Laptop randomly going into sleep mode...

[thinkpadt60owner2]

It is a really strange phenomenon that is probably hardware related as I've had it with different operating systems on the same laptop. What happens is that the laptop sometimes randomly goes into sleep mode. I then need to re-awaken it, which sometimes works but other times it just goes back to sleep immediately after re-awakening (ad infinitum). Here are some facts that might help you, help me...

1. It is more likely to do it when the AC adapter is not plugged in (although it has nothing to do with battery power remaining)
2. It always sleeps if I am playing a game (football manager 2011 or Civ 4). Usually within 2 minutes of starting the game. Also when it happens during a game, re-awakening it simply doesn't work as it goes back to sleep immediately.
3. When this happens during normal activity (e.g. browsing the internet) re-awakening it usually works first time of asking. Unlike when playing games, it happens quite rarely during normal activity (approximately once every 3/4 hours).
4. This laptop is second hand and I've had this problem since day one. However it's been gradually getting worse. When I first got this laptop this issue only happened when on battery. Now it happens when it's on AC power.
5. The laptop is an IBM Thinkpad T60. Vista is the operating system but I used to have XP before and still had this problem with this same laptop.
6. I used google to see if other people had this problem but had little luck. This is the only similar situation I have come accross...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... -mode.html

7. What I've tried...

* disabling sleep mode in Power Options
* disabling power management in BIOS

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

One of the things that can make a system go into standby (or hibernation) without seemingly being asked is to is the triggering of the lid switch. If Windows Power Manager (Advanced tab) is defined as "Stand by" for the "When I close the lid of my portable computer" option, then set it to "Do nothing" and see if that helps. The problem may change from a system stand by to the screen flashing off and then back on. If so, then I believe that the lid switch on the T60 is built into the LCD inverter. You could swap it out for another unit and see if that fixes the problem.

[thinkpadt60owner2]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

One of the things that can make a system go into standby (or hibernation) without seemingly being asked is to is the triggering of the lid switch. If Windows Power Manager (Advanced tab) is defined as "Stand by" for the "When I close the lid of my portable computer" option, then set it to "Do nothing" and see if that helps. The problem may change from a system stand by to the screen flashing off and then back on. If so, then I believe that the lid switch on the T60 is built into the LCD inverter. You could swap it out for another unit and see if that fixes the problem.

Thank-you for the reply but after hours of searching google for possible problems and trying pretty much everything I finally found the problem (well I'm pretty sure I found the problem) - it was the fan. For some reason it just didn't work as hard as it should for specific tasks. That is why my issue happened most often when I was playing games as the temperature is highest when playing a game. I installed tpfancontrol and started setting the fan speed manually in relation to what activity my computer was doing. So far I haven't had this happen once, even when playing games.

[RealBlackStuff]

Which means you should take the fan out, clean up the dust bunnies (and the old paste) and apply fresh Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.
Overheating is the #1 killer of laptops.

[xxPaulCPxx]

I have this problem now, and as I type my T400 rests on a bed of ice packs. Speed fan shows my heat between 52C and 48C. It just rebooted now while I was double checking those numbers, I booted back to type THIS LINE!

[teamde78]

I had the same problem with my older t60 as well. It was randomly shutting down and when I swapped out the fan with some fresh thermal paste, it was working fine. I agree that overheating absolutely kills laptops.