Windows – Why won’t the computer go to sleep automatically

power-optionssleepwindowswindows 8

Windows 8 is set to sleep after 30 mins, and it used to work, but recently it's started refusing to sleep. (I can still manually ask it to go to sleep without any issue.)

Put the computer to sleep: 30 minutes

I was having issues a while ago, but it was with my network adapter. That's since been disabled, so it's definitely not that:

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I've checked to see what devices are able to wake up my machine, but it only appears to be my mouse:

Powercfg -devicequery wake_armed

Which is odd, because I haven't recently changed my mouse, and more confusing still: The monitor does go to sleep just fine. If it was actually the mouse keeping my system awake, I'm pretty sure the monitor wouldn't go to sleep.

I've checked my Wake Timers, and nothing:

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I've also checked my existing requests…

UPDATE: I found something. What to do with it, I don't know…

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Note: Even when /requests says that there's "NONE" under every category, my machine still won't sleep(!).

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In short: How can I tell what's preventing my computer from Sleeping?

UPDATE: Ok, so I now have a few more pieces of the puzzle. I came back to my computer and it was ASLEEP! Lawks! It seems that the only times it doesn't sleep is if VLC Player is open, even if a video isn't actually playing.

UPDATE UPDATE: Ok, so it won't sleep sometimes when VLC Player ISN'T running, either. Bah!

Best Answer

There are several things to check:

  • Power configuration of course
  • Task scheduler
  • automatic wake up for maintenance (network wake up)

I assume your computer is up to date. As you have found that no requests exist, it could not be an interrupt which is causing this. However, its better to check BIOS settings and device manager settings to know which settings and which devices are configured to interrupt. Plus a compatible BIOS update is necessary to let interrupts function accurately.

Besides that, there are problems with multimedia players such as VLC. If it was running, the computer will refuse to sleep. A small piece of software can be found here (which may or may not assist you since you have Windows 8. It works with Windows 7 though).

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