Vista Sleep / Hibernation problems on VGN A-317M

[jurev]

Problems with Vista on VGN A-317M

1. Notebook goes into sleep mode well, but never wakes up (when pressing key in sleep mode, the power light turns on, and CPU FAN starts turning for 5 seconds, but display stays black (and system also unresponsive to any keyboard commands). Only power shutdown and reboot helps.

2. Hibernation also has problems: it hibernates ok, and also reboots well from hibernation, but after a few minutes of working the system freezes. Only power shutdown and reboot helps.

I saw on this forum a fix for FE41Z, which does not apply to my A317M(http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/gb/en/forum/viewthread?thread=39627).

I installed a Vista fix that is relevant with my problem, but no luck: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928135/

I installed all vista drivers for A-317M that are available on Vaio-Link.

I even tried installing latest ATI Radeon X600 drivers (using some utility that enables installing catalyst drivers event on mobility radeon). No luck (even with original ATI Mobility X600 drivers that came with Vista).

Is there any BIOS update for A317?

[waterlily]

Hi there
I have a similar problem and get a serious irrecoverable error each time my notebook goes into self-hibernate (or sleep, not sure what the difference is). If someone knocks on your front door you have to see who it is and by the time I get back to my computer it's self-hibernated, so annnoying because it's completely irrecoverable. This happened a number of times and after about the 10th time, my hard drive crashed completely and I have just had to have a new hard drive fitted by Sony. I've still got the problem and want to resolve it. I saw on the forum (just joined today) that changing to SP1 is a workaround so will investigate that. Good luck.
Waterlily

[MattWilson]

Is there any BIOS update for A317?

I am afraid that there isn't. Have you installed all the vista utilities for you VAIO from here?

[waterlily]

Hi there
I have not installed any other software/utilities other than what came with the Vaio. However, yesterday I disbled hibernate (R click on desktop, select Properties, click on "Power" button, select "Hibernate" tab and untick "Enable", click Apply and OK). I don't know if this is the answer but it seems obvious and simple enough. I'm not a computer whizz and don't mess with any settings because of the unknown implications this might have.
Waterlily

[jurev]

Is there any BIOS update for A317?
 

I am afraid that there isn't.  Have you installed all the vista utilities for you VAIO from here?

 

I suspect my problem may be related to a new hard drive I had installed into VAIO (Hitachi Travelstar HTS7210). The drive works perfect otherwise, but today I installed a clean Win XP, which also never wakes up after sleep (hibernation works though). This is the only hardware change I've made (clean XP installation on the original hard drive didn't have sleep problems).

However, maybe I didn't install all drivers (device manager shows no unknown devices, but on VAIO support site i noticed two drivers that I don't know how to install: "Original Sony Notebook Controler Driver" and "Original Sony Programmable I/O Control Driver". Anybody knows what these are for/how to install?