption of the flooring exercise.
My computer does seem to be responding quicker than it did before, so maybe it was a good thing that I exercised all the connections some. It'd been years since some of those connectors were apart.

[Scott Douglas]

I let the computer go to sleep and tried waking it up. Desktop came up without icons. Task bar icons were not there and it didn't show icon for computer being connected to internet. I hit control/alt/delete and got a blue screen. Nothing after that so I shut it off via the power strip. Turned it back on and logged in as usual. Changed the screen saver to 'Show login screen' on waking and it seemed to work fine when it went to sleep.
I just got a pop-up from AVG saying I have 181 broken registry items.
Maybe I'll run that and see if that helps.

[ossiblue]

Hey Scott, I've had similar situations as well. If the suggestions given so far don't pan out, here's what I did that worked for me, but it was a while ago and not with Windows 8.1 (I refuse to use/install it.)

What I did was reset/reboot the computer to an earlier date. I'm sorry I can't remember the exact procedure but there are certain benchmark points that the computer will go back to. All files, programs, and updates are removed from that benchmark date forward and the computer boots up as if it was that date. I believe I accessed the steps by booting in safe mode but, again, I can't remember the exact way to access the reboot to a previous date. Hopefully someone can give you the steps or you can Google it with another computer.

Hope all is good with you--long time, no see!

Edit: I just did a brief search and apparently System Restore is not available with Windows 8.1! Sorry. Maybe there's another way someone knows.

[Scott Douglas]

I must have a 'self-healing' computer of some sort. It went into screen saver mode once this morning and it was flashing all kinds of color test patterns, blue screens, white screens too. Wouldn't come out of that mode so I shut it down again.
After playing around with the internet connection (yeah, the router etc had to be taken down for the floors too, lucky me) I changed the screen saver program back to normal, ie NOT the login screen since it's only me on this computer. So far, it's worked OK (there I jinxed didn't I?).
I ran a diagnostic with AVG or was it CCleaner and got a bunch of registry listing that aren't any good, supposedly. But, being cheap I don't have a program to remove them. I did photograph them so I could look them up later and remove them, but haven't downloaded the pictures yet.
Now all that's left is to tackle my wife's computer. Different Win OS, I think it's running Win 7. Wish me luck.

[Scott Douglas]

I did jinx it.
After a long sleep, it wouldn't awaken. sigh.
Back to the drawing board as they say....

[Baz]

Hey Scott....I'd like to see a pic of your new shag carpeting at some point, if you get a sec.

[Scott Douglas]

Here you go Baz.
That block of wood is the old color of the beams in the family room. It is now all mono-chrome white.

[Por_sha911]

Consider using a registry cleaner and also Defrag.

[Scott Douglas]

Thanks Joe, I just tried a reg cleaner. We'll see what happens now.

[Scott Douglas]

Downloaded a reg cleaner last nite and ran it.
Walked away from the computer this morning after doing my daily routine of checking different sites and it went to sleep. Came back and touched the space bar and IT WOKE UP just fine!
I think it may be OK now, but, only time will tell.

[john70t]

My Win7 computer would not wake up from sleep mode either about 70-90% of time.
I tried all different combos to see what "saved it" from the auto-restart sequence mode. Never did find out.

Usually, spending less time in sleep mode equated to less restarts, so I was suspecting the 2032 CMOS battery for some reason.
I replaced that on the MB and on next bootup the whole system crashed.
Then it was time for a complete overhaul thanks to that stack of Windows backup DVDs being completely useless even though I followed the rules.
Kicking myself for not researching first before changing things around.

Besides the battery I suspected a bad video card/MB or driver because there were some funky artifacts happening on screen.
Or it was simple Microsoft sabotage.

[Por_sha911]

If the fix holds. You probably need to defrag as well.
I also suggest deleting you temp files by going to Sart/Run/%temp% (let me know if you need more explanation).
Delete all. If the system refuses to delete certain files then let them be.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

Here you go Baz.
That block of wood is the old color of the beams in the family room. It is now all mono-chrome white.

Looks great, Scott!

I was just making a joke about the shag carpeting - but I guess you figured that out.

Good luck with the computer issue. Love my computer but when stuff isn't working it drives me crazy!

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by Baz

Love my computer but when stuff isn't working it drives me crazy!

Short trip?
Sorry no reflection on you, I just couldn't resist the softball opportunity. Feel free to throw one back at me.

[Scott Douglas]

I may have spoken too soon. It did it again. And now the new firefox update wants to take over everything. sigh. I've almost got the stereo system back in place. What a hassle this has been. I'm not going to jinx my wife's computer and tell you it's working since she says it's slow(er) compared to before.
I'll keep plugging away at it. Nothing better to do till I get my camera battery charged up, but that will have to wait for the stereo to be finished.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

Short trip?
Sorry no reflection on you, I just couldn't resist the softball opportunity. Feel free to throw one back at me.

Ha - good one, Joe. Indeed a short trip - no green font needed!

Some days you're the pitcher...other days you're the catcher.

The way things are going today - I'm the catcher.

[Por_sha911]

No worries Baz. Now you have the ball. Run with it!

[Scott Douglas]

Just to update this thread. I ran a check of the HD via the Win disk management software. It found the disk had errors and said to repair and recheck after restarting the computer. I asked it to repair and an HP app(?) took over and checked/repaired before restarting the computer.
Will just have to wait and see how it reacts to this.