hibernate works but suspend does not

[golfer]

I have an E1505 dell inspiron and am running 6.10.  For me, hibernate
works, but suspend won't come back.  After selecting suspend, the
system goes into a near shutdown state (but not completely down as in
hibernate).  When I hit the start button, nothing happens (in
hibernate, it boots up).  I have to hold the power button down and
kill it, then restart the laptop.  When it boots, it does the full
boot, not the quick boot like restarting from hibernate.

I see some others having problems also, but no solutions.

How can I troubleshoot this?

TIA,