I installed Vista over XP and had a ton of problems that the "experts" (lol) could not fix - random crashes, Blue Screens, bad hardware, etc The common theme was the "Deep Sleep" feature. I removed this "feature"

(Control Panel >> Performance Info >> Adjust power settings >> "Never")

VOILA, It's PC Nirvana. Blue Screens gone, Printer Works, No annoying popups...fixing yet another of those "helpful" addons (and this one for politically correct reasons!) that are more trouble than they're worth. This may not work for you but for me it was a solution.

Why does this sound more like a work-around than a fix?

I mean if you were having all of those problems and after changing sleep options?

These issues may return when you update you OS or software. Just keep an eye out for future issues.

Am I right in assuming that this is the "Away" mode? If so, most problems can be fixed by an update from the processor manufacturer. It's not easy to find, but it's worth it to get rid of the issues.