While the device worked during Wired.com's testing period without issue, numerous customers have experienced problems with Toshiba's new Thrive tablet. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

In a series of message board complaints on Monday, customers reported problems waking the tablet from its sleep mode. Instead of normally pressing the power button on the side of the device to turn on the screen, a number of users needed to do hard reboot — or a complete restart of the system software — in order to use the tablet. The complaints from forum members were first reported by Engadget.

“Toshiba is aware a limited number of Thrive Tablet users are experiencing Resume issues when in Sleep mode,” the company declared in a statement issued to Wired.com. ” We are aggressively working to implement a fix that resolves this issue and will push an update as soon as possible.”

It’s rough news for Toshiba, as its new tablet product launches in a market packed with Android slate offerings. Beginning in February with the Motorola Xoom, close to a dozen new Android-powered tablets have been released in 2011. Most attacks on Android’s tablet-optimized version, Honeycomb, focus on a “not quite finished” quality of the software. Toshiba’s issues right out of the gate only exacerbate the beta-like feel of Honeycomb, which may bar customers from picking up a Thrive.

A number of Thrive owners posted their efforts in figuring out a workaround solution to the problem, with varied success. Some fixes included removing the battery and plugging the device into an A/C charger, tweaking the screen power setting so that it won’t turn off (a horrible battery drain), and other more complicated workarounds.

But as one forum user states, “for the average consumer, that is a lot of hoop jumping for something that should just work.”

During Wired.com’s period of testing of the Thrive tablet, we did not observe any issues with sleep mode.

Toshiba also plans to issue a software update to the tablet with system enhancements, most likely in an effort to distract from the negative attention.

“Toshiba will push an update to enhance the multi-tasking capabilities of the device within the next 48 hours,” the company said in a statement. “As a general practice, Toshiba recommends users download the latest system updates.”

Toshiba has yet to give an ETA on a fix for the Thrive’s sleep issues, but customers should expect an over-the-air update soon.