Windows 8.1 refuses to sleep

[Deihmos]

Download Switch Off - Get latest official release | Airytec Free program solves the sleep problem. Just set timer and to "No keyboard or mouse activity" instead of "No CPU activity."

There are so many ways you can do this without installing 3rd party software. Create a task to sleep the PC when idle. Only problem is it will sleep in the middle of file sharing or any other activity that is meant to keep the PC awake. For me using a local account works fine but I want one drive on my laptop so I just close the lid when I want it to sleep.

 

[Ishyu Darunque]

Under settings, you can enable "Force programs to sleep" or not. He//, if it wasn't for 3PS, I wouldn't be using Windows 8.1 (Start8)! Cheers!

 

[Wynona]

Download Switch Off - Get latest official release | Airytec Free program solves the sleep problem. Just set timer and to "No keyboard or mouse activity" instead of "No CPU activity."

And if I'm downloading (mine goes to sleep while downloading if I don't set it to "never sleep")? Can you turn it off until you're through downloading?

 

[Ishyu Darunque]

Download Switch Off - Get latest official release | Airytec Free program solves the sleep problem. Just set timer and to "No keyboard or mouse activity" instead of "No CPU activity."

And if I'm downloading (mine goes to sleep while downloading if I don't set it to "never sleep")? Can you turn it off until you're through downloading?

Download it and see for yourself. I am just passing along a solution for those of us that had problems with 8.1 not timing out and going to sleep/hibernate/shut off.

 

[EnricoS]

Perhaps a good solution for "srvnet" ?!?

Hi everyone,

I've been reading this thread and searched the net for long about this problem, but nothing worked completely for me; Anyway In the past few days I came to a possible solution, I hope.

The problem I had regarding the auto-sleep was only due to "srvnet" driver that sometimes (randomly) keeps the power request stuck even with no network activity at all (eg disconnecting LAN cable or disabling NIC); when working correctly, srvnet request disappear after about 3 min.

So I thought that this behavior was caused by a bug in the srvnet driver that doesn't remove the request sometime; in fact when it happens, stopping and restarting the server with "net stop /y srv" and "net start /y srv" commands solves the problem, temporarily.
I also read that some users started to have sleep problems when they upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, and that Windows 10 Tech Preview seemed to auto-sleep properly; this gave me an idea.

Since I have Windows 10 TP installed in another PC to test it, I thought to swap the W8.1 srvnet.sys driver with the W10 one.

When I found "srvnet.sys" in "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" folder, I noticed that there are another 2 files regarding network and sharing: srv.sys (Server driver) and srv2.sys.

First I swapped srvnet.sys files, but when I restarted the system the server didn't start at all and the sharing was not working, so I restored the original srvnet.sys;
then I swapped srv2.sys and the result was the same so I restored the original one;
at the end I swapped srv.sys driver and... finally everything seemed to work well!

I kept this configuration for about a week and srvnet never got stuck in power request;
so I decided to do a countercheck, swapping srv.sys with original W8.1 driver and I didn't had to wait too much before the srvnet power request got stuck forever, again.

In a nutshell, all you have to do to try this solution is to swap the W8.1 "srv.sys" file located in "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" directory with the W10 TP one.

I attached a zip containing the one I took from my W10 system.
Note that to do this you have to take ownership of the file and be sure that you have the full control (read and write) of it (there are thousands guides on how to do this).

View attachment srv.zip

Also, would be interesting doing the same with the "srv.sys" from Windows 8, but i couldn't find it.

I hope this could help someone.

Bye!

 

[NCguy]

That sounds very promising. I thought people had given up. I wonder how many cases this actually solves since it's probably more than srvnet for some people.

Anyhow will the system integrity checker (SFC) end up swapping the 8.1 version back? Is SFC run by the system like during upgrades? Maybe it doesn't matter since the next upgrade is windows 10 unless there is an interim?

 

[midou35000]

Wow,
This thread is still alive, damn man.

 

[EnricoS]

That sounds very promising. I thought people had given up. I wonder how many cases this actually solves since it's probably more than srvnet for some people.

Anyhow will the system integrity checker (SFC) end up swapping the 8.1 version back? Is SFC run by the system like during upgrades? Maybe it doesn't matter since the next upgrade is windows 10 unless there is an interim?

Yes, most gave up time ago and maybe it's too late, since Windows 10 is coming; anyway better late than never.


About the cases that this could solve, I think that simply other cases are not caused by a bug of the OS.
Also I think that it's not difficult to find where is the problem through the "powercfg.exe -requests" command; if only srvnet is showing up in the requests and doesn't go away when there are no more active sharings, then it's worth a try.


About the system integrity checker you could be right, anyway my systems did some updates and so far the W10 srv.sys is still there and seems to work.

Bye!

