Windows 8.1 does not go to sleep / standby automatically

[Rockhound]

I did mine the way it was described in your post above, and I had good luck yesterday. However, now I am having sporadic luck with this. I can only get two of my computers to sleep, and the specific two computers are never the same. If computers 1 and 2 sleep, then computer 3 won't. I even waited over 2 hours for computer 3 to sleep, but it didn't. After waking computer 1, then computer 3 will sleep, but then computer 1 won't sleep. There's just something really strange going on and I'm not sure what it could be. Why do only two computers sleep and not all three at the same time???

I'm very curious to know how both of you fair tomorrow.

 

[Looey]

I had a sleep problem after installing Windows 8.1. In Network and Sharing Center/change advanced sharing setting/all networks I clicked on choose media streaming option and turned media sharing off. No problems with sleep after that. For some oddball reason media sharing wouldn't let my computer sleep on its own.

 

[Steve06]

@Looey: Thanks for joining the discussion. I think it's safe to say that we have all turned off media sharing a long time ago. The issues discussed here are much of a much more persistent nature. Lucky you if you have not encountered them. Do you have any homegroup set up on your Windows 8.1 PC?

 

[Owl]

When I woke up my screen was off but sleep never activated

I could of swore it worked yesterday.. Everything is disabled and I don't have a Homegroup, I'm hoping a simple restart will fix this.

I guess we'll see tomorrow

 

[Looey]

@Looey: Thanks for joining the discussion. I think it's safe to say that we have all turned off media sharing a long time ago. The issues discussed here are much of a much more persistent nature. Lucky you if you have not encountered them. Do you have any homegroup set up on your Windows 8.1 PC?

My PC is in a 4 unit home network all running Windows 8.1 that were installed on a clean disk. I tried a sleep fix that worked for me in Windows 8.0: powercfg -requestsoverride driver srvnet system. That didn't fix 8.1 but I didn't change it back to default. It's still in effect. I had gone into Windows media player and disabled sharing media but my problem was fixed in the network and sharing center. I tried turning off fast startup and hybrid sleep options in the power panel to no avail. I put them back since they didn't help. I use user accounts with no passwords for sharing after changing the option in the network and sharing center advanced options. I made sure the homegroup says it is waiting to be created in the network and sharing center on all 4 machines and all media sharing is turned off. I wish you good luck with finding a fix.

BTW, one other thing I almost forgot was I uninstalled most of the non-desktop apps, especially the ones I thought might be trying to get updates like news and weather.

 

[Steve06]

In the last two days, my PC has reached sleep only sporadically. After long works sessions, it tends to not go to sleep, even after closing all open apps. When I reboot, it then falls sleeps automatically again. Since it is too unreliable for me, I have disabled homegroup for now until there is a better solution to our problem.

 

[johnpombrio]

In the last two days, my PC has reached sleep only sporadically. After long works sessions, it tends to not go to sleep, even after closing all open apps. When I reboot, it then falls sleeps automatically again. Since it is too unreliable for me, I have disabled homegroup for now until there is a better solution to our problem.

Steve, sorry to hear you still are having issues with HOMEGROUP. One of the things I found that might be waking/not sleeping my computer was having a folder on the computer that is shared with another machine that was NOT SHARED PROPERLY. I had one folder that I had shared but NOT WHEN the other computers were up and running. When I tried to access that folder on another computer, I found my main machine up and running.

The trick is to go to the other machines and make sure you can access all the folders that are showing up. If one comes up with the dreaded "enter password" dialog box, that is trouble. Turn on all the other computers, unshare the offending folders and share them again.

I must empathize this: Make ALL changes to HOMEGROUP ONLY WHEN all the computers involved are up and running. Make sure ALL shared folders can be accessed properly by all machines.

 

[Steve06]

I might have been too quick putting the blame on Homegroup. After hours of intense work with many programs opened, VPN connections established etc., the PC still refuses to sleep although I left the homegroup I had created a couple of days earlier. This situation persists even after shutting down all open programs like Firefox, Outlook, etc. However, when I reboot the machine it will go to sleep again.

I am not sure how to find the culprit and am almost out of ideas. Maybe when this happens i should try to kill each (suspicious) process one by one, and checking after each if the computer sleeps. However, that seems like a crude way of proceeding. Isn't there a neater way to "scan" for processes or activities causing problems?

