Windows 7 issue on opening games

[Ketchup345]

After resuming from a sleep or screensaver, most times my computer would refuse to open a game. It will display any splash screens, but hang at a black screen, never getting to any game screen. This happens when trying to load a game from the start menu or through Steam. For full screen games, I must use CTRL+ALT+DEL then start the task manager and close the game, as CTRL+Shift+ESC doesn't work.

This happens on any game from Microsoft Hearts to Civilization V (through Steam).

A restart usually fixes this issue. Non-games work fine, no issues with Firefox, WMP, Pidgin, etc.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? My attempts at Googling the issue bring up unrelated stuff (mostly unresponsive keyboards/mice). I have already tried reinstalling the drivers for my video card. A driver downgrade didn't seem to work either.

[VioletSkye]

After resuming from a sleep or screensaver, most times my computer would refuse to open a game. It will display any splash screens, but hang at a black screen, never getting to any game screen. This happens when trying to load a game from the start menu or through Steam. For full screen games, I must use CTRL+ALT+DEL then start the task manager and close the game, as CTRL+Shift+ESC doesn't work.

This happens on any game from Microsoft Hearts to Civilization V (through Steam).

A restart usually fixes this issue. Non-games work fine, no issues with Firefox, WMP, Pidgin, etc.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? My attempts at Googling the issue bring up unrelated stuff (mostly unresponsive keyboards/mice). I have already tried reinstalling the drivers for my video card. A driver downgrade didn't seem to work either.
If you're using Windows 7, here are a few things to try:

1. Under Power Options, set "Turn off hard disk after" to 0 (which will ne Never.)
2. Check in your BIOS and see if it is set to S3 or S1 (hopefully not both.) If your motherboard supports S3, then try that.

[Ketchup345]

I am pretty sure the issue is not screen saver related now, but rather related to Civilization V (bought and played through Steam). After I close Civ V, I can't get past any other game's splash screen (if they have one), the screen goes black and stays that way for full screen games, for non-full screen games (such as Windows card games) it won't let me start a new game.

[Mantiskilla]

Have you tried to run steam as the admin? Sometimes something that basic actually works