Windows 8.1 does not go to sleep / standby automatically

[Steve06]

Hello,
I recently did a clean install of Windows 8.1 Pro x64. Before doing the clean install, all hardware being identical, my Windows 8 was ran smoothly and went to sleep fine automatically after 8 minutes, and 20 minutes later into hibernation.

Now, after the clean install, although I believe I have installed and set up everything as before, the computer does not reach standby automatically anymore. I do not seem to be able to figure out why this is, or how my configuration is different than before. I do not mean to claim that it's Win 8.1's fault (I hope it isn't, because otherwise it would mean that the solution is out of my hands), but it is much more likely that during the lengthy clean install, program installation and configuration process some things have ended up being set up differently than before.

I'd like to figure out how to approach the solution-finding process in a systematic manner as obviously there are many possible culprits that I would like to eliminate one by one. For example, you can find many single tips on the web on this subject, but we would rather need a clear to-do list of what to check. E.g., how can the event logs be used to find the error?

Therefore, I would very much appreciate your help in troubleshooting this step-by-step. I believe many users must have these problems so such a systematic procedure would be to the benefit of all.

Steve

 

[Brink]

Hello Steve,

Check using the tutorial below to see if there may be a power availability request that may be preventing your PC from automatically entering standby mode, and post back with your results.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/32947-power-availability-requests-manage-windows.html

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[johnpombrio]

Steve, check the usual suspects, Device manager-Power management in properties, Windows media in advanced power settings. BUT if you run out of ideas and places to look:

http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/28226-windows-8-1-refuses-sleep-6.html

Rockhound and I found a bug, which I wondering if it was fixed by the Win8.1 updates. Check the last two pages top see if this helps. I hope it doesn't...

 

[Steve06]

It is the homegroup in my case too, as in yours. It now works with homegroups disabled. At first attempt, I could not get it to work by switching homegroups on again, but will try harder. In my case, there is hardly anything to unshare as the computer in question had a clean install and no shares added. The other computers also need to have folders unshared of course, but it already fails on my main computer (i.e. the idle-to-sleep functionality is lost) before they join the workgroup.

 

[johnpombrio]

It is the homegroup in my case too, as in yours. It now works with homegroups disabled. At first attempt, I could not get it to work by switching homegroups on again, but will try harder. In my case, there is hardly anything to unshare as the computer in question had a clean install and no shares added. The other computers also need to have folders unshared of course, but it already fails on my main computer (i.e. the idle-to-sleep functionality is lost) before they join the workgroup.

Damn. It's a real bug then and is still there with the official release. Like you surmise Steve, it is not just the one computer but all the computers on the old HOMEGROUP network, turned on or not.

Let me see if I can convince Brink for me to do a tutorial. In the meantime:

1. Have all computers on the network leave the homegroup.
2. Unshare all of the flies/folders on the computer. This can be sped up by selecting multiple folders at once.
3. Create a new HOMEGROUP on the main computer with a new password. Share the folders you want to.
4. Have all the other computers join that HOMEGROUP and share what files/folders you want to have shared. ALL THE COMPUTERS HAVE TO BE ON AND RUNNING!

 

[Steve06]

I appreciate your efforts, however even though I leave the homegroup on my two computers (main one Win 8.1, second one Win 7), unshare everything (computer management only shows IPC$ as the only share after I am done, and of which I cannot get rid of), then start a new homegroup on the main computer, change the password to something easy, let the 2nd computer join the homegroup by typing that password, afterwards, the main computer will not sleep again by itself. I have tried this several times in vain now.

Maybe the difference to you is that I have a Synology NAS in my LAN? It's not part of the homegroup, but it has also shares. However, unsharing all there is a bit messy to be honest and if this is the only way to solve the issue then I would rather live without the homegroup (or ipv6, if there is a choice?) and wait until Microsoft issues a patch. Shame on them they go 1 step forward and 2 backwards with their 8.1 release.

UPDATE: I have had a slight improvement by allowing the main computer to sleep when it is sharing media (under energy options). I did not think this should be relevant as the main computer has never been actively sharing content at any time during my tests (for example like streaming a movie, or being browsed by the other computer). Yet, I could live with that setting if it resolved the issue at hand.

