Windows 7 not sleeping

[CU]

My machine will only sleep when it is at the login prompt asking for my password. Any way to find out why it will not sleep when I am logged in?

 

[sm625]

This is a big issue that affects a lot of people and it has a lot of different solutions. First thing you want to do is look in device manager. Look at all your usb devices and uncheck all the options for "Allow this device to wake the computer". Do the same for your ethernet adapter(s).

Then if you still have trouble, google "sleep problem usb selective suspend."

When you're done, the only thing that should wake your computer is the power button. When you have that working, you can look into enabling keyboard wake, or wake on lan.

 

[TeeJay1952]

Do you have a Microsoft mouse? Do you have the latest mouse drivers? I see when googling no screensaver win 7 that is the most common cause. I think the old intelemouse drivers don't allow mouse to "go to sleep"

 

[DavidAtncus]

Hello - new user here.
You have a great forum - has helped me a lot - THANKS!

I've struggled with sleep issues, so here is something I can add to this.

From an elevated command prompt use the "Powercfg" command.
"powercfg ?" - lists the help for this command and the options.

Commands (Options) I have found helpfull

"powercfg -devicequery wake_armed"
"powercfg -requests"
I disable anything listed by these when I am having issues...

"powercfg -energy"
Creates a report that can help and/or confuse

I can post specific commands (syntax) I have used if that would help...

hope this helps - David

 

[CU]

I am not using a MS mouse. I am using an MX 518.

Nice commands DavidAtncus

C:\Windows\system32>powercfg -devicequery wake_armed
HID-compliant mouse (002)
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

C:\Windows\system32>powercfg -requests
DISPLAY:
None.

SYSTEM:
None.

AWAYMODE:
None.

And the big one from the powercfg -energy report.
Power Policy:Sleep timeout is disabled (Plugged In)
The computer is not configured to automatically sleep after a period of inactivity.

It seems my balanced plan had been changed to turn off display after 20 minutes and never sleep. I reset it back to the default of turn off display after 10 minutes and sleep after 30 minutes. I will try that for awhile. I may still may have a problem because my monitor never turned off even after 20 minutes which it was set to.

 

[CU]

Well just resetting balanced didn't work. It didn't go to sleep last night.

 

[DavidAtncus]

You can try disabling your wake timers.
The commands for you should be:

Powercfg -devicedisablewake "HID-compliant mouse (002)"
Powercfg -devicedisablewake "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller"

Then run the Powercfg -devicequery wake_armed command again to make sure they are not listed.

I set the Sleep Timer to 1 minute when I work on this stuff to quickly see if the change I made fixed the issue.

If you want to re-enable the wake timers, just change "-devicedisablewake" to "-deviceenablewake" in the commands above.

David

 

[CU]

I disabled those wake timer. However, it still doesn't go to sleep, and powercfg -devicequery wake_armed doesn't return anything now.

 

[sm625]

Check inside your advanced power options, there are two things you havent mentioned:

USB selective suspend, should be set to Disabled
When sharing media should be set to Allow the computer to sleep

 

[CU]

I never got it to sleep. I just checked again and something had set it back to turn off the display after 20 minutes and sleep never. Anyway to find out what is making those changes?

 

[Ketchup]

Try disabling hybrid sleep.

 

[Bubbaleone]

My machine will only sleep when it is at the login prompt asking for my password. Any way to find out why it will not sleep when I am logged in?

An educated guess is that TaskScheduler is automatically set to run a background program (defrag, file index, etc.) that prevents Windows from entering sleep mode. You can find out exactly what that is with this excellent little utility By Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell:

Autoruns for Windows v11.21

Here's a quote from Technet:

This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

Note: The quote's old, this version was published January 12, 2012. Works perfectly with Windows 7.

 

[CU]

I haven't disabled hybrid sleep yet, but I did find out if I set it to sleep in 1 minute it goes to sleep, but if I set it to 5 minutes it doesn't go to sleep. I will try the Autoruns for Windows program. Because, it really seems like something is running every few minutes and preventing it from sleeping.

 

[sm625]

I haven't disabled hybrid sleep yet, but I did find out if I set it to sleep in 1 minute it goes to sleep, but if I set it to 5 minutes it doesn't go to sleep.

If you set it to sleep, in one minute, and it goes to sleep, does it ever wake up? And if not then are you sure? Because it would be goign right back to sleep. The event viewer must be used to be sure.

 

[mikeymikec]

Just a note on hybrid sleep - it takes a snapshot of the RAM before sleeping in case power is lost and then the system can be brought back up as if from hibernation. I would be really surprised if there was a problem there.

The fact that it won't sleep if you're logged in strongly suggests to me that a userland app is causing a problem. I would probably troubleshoot this by closing any apps that are running while logged in (remove any security software for a short time too) and see whether there's a difference in behaviour. If there is additional software for input devices that isn't strictly needed immediately, uninstall it.

I would also check the event log because it might well tell you which process is blocking the computer from going to sleep. Win7 has a couple of improvements over predecessors, like telling you which app is blocking a storage device's removal, as well as user profile log off issues, it might well do here as well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I never got it to sleep. I just checked again and something had set it back to turn off the display after 20 minutes and sleep never. Anyway to find out what is making those changes?

Did you recently install HDTune free version?

 

[CU]

Yes, Does HDTune free cause a problem?

 

[Ketchup]

Just a note on hybrid sleep - it takes a snapshot of the RAM before sleeping in case power is lost and then the system can be brought back up as if from hibernation. I would be really surprised if there was a problem there.

The fact that it won't sleep if you're logged in strongly suggests to me that a userland app is causing a problem. I would probably troubleshoot this by closing any apps that are running while logged in (remove any security software for a short time too) and see whether there's a difference in behaviour. If there is additional software for input devices that isn't strictly needed immediately, uninstall it.

I would also check the event log because it might well tell you which process is blocking the computer from going to sleep. Win7 has a couple of improvements over predecessors, like telling you which app is blocking a storage device's removal, as well as user profile log off issues, it might well do here as well.

It worked for me. As soon as I disabled hybrid sleep the similar problem I had went away.

 

[icrra]

Try a different mouse if possible. I had a similar issue that was caused by the optical mouse. When plugged in, the computer would not sleep. Using a different one fixed the problem.