Windows 8.1 refuses to sleep

[prism]

Ok all, after several days of "stress" testing with a local account and skydrive killed, the sleep timer has been working in all instances without fail. I can certainly live with these compromises (never used skydrive in the first place and an MSFT account is not that big of a deal to me). So i'm a happy camper until MSFT actually decides to fix this dreaded problem with a patch or something.

 

[bouldernerd]

Prism. I believe we have the same Dell XPS 8500. Would you please tell me what you have done? I'll try to replicate.

 

[prism]

bouldernerd, indeed we do!
I simply switched from the MSFT account to a local one and completely deactivated skydrive (again following steps from this thread). After that, I just rebooted and....voila!
Like I said, did some stress tests since (streaming plex, sharing folders, remote desktop, torrent downloads etc), and the sleep timer still functions.

 

[orbitalfenestra]

bouldernerd, indeed we do!
I simply switched from the MSFT account to a local one and completely deactivated skydrive (again following steps from this thread). After that, I just rebooted and....voila!
Like I said, did some stress tests since (streaming plex, sharing folders, remote desktop, torrent downloads etc), and the sleep timer still functions.

Or you can clean install win 8.1 offline. By default, Skydrive will be deactivated! I've finally managed to do the online installer trick to get Win 8.1 PRO retail ISO (non VL). You can install it from scratch with a generic key, then once on the desktop, connect to the internet then run slui 3 command and enter your win 8.0 key!! Fantastic!!

 

[linw]

Well, I have figured out the Youtube shutoffs. They have to be played in full screen else there is no power request sent. powercfg /requests has a Display heading and if the prog isn't showing there, the display will blank.

Not sure where the blame lies, but I get the same result with IE and Firefox. So, any video embedded in the browser HAS to be in full screen for the screen to stay awake.

WMC and WMP lodge a power request under Display so they don't blank.

Would somebody running a win 7 or 8 system check whether this holds for those OS's? (Play embedded video (NOT full screen) and check 'powercfg /requests' under Display.

Otherwise, my comp seems to sleep after 30 sec delay fairly reliably so that seems to b the best I can get ATM.

 

[S Malik]

maliksaad, I firmly believe that there is more than one problem source which is why we can't find the one solution. I don't have the skydrive sync svc going, and no homedrive set up, but I still have the sleep problem.

I have tested this enough to tell you that the only issue with Windows 8.1 is SkyDrive.exe & SkyDrive is only active when you have a Microsoft account. Switching to a 'Local Account' solves this issue for me & other people I know. Disabling SkyDrive related tasks, In-TaskScheduler & disabling HomeGroup doesn't do any good.

 

[orbitalfenestra]

Well, I have figured out the Youtube shutoffs. They have to be played in full screen else there is no power request sent. powercfg /requests has a Display heading and if the prog isn't showing there, the display will blank.

Not sure where the blame lies, but I get the same result with IE and Firefox. So, any video embedded in the browser HAS to be in full screen for the screen to stay awake.



WMC and WMP lodge a power request under Display so they don't blank.

Would somebody running a win 7 or 8 system check whether this holds for those OS's? (Play embedded video (NOT full screen) and check 'powercfg /requests' under Display.

Otherwise, my comp seems to sleep after 30 sec delay fairly reliably so that seems to b the best I can get ATM.

Is it possible, then to create a rule to prevent this to happen? Or an option in your internet browser?

 

[linw]

Mmmm, looks like the embedded video 'problem' is normal as my Vista system behaves the same. Probably this has come to the fore with me because I have sleep/screen set to 1 min for testing. Usually, my time to sleep would have been longer than the YT clips.

@maliksaad - I am now on a local account and am getting variable sleep delays, but mostly 30sec. The last four tests were one at 4m10s and the other three were 30s. Sleep delays, IMHO, should be about 7s, but I can live with 30s. How long are your delays from trigger to sleep?