Now, it can go to sleep now and then with this option turned on, but I have observed several times that it then suddenly wakes up again while in standby. Hence, this is not a satisfying solution for me.

 

[johnpombrio]

UPDATE: I have had a slight improvement by allowing the main computer to sleep when it is sharing media (under energy options). I did not think this should be relevant as the main computer has never been actively sharing content at any time during my tests (for example like streaming a movie, or being browsed by the other computer). Yet, I could live with that setting if it resolved the issue at hand.

Now, it can go to sleep now and then with this option turned on, but I have observed several times that it then suddenly wakes up again while in standby. Hence, this is not a satisfying solution for me.

Steve, now you have to go through this ENTIRE thread and eliminate all the other causes that can prevent or wake up your computer. This is a multi-step process and many things can affect it!

for instance, go to device manager, right click of the network adapter properties, and turn off allow this device to wake computer under power management.

At least you are making progress!

 

[Saltgrass]

Steve06, have you checked Brink's suggestion about using the powercfg /requests command to see what might be Keeping it awake. It can be very useful in pointing you in the right direction.

Last year, I found out my Smart TV was keeping my system awake and tracked it down using the IP address shown in the message. Could you run the command, then right click the command window and select Mark, then right click (or enter) and then paste into you post.

 

[Steve06]

@Saltgrass: Just checked powercfg /requests and it says "none" in each of the 5 categories.

@johnpombrio :

Will do and report back to the benefit of all. However, instead of relying on a "sledgehammer" approach and disabling possibly more features than necessary, I would like to arrive at just the right the set of settings that means the least changes to the default settings of the operating system - just deviate from the out-of-the-box default that are strictly required for us to achieve idle-to-sleep peace of mind.



You who got it working and have altered many settings, can't you just work your way backwards and take individual settings off to find out until when the status quo holds?

UPDATE: I just unchecked that item in my ethernet adapter's energy settings, however am no step further. To be honest, I've been testing many of these things suggested on the web, but the only thing that gave me peace was disabling the homegroup. When homegroup is disabled, I can leave all the other default settings as they are.

 

[johnpombrio]

Steve, as Rockhound and I have found, this is a handsome frog of a problem. It took me days of working on it to get everyone to sleep and stay that way. Rockhound was also frustrated.
Since HOMEGROUP defaults to Media sharing (which will wake your computer just because it is enabled), you will have to go around and disable it in both desktop advanced power settings and the Start Menu PC settings on all the other machines too. Note that you can still run and share your media, it just will not automatically wake up your computer to do so.

 

[Steve06]

Both settings are already how you suggest.

However, I've just had three successful idle-to-sleep cycles in a row. So... Fingers crossed. I will keep monitoring the issue and provide feedback again soon.

 

[Rockhound]

Steve, so happy to hear that you have had repetitive success!!!! Yes, this was an absolute handsome frog to get through. Possibly, the worst one I have encountered in a very long time. If I were to guess, I'd have say I've easily spent well over 100 hours on this one issue alone. I started working on it in early to mid-August for crying out loud!! Honestly, I think Microsoft should compensate us for finding and fixing this. It would be helpful if the Homegroup setup process would just automatically unshare all previous shares prior to establishing a new Homegroup (or at least give the user the option to do it themselves and warning them of possible trouble if not unsharing). I can't see the average user even knowing where to start with this, much less following all of our troubleshooting tips to get them there.

Also, on one of my computers, I had random wake issues as well. I found that checking event viewer and task scheduler helped narrow down the problem. Also, one of my computers didn't like "Wake on pattern match" enabled in the network adapter advanced settings, as it would wake immediately upon sleeping. Disabling this fixed the problem.

And yes, there numerous other issues that can prevent sleep, completely unrelated to Homegroup. Some of those issues are srvnet, Windows Search, Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service, to name a few. My advice to anyone troubleshooting sleep is to first get sleep to work without a Homegroup by troubleshooting these issues first. Once sleep works, then try setting up a Homegroup. Trust me, it will save you from being admitted to a mental institution.

