Hi Weston,
Thanks for explaining well about your problem.
For your information:
Vista by default have its own power plans which will put your laptop into sleep mode when unattended for some time. This feature is useful in saving the battery life.

Solution:
If you don't want this to happen, then you can override the vista power plan settings.

Goto Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options
There all the power plans available for your laptop will be displayed.
click on "Change Plan settings"

In the next window change the sleep time settings as you like.

Customize the settings according to your need using the "Change Advanced power settings" option.
Now you system wont go into semi-sleep mode as like before.
There will be separate power plans for your laptop when working on Battery and while working in power adapter connected.
so you have to customize appropriate power plans whichever you need accordingly.

I hope this is useful in solving your problem.
Thanks

Right click on the desktop of the laptop, not on an icon- go to the "Screen Saver" tab- click the "Power" button.

You can now select a power schema or make one of your own. Change the values from the "system standby" to higher values(both: on batteries and plugged in), or select a schema that suits your necessities.


It should do the trick. If you need further assistance please post.
Thank you for using FixYa