I have a user with laptop that occasionally has a problem where it won't awaken from standby. When I press the power button, nothing happens at all. I end up having to remove the power and the battery to shut it down hard.

I don't really know exactly how standby works, so I'm having a hard time figuring out what's going on. What is still running when it's in standby mode? Is Windows still in control, or has it handed control over to the BIOS?