@johnpombrio - I am hoping that you can put together a tutorial on this as it will help so many others until Microsoft fixes it. If you want/need any assistance, I'd be more than willing to offer my services too.

 

[johnpombrio]

Rockhound, well I would put together a tutorial if I knew all the things that could be wrong with HOMEGROUP! Every time when I think we got them all, another one crops up!
Here is a VERY interesting tidbit tho. Look at the highlighted part of this screen:



Take note that you must have all computers on the HOMEGROUP up and running before making changes to HOMEGROUP or possibly when you are initially typing in the password. Not having all the other machines on may prevent HOMEGROUP from initializing properly, and HOMEGROUP keeps an eternal network connection going, preventing sleep. This was definitely not the case in Win8 but may be of vital importance in Win8.1.

 

[Steve06]

I have to admit I'm not 100% convinced I'm there yet, for my particular case, because it seems like sometimes it switches to standby as it should, and sometimes nothing happens, although there's no activity going on preventing sleep. I will continue to monitor this and keep you posted.

Also, I noticed that something else broke while trying to fix the sleep issue. Many of Windows' built-in Metro apps crash immediately at startup as I have reported here http://www.eightforums.com/general-...most-metro-apps-crash-immediately-launch.html . Can you confirm your apps like Weather, Mail, Calendar, Stocks etc. are still working?

 

[johnpombrio]

Yeah, I came downstairs this morning and found the computer up and running. Ai yi yi...
As for Steve's OTHER bug, I have something similar but will post it on the new topic.

 

[Rockhound]

This thing is just plain weird. I too am experiencing similar problems. I can get one computer to sleep, but then the other will not. After waking the first computer, the other one now sleeps, but now the first one won't return to sleep. Argh!!

And yes, I too am having similar issues with the live tiles not working correctly. What in the world is wrong with this?

 

[johnpombrio]

BIG EDIT:
OK, I turned on all the other machines, changed the HOMEGROUP password on all three machines, and waited 5 minutes longer than I was expecting, but my computer now sleeps. I think the trick is to:

Make sure that all the machines on the homegroup are online before making any changes to the HOMEGROUP, joining, sharing, changing passwords (and if you change passwords go around and immediately change the passwords on the other computers- don't wait).

Change your sleep to 1 minute and wait and wait and wait until it FINALLY falls asleep (like 4 pages of the newspaper wait). So far, this has worked on all three machines. If it is still working tomorrow is another question!

 

[Steve06]

Mine is sleeping so far, but only the next days can tell whether this verdict prevails under various scencarios of power use. If I see that it breaks again, I will just disable Homegroup as I do not use it much anyway. Of course, it's always disappointing to be constrained in basic functionality that already used to work well since Windows 7, but that's the deal with Microsoft nowadays, 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

 

[johnpombrio]

Mine is sleeping so far, but only the next days can tell whether this verdict prevails under various scencarios of power use. If I see that it breaks again, I will just disable Homegroup as I do not use it much anyway. Of course, it's always disappointing to be constrained in basic functionality that already used to work well since Windows 7, but that's the deal with Microsoft nowadays, 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

I got mine to work again and Steve, read the massively edited above post as I might have it nailed down. I too could just use Workgroup sharing like in the old days but dammit, I like HOMEGROUP and I will continue working on this until either I or MS fixes it.

 

[Steve06]

Yes I basically did it the way you describe in bold in post #17.

All in all, we have made progress thanks to a great collective effort.

As an off-topic side note, if you are in the mood for testing your 8.1 machine even further, run chkdisk /f C: from an elevated command prompt. For mine, it took 1-2 hours to finish and I just tested the 2 SSDs, getting stucked on the main drive at 11% for an interminable time. The process finished finally, but at the next boot up I got a blue screen offering me an "automatic repair". I approved it and then the machine booted up regularly. Another chkdsk again gave rise to the same long period of being stucked at 11% (worst is that you do not see anymore what exactly is happening), but the system booted up well afterwards. Yet, it did not feel right. Why did something break during chkdsk in the first place, on a brand-new configured machine? Felt like opening another can of worms.

I do not think my machine will get any stabler in the near future before Windows start to issue so substantial patches, hence I will finally create my first backup image.