Sleep or standby mode should allow your computer to conserve energy yet respond quickly to power back on when you need it. Most Toshiba laptops should exit sleep mode if you press a key on the keyboard or use the trackpad mouse. If the lid was closed, opening it should also wake up the computer. If none of these methods work to bring the computer out of sleep mode, you may have a power issue or software glitch.
Causes
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Insufficient power can cause this problem, so try plugging in your Toshiba laptop before attempting to wake it from sleep mode. If this does not immediately fix the issue, your problem is more likely a software issue. If your laptop was shut down incorrectly prior to the sleep mode incident, it may be stuck on a blank screen that makes it appear to be in sleep mode when it actually is trying to start up.
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Indications
Press the power button for a few seconds to see if your computer will wake up. If it does, the laptop was not truly stuck in sleep mode, but rather went into hibernation mode. If your laptop is truly stuck in sleep mode, you may be able to force a shutdown by holding down the power button, but when you power back up it will move right back into sleep mode. In some cases, the power button may not shut down the computer from this mode at all.
Solution
The best way to solve your Toshiba's problem is to completely remove all power from the laptop to ensure a fresh restart. Close the laptop's lid, turn over the unit and remove the battery. Also remove the power adapter cord from both the laptop and the wall socket. Open the laptop lid and press and hold the power button for approximately 20 seconds. This will drain any stored power in the backup battery. Wait a few seconds, then put the battery back in, plug in the laptop and press the power button to turn on the computer. It may start up with an error screen; in this case, select the option to start your computer normally. If the error recurs, start the computer in "Safe Mode" to see if a program running on your computer outside of the basic Windows operating system is causing the problem.
Further Help
Sometimes this issue also requires holding down a specific key, such as "F8," when you restart. If the basic power drain and restart process doesn't work, you can use Toshiba's support website to look up further information for your specific model. Just click the "Product support" tab and enter your laptop's model information, then read through the support bulletins listed for your particular Toshiba model. Toshiba also maintains a support hotline at 1-800-477-7777.