Windows – Laptop wakes from sleep, once, due to audio controller (Windows 7)

power-managementsleepwindows 7

The laptop is a recent Dell XPS 15z and the problem is as follows (reproducible about 90% of tries):

  • put laptop to sleep using either Start->Sleep or closing the lid
  • laptop goes to sleep after about 5 seconds, but instantly wakes again showing a black screen (touching the keyboard or moving the mouse shows the login screen one normally gets after wake)
  • login again, put laptop to sleep
  • latop stays in sleep mode

output of powercfg -lastwake after the first instant wake shows the audio controller is responsible. Why would that be, why only the first try, and how to fix this?

Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
  Wake Source Count - 1
  Wake Source [0]
    Type: Device
    Instance Path: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C20&SUBSYS_04461028&REV_05\3&11583659&0&D8
    Friendly Name:
    Description: High Definition Audio Controller
    Manufacturer: Microsoft

Best Answer

You may want to consider updating your BIOS; I've seen other issues around the web where people have had similar "wake-once" issues like yours, and some of the posts indicated a BIOS update fixed it.

Dell has a BIOS update for your laptop that was released on March 27, so unless you got your computer less than two months ago it's quite likely you'll need this (and even if you did get it more recently, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try it).

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=7TT65&FileId=2910945453&productCode=xps-15z&urlProductCode=False

An audio driver update might not be a bad idea either; however, it seems Dell has only released one, so you may already be running this version.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=0T0GT&FileId=2731103525&productCode=xps-15z&urlProductCode=False

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