Windows 8 Windows 8.1 experts needed, sleep & hibernate stopped working

Well oddly enough when I had sleep/hibernate issues it was related to my video card getting messed up in the update from 7 to 8. After replacing the GPU, it works without a hitch. So since you're on a laptop, if you haven't already one thing you can try is updating all of your drivers. You can either look at each component in your device manager and go to each site specifically or get a program called SlimDrivers, which automatically searches for updates for all of the devices in your computer. This has helped me solve a number of issues in the past.

I've learned that when changing OS's, the best thing to do is just format and start fresh. So if you're willing I'd just back everything up to an external drive and begin anew. I can almost guarantee this will solve the majority of issues you're having. And personally I kind of like that "new car smell" feeling you get when your desktop is completely empty. You know there's nothing to cause issues and this thing should be running at 100% efficiency. You'll have more space available after clearing old/broken registry keys or amassed cookies/ad-ware etc...

Also my PC restarts a bit faster than 7 did. It's on a SSD so it's fast regardless, but there is a slight improvement with 8, so that might be another update issue.