Here are the general suspects I already excluded:
- powercfg /requests yields none in every section.
- My Ethernet adapter's setting are such that it won't wake up the computer.
- In my energy options, the PC is allowed to go into standy even when it's sharing media.
- I left the homegroup, but did not disable homegroup management altogether as you can in the dialog box where you change the settings for the individual network profiles. If you disable homegroup management, it says that you can only share files the old-fashioned way. So the homegroup feature is not disabled and I assume this is not what you guys mean when you say "leave the homegroup".

UPDATE: Several Metro apps like Skype, Maps, Store have background processes running, but when you shut down the processes, they reappear again very soon. I have tried killing some seemingly non-essential processes but have had no luck so far.

UPDATE 2: Instead of a reboot, I just logged off and on again, and the PC went immediately to sleep. I just can't figure why the sleep gets stucked after a while. It must be the start of one program or service that ruins sleep for the remainder of the session (until log-off or reboot).

 

[johnpombrio]

I might have been too quick putting the blame on Homegroup. After hours of intense work with many programs opened, VPN connections established etc., the PC still refuses to sleep although I left the homegroup I had created a couple of days earlier. This situation persists even after shutting down all open programs like Firefox, Outlook, etc. However, when I reboot the machine it will go to sleep again.
UPDATE 2: Instead of a reboot, I just logged off and on again, and the PC went immediately to sleep. I just can't figure why the sleep gets stucked after a while.

Hi Steve, There are two discussions going on (and everyone has a slightly different solution, heh) Here is the other:

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

You gotta read through the whole thing (sorry) as this is a work in progress.

Does disabling the network adapter let the computer sleep? That will pin it down to a few things in a hurry.

PS my old friend from work was complaining to me just the other day that sometimes sleep works, then it doesn't then it magically started working again. He was/is a hel'of'a troubleshooter, also with HP, so I will ask him what he has found out.

 

[Steve06]

John, that would be very helpful if you could ask him. It's exactly the same for me, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, for no apparent reason. At the moment it works so I will wait until it breaks and then unplug the cable as you suggest.

 

[johnpombrio]

John, that would be very helpful if you could ask him. It's exactly the same for me, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, for no apparent reason. At the moment it works so I will wait until it breaks and then unplug the cable as you suggest.

How to disable network Adapter:



BTW, how to disable the network adapter was in the sleep post. It's a pain but you really need to read through all posts there. The answer for your problem could be in that post or in other posts on this topic. I ASSUME that you have tried (or at least read) all the other stuff when I make a recommendation here! Your solution could have been answered long ago in the posts.

 

[Rockhound]

Hey guys. I need your help. I have gone through this process multiple times. I get my Homegroup setup and set the shares properly. Then I set my timer to one minute and walk away. Within about ten minutes, one computer will sleep. But the other one does not. I've left it alone for about an hour or more and it still doesn't sleep.

I wiggle the mouse and wake the first computer and mess around for just a bit and within a couple of minutes, the other computer finally sleeps. Then, I walk away from the first computer and it won't go back to sleep.

This has become very frustrating. I just can't seem to get it figured out. Are you guys having similar issues? Can you actually get all of your computers in your network to sleep at the same time or are you having my problem too? What can you suggest I try?

 

[johnpombrio]

Hey guys. I need your help. I have gone through this process multiple times. I get my Homegroup setup and set the shares properly. Then I set my timer to one minute and walk away. Within about ten minutes, one computer will sleep. But the other one does not. I've left it alone for about an hour or more and it still doesn't sleep.

I wiggle the mouse and wake the first computer and mess around for just a bit and within a couple of minutes, the other computer finally sleeps. Then, I walk away from the first computer and it won't go back to sleep.

This has become very frustrating. I just can't seem to get it figured out. Are you guys having similar issues? Can you actually get all of your computers in your network to sleep at the same time or are you having my problem too? What can you suggest I try?

Getting closer! Did you do what I highlighted in post 23? Can you access all folders that you have shared from all machines? Homegroup has to be working in all ways before sleep will occur.

