Laptop hibernation problem

[Hoopster81]

Cliff notes: new dell notebook, whenever hard drive comes back from hibernation (like when you close and then reopen the cover to the notebook) the screen flickers terribly and the computer is useless until reboot

More detailed information below



I recently got a new dell notebook and did a format/reinstall basically right out of the box. I had done this several times w/ my XP machines, but this was my first Vista experience.

So, I booted from the Vista installation DVD the same way I did with XP. I deleted the two partitions that were already set up and then tried to format the drive. The format only lasted a few seconds, whereas with XP I remember it taking a fair amount of time. I guess Vista does a "quick format" or something like that? Is there anyway to do a more complete format like I used to do with XP?

After Vista finished installing, everything seemed to work (i.e. I didn't have to install any drivers. Wireless, etc. all worked). Is this normal?


Everything seems to work fine except for one major problem. When the laptop comes back from hibernation mode or if I close the notebook and then re-open it, major screen flickering occurs. It's so bad that I can't see anything long enough to even shut down the machine properly. The flickering also starts on its own sometimes - but it always happens after the scenarios above.

I thought it was probably a video driver issue, so I downloaded/installed the driver from the Dell website, but it's no help.

I also upgraded the RAM right out of the box, but I ran Memtest86, and the RAM seems to be fine.

It's possible this problem existed with the machine when it came. But there's no way to be sure.

edit: No reward threads in CTH.