 

[NCguy]

I was so thinking more about a major upgrade, like the 8.0 to 8.1. But as I mentioned there probably won't be another until 10 is released and it should be easy enough to swap the old version in prior to a major update, if it were to happen, just to be cautious.

 

[NCguy]

Deleted

 

[NCguy]

Deleted - sorry Tapatalk issues

 

[bru]

The problem I had regarding the auto-sleep was only due to "srvnet" driver that sometimes (randomly) keeps the power request stuck even with no network activity at all (eg disconnecting LAN cable or disabling NIC); when working correctly, srvnet request disappear after about 3 min.
<snip>

Good work. Two questions.

1. Are you using a MS account? Many have found that no matter what the computer will not sleep unless on a local account.

2. Did you ever set a power request override for "srvnet"?

Like you "srvnet" was causing my sleep issue so I did a simple override for [DRIVER] Filesystem\srvnet and DRIVER srvnet System as mentioned in this tutorial http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/32947-power-availability-requests-manage-windows.html. Coupled with using a local account my computer sleeps.

 

[Wynona]

Deleted - sorry Tapatalk issues

So easy to get into trouble isn't it? I know the feeling. You want to say something and then you discover it may violate an NDA.

 

[EnricoS]

I was so thinking more about a major upgrade, like the 8.0 to 8.1. But as I mentioned there probably won't be another until 10 is released and it should be easy enough to swap the old version in prior to a major update, if it were to happen, just to be cautious.

Oh sorry didn't understand that you were referring to a major upgrade, anyway I agree with you.

 

[EnricoS]

The problem I had regarding the auto-sleep was only due to "srvnet" driver that sometimes (randomly) keeps the power request stuck even with no network activity at all (eg disconnecting LAN cable or disabling NIC); when working correctly, srvnet request disappear after about 3 min.
<snip>

Good work. Two questions.

1. Are you using a MS account? Many have found that no matter what the computer will not sleep unless on a local account.

2. Did you ever set a power request override for "srvnet"?

Like you "srvnet" was causing my sleep issue so I did a simple override for [DRIVER] Filesystem\srvnet and DRIVER srvnet System as mentioned in this tutorial http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/32947-power-availability-requests-manage-windows.html. Coupled with using a local account my computer sleeps.

1. Yes, I'm using a MS (online) account.
2. I tried the override method time ago and it was working (even with MS account); the problem is that the system sleeps even when something is really being shared.

 

[Deihmos]

The problem I had regarding the auto-sleep was only due to "srvnet" driver that sometimes (randomly) keeps the power request stuck even with no network activity at all (eg disconnecting LAN cable or disabling NIC); when working correctly, srvnet request disappear after about 3 min.
<snip>

Good work. Two questions.

1. Are you using a MS account? Many have found that no matter what the computer will not sleep unless on a local account.

2. Did you ever set a power request override for "srvnet"?

Like you "srvnet" was causing my sleep issue so I did a simple override for [DRIVER] Filesystem\srvnet and DRIVER srvnet System as mentioned in this tutorial http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/32947-power-availability-requests-manage-windows.html. Coupled with using a local account my computer sleeps.

Overriding it will cause the PC to sleep when sharing files. Not a good solution if you use file sharing. Sometimes I get the srvnet block but I use a script to restart it whenever it is blocked and no remote files are open. Using an MS account also causes the sleep function to eventually stop working but no issues with a local account.

 

[lonepalm24]

So I have a question on something I think is very weird going on here with my PC. I use it as a WMC extender to watch TV and recordings. I finally got it to a spot where I was able to have it sleep (when manually entered into sleep) and then wake for recordings -- previously, my PC wouldn't sleep at all). However, when the PC is idle after ending a recording, and the idle timer is met (for testing purposes I have PC set to sleep after 3 minutes of inactivity), it just goes to the photo slideshow screensaver, which is weird because I didn't even set a screensaver at all, let alone that one. Does anyone have any idea why it goes to the photo screensaver (when a screensaver was not even chosen -- it was disabled) instead of sleep mode automatically, but goes into sleep mode when manually entered into it?

 

[Deihmos]

WMC has a picture screensaver. Disable it if you don't want to see it. In case you missed it Win 8.1 has some issues with sleep especially when using an online MS account but works fine with a local account.

 

[lonepalm24]

WMC has a picture screensaver. Disable it if you don't want to see it. In case you missed it Win 8.1 has some issues with sleep especially when using an online MS account but works fine with a local account.

Thanks! I didn't know this. I turned off the WMC screensaver. However, would that be the culprit since WMC was completely closed (as far as I know) after the scheduled recording?

 

[Deihmos]

WMC has a picture screensaver. Disable it if you don't want to see it. In case you missed it Win 8.1 has some issues with sleep especially when using an online MS account but works fine with a local account.

Thanks! I didn't know this. I turned off the WMC screensaver. However, would that be the culprit since WMC was completely closed (as far as I know) after the scheduled recording?

No it wouldn't prevent the machine from sleeping.