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It’s been almost a month since the CyanogenMod team released a public build of Google Android for the HP TouchPad tablet. And while  a second alpha was released a few weeks ago to fix some bugs, Android on the TouchPad is still a work in progress. One of the biggest problems is the so-called “sleep of death” or SOD.

Many users have noticed that from time to time the tablet simply refuses to wake from sleep. The screen goes off as it normally should, but when you tap the power button the screen never lights up again. The only way to recover is to press and hold the power and home buttons for up to 30 seconds until the device reboots.

The most frustrating thing about the SOD is that it’s unpredictable. Sometimes a TouchPad will resume from sleep with no problems. Sometimes you can leave the tablet with the screen off for hours at a time and begin using it again just by tapping the button. Other times you can encounter the sleep of death just a few minutes after turning on the tablet.

Now there’s a patch making the rounds which may help fix the problem. I installed it yesterday afternoon, and more than 24 hours later I haven’t had an SOD problem. Some folks are reporting that they’ve managed to run for up to 4 days without any problems — but other users have reported that they have encountered the dreaded sleep of death even after applying the patch.

Your results may vary, but at the very least it looks like the patch may help minimize SODs.

Here’s the easiest way to install the patch on an HP TouchPad:

1. Download the update-SoD_be_gone.zip file from tiny.cc/sodgone.

If you download the file directly on your TouchPad tablet while running Android, make a note of which directory it’s hanging out in. By default, it will probably show up the /download folder. If you’d like you can copy it to a different folder, but you don’t have to.

You can also download the file on a computer and copy it to your TouchPad via a USB cable. Again, just make sure you know what folder the zip file is in.

Do not unzip it.

2. Reboot into recovery mode.

This will only work if you’ve installed Moboot and ClockworkMod Recovery on your tablet using the instructions listed in our “how to install Android on the TouchPad guide.” I’ll assume you’ve already done that, because why wouldn’t you?

While running Android on the TouchPad, press and hold the power button. Then choose the “reboot” option and select the “recovery” option. Finally, hit the OK button to reboot.

If your Touchpad is already powered down, you can also boot into Recovery by pressing the power button, and when the Moboot menu appear use the volume up/down buttons to select the “boot ClockworkMod” option. Then hit the home button to boot into ClockworkMod Recovery.

3. Use the volume buttons to scroll down to “install zip from sdcard”

4. Select that option by pressing the home button.

5. Select “choose zip from sdcard” by tapping the home button.

6. Use the volume keys to navigate to the folder where the update-SoD_be_gone.zip file is located.

7. Press the home button to select it.

8. Use the volume buttons to scroll down to the option that says “Yes – Install update…” and select it with the home button.

Once that’s finished you can use the volume and home buttons to find your way back to the main menu and choose the “reboot system now” option to restart your tablet.

Now you should be able to use Google Android on the HP TouchPad without it succumbing to narcolepsy quite as often.

Note: There’s another step that you might want to take before installing the patch. You can wipe your cache partition first. It may not be absolutely necessary, but it’s usually a good idea before applying an update of this nature.

Follow steps 1 and 2 above to get to ClockworkMod recovery. Before installing a zip from sdcard though, follow these steps:

1. Use the volume buttons to navigate to “wipe cache partition.”

2. Select that option by pressing the home button.

3. Use the volume buttons to scroll down to the “Yes” option.

4. Select it with the home button.

After that finishes, go back to the original instructions and start with step 3.