Computer Will Not Wake up From Power Saving Mode Sleep

When you are on your computer and walk away from it for a few minutes, on returning, it appears your computer has gone into power saving mode. In other words it has gone to sleep. This is all fine, providing you can now wake your computer from this deep power saving sleep.

Too many computer users move the mouse, tap on the keyboard, and even turn the monitor on and off, to try and wake the sleeping computer.

This Automatic Power saving mode is a great feature when it works like it was supposed to. However when you are right in the middle of writing an important document you have been working on for over two hours and haven’t had the chance to save yet, the Automatic Power saving mode can be sheer disaster.

You walk away to get a cup of coffee and come back to a blank computer screen or maybe a black screen with cursor, but either way you have a non responding computer. If you cannot wake the computer from this power saving sleep, than your all your hard work will be lost.

How to wake up from power saving mode?

As there are so many different brands of computers and computer components, there are a few different ways to wake your computer up from a power saving sleep.

  • The obvious way is to press keys on your keyboard or move your mouse.
  • Basically we need to shock it into waking up. Sometimes people perform a hard reboot.
  • You can remove all cords and power to the computer. Press on the power button when nothing is connected. Then reconnect all cords and start your computer.
  • If you have a laptop you can remove the battery and the cords.
  • Sometimes it is necessary to remove the memory and then put it back. Then start the computer again.

Why won’t the mouse and keyboard wake up the computer from the power saving sleep?

To use a mouse or the keyboard to wake up a computer from power saving mode, sometimes you need to enable this feature. Hopefully this is the answer to your problem because this is the easiest problem to solve.

These steps are the first to try and if this doesn’t solve your problem I will give you some extra things to try.

  1. Go to the start menu.
  2. Right click on My computer and choose properties from the menu that pops up.
  3. System properties will open. In Windows Vista click on Advanced Settings in the right menu.
  4. In both Windows XP and Vista you can go to the hardware tab.
  5. Click on the Device Manager button.
  6. Find your mouse in the devices list. To open sections click on the + sign next to the word. Click on the device to make it blue.
  7. Then right click on it and choose properties from the menu. See the screen shot below.

wake computer from power saving mode

  1. When your mouse properties open go to the Power Management tab.
  2. Put a tick in the box next to Allow this device to wake the computer.
  3. Press OK. See the Screenshot below.

Move mouse to wake computer

Extra steps to take when your computer will not wake up?

  • Disable power saving mode altogether.
  • Check to see if your computer has an overheating problem. If it does it will not restart until it is cooled down.
  • Download all Windows Updates.
  • Make sure your computer doesn’t have a under rated power supply.
  • Check your hardware. Graphics cards and motherboards are common culprits for this problem.
  • Clean the motherboard and other inside components of dirt and dust. Dirt causes static and static damages the board. Please see how to  open computer cases safely and how to  clean inside your computer

Let us know how you wake up your computer from sleep mode?

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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

ED December 30, 2011 at 6:55 pm

Hello Mitz,
My laptop has a blue screen with a flashing cursor, I have tried turning it off ctrl. alt delete, powering it down F2 and F12 nothing works. Any additional ideas you may have for me to try.

ED

Reply

Alexander Naumov November 25, 2011 at 3:50 pm

Hi, thanks for explanations!

Earlier, my PC was not powered by UPS. I has noticed that when PC is in sleep mode, and AC power goes off – yes, this is often in Ukraine – then I cannot wake up PC in any way, except by resetting BIOS.
Now my PC is powered by UPS. Sometimes PC does not wake from sleep, again. Can it be failure in UPS? Should I buy newer motherboard, or change UPS battery?

Reply

Jack November 12, 2011 at 9:50 pm

Awesome! Fixed my problem. Thanks a million Ms. Computer freak Mitz.
Jack recently posted..Breathe Right Snore Relief Review

Reply

zyader October 25, 2011 at 7:36 am

hi mitz have tried the steps above but it doesn’t work why

Reply

Mitz October 26, 2011 at 4:17 am

Your computer might not be asleep..

Reply

JJ June 26, 2011 at 10:12 pm

Thanks! I didn’t have to ask my husband to help and that is always a good thing.
My computer had both the keyboard and mouse enabled to wake up the machine. I’ve noticed that it’s when I leave photoshop up and walk away that it gives me trouble and won’t wake up. Or when it does wake up a black screen stares at me for awhile. I’ll just need to save everything before I walk away.

Reply

Travis Mann April 25, 2011 at 10:43 pm

Thank you very much! Couldn’t think of why this wasn’t working on my new build until I came across this. Keep up the great work!

Reply

Michael Johnson January 25, 2011 at 1:16 am

Sometimes you just have to tap the power button on the front of the Computer, same with a lap top. Sometimes hibernation can be confused with stand by but do not hold it down or yeah that will restart the pc all together. Although most programs now like MS Word have excellent restore features as do most browsers.

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Gwenda January 4, 2011 at 4:10 pm

My computer went into sleep mode yesterday and now I can’t get anything on the screen – not even a flashing underscore. However, the green monitor light is flashing. Are you able to assist, please? By the way, I did have a usb data stick left in but this has now been removed. I have also turned the computer off and back on, no change. And also turned the monitor off at the wall, left it and turned back on. No change.

Reply

Mitz January 5, 2011 at 12:53 am

Hi Gwenda
Can you try to get into safe mode by pressing F8 when starting your computer and choosing it from the menu of choices. If you can, let’s start up in safe mode and then shut it down correctly. Let me know if you can do this?

Reply

Enedina Kuemmerle June 7, 2010 at 10:30 am

Good luck everybody! – I will come back again. Are you on facebook or twitter? Will like to follow you.
Thanks

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