Windows 7 sleep mode and related issues

T

Thewordsmith

Member
Ever since I installed Winows 7, 32 bit upgrade over my Vista Gateway machine I have encountered a number of problems. Most frequent is its failure to wake up properly from Sleep mode - the fans start up OK, but not the actual OS. Blue light on power switch fails to come on.
Also I frequently get sudden Outlook crashes (with automatic reboots), and occasional display failure following wake up from sleep (could be video card error?).
I am really fed up with the whole thing and ready to buy a new box - I can get a HP Athlon Quad 830 with 8 gig of ram and a Terrabyte HDD, running 64 bit Win7, for CAN$ 469, but I am scared of losing access to my main apps (TMPEG DVD Author v2, and Photoshop CS2 being the most important to me).
Any advice on either issue would be most welcome.
 
Do you have the original install discs for Photoshop/other software? Windows 7 runs best when its installed from scratch.
 
I have the install discs for all my major software, but the Win7 is a family pack upgrade. Also the new computer I was looking at has disappeared, and is now repriced at $599 (pricing error before?) so a hardware upgrade is no longer my option. So basically I need to fix the sleep mode problem on this box, and (maybe) get a new video card (?). For the work I do, a 32 bit dual core is adequate.
 
Even the upgrade discs should allow you to do a re-install. If you put Vista back on there and run the upgrade disc again it only needs to see that a previous version of Windows is on the drive. Than you can wipe it totally clean when you go to install Windows 7. A PITA i know but when it comes to sleep/hibernation problems in Windows theres not much more you can do to fix it.

Addendum:

Oh, and if you've got an old copy of XP that should work too (if you don't have a Vista disc). An upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7 isn't supported, so the upgrade disc well automatically reformat the drive during Windows 7's installation.
 
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Thanks Justin. I already did the reinstall (then spent 3 hours trying to talk to a real person at Micros**t to get my activation reaccepted). It would appear from other bloggers and forums that my best choice is to not use the sleep mode at all and just shut down my monitor if I am offline for short periods, or hibernate if I am going away for an hour or two. I always shut down fully at night anyway, but sometimes the Gateway won't power up - fans start up, but no blue light and no OS - the trick seems to be in how I hit the power switch (dodgy component?). All of this is why I am considering a new box. The problem is that everything is now 64 bit, hence my other concerns about my legacy software, and do I REALLY need a quad processor for the stuff I do (mostly simple video editing, CS2 and office apps)?
 
I'm still running on a dual-core myself with Vista even, a little slow to upgrading. I'm not having any sleep issues. Even after a clean install you're still having problems? If you do video production for a living or use your computer for heavy games I'd recommend the update, but otherwise might as well use what you got. 64-bit Windows isn't something to worry about too much in Windows 7. Sure, some apps might not work on it, but most should. If you do have some app that won't for whatever reason that you need to use, you could always install a 32-bit Windows OS in a VM with tools like VirtualBox, or purchase Windows 7 Ultimate to take advantage of Windows XP mode (or whatever they call that feature...)
 
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Thanks for the supportive comments. No business needs right now (fully retired) so I'll live with the problems until I'm forced to update by software redundancy. Most of my work is hobby style photo and video editing - very straightforward stuff. I've stopped using sleep mode now, and so far hibernation seems to work well enough when I leave for an hour or more.

Appreciate your input. Bye for now
 
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