Hi.

I have an Acer Travelmate laptop, now just over three and a half years old. It was working fine until recently when I installed a BlueTooth adaptor from Argos which uses Blue Soleil.

The USB adaptor was so small that I thought I would leave it in permanently- I have four USB connections- but almost as soon as I had installed it, the laptop was refusing to come out of hibernation. Sometimes it wouldn't even start until I removed the power and battery.

Like a numpty, I completely forgot the rules about figuring out what has changed since it last worked properly and put up with this for several days before realising that the USB dongle was probably the problem. It was, and removing it sorted it out- for a day or two.

Now, nearly every time I put the laptop to sleep or into hibernation, I get the "Windows did not shut down properly" message. Of course, knowing a thing or two about computers, I updated my video driver but it still doesn't work. Yesterday I uninstalled the BlueTooth software and today I looked to restore the system, but it was too long ago.

The laptop is getting on a bit and I did wonder if it was a hardware problem as I do have to press the cover down of the laptop to make contact with the shutdown switch, but I can leave it on a table top, put it to sleep using the start menu but when I press the power button it simply doesn't start properly.

The battery has been rubbish for a while now, lasting long enough in hibernation to bring it home from work without powering down, but now it is stuck at 3% and not charging. I don't want to buy a new battery in case the laptop is knackered and I don't want to buy a new laptop because I have OEM Office installed and won't be able to use it again.

Any ideas how to fix a software problem? There is nothing recorded in the error log for most instances of failure, but today, I got two Critical failures- the last sleep transition was unsuccessful. If it is hardware, what's most likely to be wrong?

I don't know about Windows, but for Linux if the machine fails to sleep/hibernate/shut down properly it's usually down to the WiFi driver.

I'll try disabling the Wi-Fi with the front switch, but I have never had a problem before. Sometimes we are told about Windows Updates that cause a problem, but I had no problems until I installed this [LIFTED] dongle. I haven't even got an image recent enough that I am prepared to try it- although I could make an image of the current installation before I restore an old one, just in case it is hardware.

If I had the ready cash- well, I have, but I have a number of things I want to spend that on- I'd buy a new laptop and use this one in some sort of fixed capacity, but for the Office installation that I don't want to have to pay for again, just yet.

I was wondering whether a dip in the mains power might cause it but for a few things- the battery has some life in it- enough that it doesn't go off if I knock the power lead out, the capacitors in the PSU hold their charge for a bit and, it happens within seconds of hibernation, so either it's some goosed hardware or it's some goosed software. I just don't seem to have anything useful in the error log.

Actually I was thinking it might be the software/driver for your 3G dongle. If you don't have the device connected, does Windows/the software still load the driver?

I have already uninstalled the software, but I might have a look and see if this process doesn't always complete properly as happens with Norton. However, there is no record in the error logs of drivers failing to load.

Funnily enough, it has worked this morning after being put to sleep and then- automatically- hibernating. But that's what has been happening since I removed the dongle- a couple of days of working and then a couple of days of being a pain in the backside.