simple power question

[sunsnewmac]

(edited)
I posted the problem wrong (I was away from my mac at the time)

when my MacBook is running off battery power and the lid is open, the screen shuts off and it comes on automatically when I touch the touchpad. I like that.

when my MacBook is plugged in and the lid is open, it doesn't come on automatically when I touch the trackpad and I have to touch the power button (It is sleeping)

My power settings for battery are 10 mins for sleep, 4 mintues for screen and for power cord 10 minutes for sleep, 10 minutes for display. What happens doesn't really make any sense to me based on my settings.
Please help, what am I missing?

 

[interlaced]

I'm not much of a help. I don't think there's a preference to adjust it. It's supposed to automatically come on, plugged in or not.

 

[deadpixels]

does it wake up when pressing any key or do you have to press the power button to wake it up?

 

[sunsnewmac]

sorry, I was away from my mac when I posted that and I described the issue wrong:

OK here is what happens.
When the lid is OPEN, and the power cord is in, the Mac will go to sleep so that I have to press the power button to wake it. The power settings are "normal," so that it is supposed to go to sleep after a full 10 minutes but that isn't the case--it happens much sooner. The screen is also set to shut off after 10 mins
But when the lid is open and I'm using BATTERY power, the Mac wakes up just by touching the trackpad (I guess that means just the screen is down). But the weird thing is that the power settings are same as for power cord except the screen is set to shut off after 4 minutes--even sooner than it is for powercord. So it doesn't really make sense to me why when it's plugged in (lid open) that it falls asleep so fast, and then I can't wake it up without pressing the power button.

i'm a noob, so I must be missing something here, please help
thanks