1. Once you have got all the folders working,
2. and have all machines running,
3. leave homegroup on all computers,
4.change the password on one machine and
5. go log into Homegroup with the new password on the other machine.
6. verify that all folders can be accessed.
7. try sleep again.
IN THAT ORDER!

 

[Steve06]

John, the issue goes away and the system sleeps automatically when disabling Ethernet, so this is established. But how do we narrow down the faulty setting now?

UPDATE:
Tried the following:
- Disabling ipv6 in the Ethernet adapter's settings - did not help
- ran powercfg /energy duration 300 from an elevated command prompt while the ethernet adapter was enabled. It found 9 errors, mostly related to USB hubs, but the same errors were also recorded when I repeated the exercise having the ethernet adapter disabled. So these errors are probably not relevant for the problem at hand.
- powercfg /devicequery wake_armed : just the mouse and keyboard appear
- I tried netstat which shows many connections but do not know how to interpret them or what to look for. Same for Wireshark.
- powercfg -requestsoverride DRIVER \FileSystem\srvnet SYSTEM did not help, reverted it.

 

[tom57]

Thanks!

All,
New to forum, google search led me here. I wanted to 1st off say thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Two machines, update from 8 pro to 8.1 pro 64 bit. Asus required me to un check all USB root hubs, allow computer to turn off to save power along with turning off home group and uncheck IPv6 based on the work of your members. I was able to resolve the sleep issue on my AS Rock by additionally going into network and sharing center, advanced sharing setting, guest or public, turn off file and printer sharing. I have cycled it a few times so far so good!

tom57

 

[Steve06]

All,
New to forum, google search led me here. I wanted to 1st off say thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Two machines, update from 8 pro to 8.1 pro 64 bit. Asus required me to un check all USB root hubs, allow computer to turn off to save power along with turning off home group and uncheck IPv6 based on the work of your members. I was able to resolve the sleep issue on my AS Rock by additionally going into network and sharing center, advanced sharing setting, guest or public, turn off file and printer sharing. I have cycled it a few times so far so good!

tom57

Thanks for joining the forum and sharing your success story! What exactly do you mean by "un check all USB root hubs"? I would like to try the same as I am desperate for a definitive solution. (I have an Asrock board like one of your PCs)

 

[tom57]

Hope this helps, I'm not sure if there was one USB root hub in particular that is the culprit, at this point I un checked them all from within properties dialog box, on the power management tab (allow computer to turn off this device to save power)

tom57

 

[johnpombrio]

Tom, welcome and thanks for the info. Disabling IPV6 basically turns off Homegroup so that may still be your solution. A USB connection to the printer with printer sharing could be hanging up sleep which is why they had you check it.

Steve, good to know that disabling the Ethernet adapter fixes it.

Since network connection is the key to a fix for most, we need to figure out what is being connected to or shared that needs to be shut off in order to let the computer sleep. I have been poking around in Computer Management (Control panel - system security - admin tools- computer management). Since my machines are all sleeping properly, I will list out a couple of screens to see if anyone comes up with something different. BTW, on the OTHER post, some have been saying that if all the computers are turned on on the network, one will sleep while the others don't.

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

Some of my shares and users/groups:

 

[nightmares]

Hey guys, I am not sure if turning off homegroup will do anything but after i install latest hotfix and graphic drivers from Windows Update. It seems to fix the problem. But just in case, I disable "homegroup" and turn off all "network discovery" and "file and printer sharing" in the Advance Sharing Setting. Hope it will helps others.

 

[Steve06]

Hey guys, I am not sure if turning off homegroup will do anything but after i install latest hotfix and graphic drivers from Windows Update. It seems to fix the problem. But just in case, I disable "homegroup" and turn off all "network discovery" and "file and printer sharing" in the Advance Sharing Setting. Hope it will helps others.

I pulled all Windows updates there are (except the infamous Bing Desktop) on a daily basis but none helped. Today, I also found out that Asrock published new Windows 8.1 drivers two days ago and installed them all right away, but it did not change anything regarding the hibernation problem. Let's see if the new drivers at least help regarding the other infamous http://www.eightforums.com/software...most-metro-apps-crash-immediately-launch.html issue.

I have now on top of leaving homegroup disabled it. I have also unchecked ipv6. No progress yet.