 

[orbitalfenestra]

Mmmm, looks like the embedded video 'problem' is normal as my Vista system behaves the same. Probably this has come to the fore with me because I have sleep/screen set to 1 min for testing. Usually, my time to sleep would have been longer than the YT clips.

@maliksaad - I am now on a local account and am getting variable sleep delays, but mostly 30sec. The last four tests were one at 4m10s and the other three were 30s. Sleep delays, IMHO, should be about 7s, but I can live with 30s. How long are your delays from trigger to sleep?

My sleep timer is set to 20 minutes and the 7 sec delay is respected.

 

[linw]

That sounds right on, orbit. As I said, I can live with some delay as long as it sleeps pretty much all the time. Should be nigh nighs when I check in the morning!!

 

[orbitalfenestra]

That sounds right on, orbit. As I said, I can live with some delay as long as it sleeps pretty much all the time. Should be nigh nighs when I check in the morning!!

I'm still curious to know why you have issues with the delay...

 

[johnix2013]

First time posting, long time lurking with much interest in this topic.

I have not been good about writing down the things I have tried, but I think the one that is partially working is removing the Home Group. Like many others, it seems to work for a day or two but then stops sleeping (why Why WHY give me this false hope?!?) When insomnia starts again after a few days, I reboot and it starts sleeping automatically again for a while.

 

[bouldernerd]

First time posting, long time lurking with much interest in this topic.

I have not been good about writing down the things I have tried, but I think the one that is partially working is removing the Home Group. Like many others, it seems to work for a day or two but then stops sleeping (why Why WHY give me this false hope?!?) When insomnia starts again after a few days, I reboot and it starts sleeping automatically again for a while.

That's the part of this that baffles me. I have had many solutions that have worked for a while and then stopped. And, some have found permanent solutions that haven't worked for others.

 

[johnix2013]

First time posting, long time lurking with much interest in this topic.

I have not been good about writing down the things I have tried, but I think the one that is partially working is removing the Home Group. Like many others, it seems to work for a day or two but then stops sleeping (why Why WHY give me this false hope?!?) When insomnia starts again after a few days, I reboot and it starts sleeping automatically again for a while.

That's the part of this that baffles me. I have had many solutions that have worked for a while and then stopped. And, some have found permanent solutions that haven't worked for others.

What I do know, is that when it stops sleeping automatically, it stops completely until the next reboot.

 

[orbitalfenestra]

First time posting, long time lurking with much interest in this topic.

I have not been good about writing down the things I have tried, but I think the one that is partially working is removing the Home Group. Like many others, it seems to work for a day or two but then stops sleeping (why Why WHY give me this false hope?!?) When insomnia starts again after a few days, I reboot and it starts sleeping automatically again for a while.

Stopping the homegroup is not enough. You need to disable files and printer sharing as well. You can keep network discovery.

If the files and printer sharing is enabled on 2 computer within the same network, then when these 2 are opened at the same time, srvnet will send requests and the sleep will fail.

And yes, once sleep fails once in Win 8.1 for any reason it will not work until a reboot.

And with this you got skydrive issue, drivers issues, hardware issues, BIOS issues, software issues, random issues, ..... Each time your PC has a chance to avoid sleep, it will.

The best is to clean install offline

We should rename this thread:

"COMPUTER ON METHAMPHETAMINE"

 

[webman1200]

Last weekend, I updated one of the PCs to Windows 8.1, and now it won't automatically sleep. I double-checked the power settings, and the timer is still there. I first tried the command prompt code: "powercfg /requests" and got "A remote client has recently sent requests to this machine." or something like that. So far, I've tried the following suggestions I found online, but to no avail:

• Disabled media streaming
• Checked for updates to network adapter driver (was up-to-date)
• Disabled mouse & keyboard from being able to wake the machine

I also had it generate an energy report, but it said the issues flagged wouldn't keep the machine from sleeping. Anyone else have any suggestions? This is getting frustrating!

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving

 

[S Malik]

Mmmm, looks like the embedded video 'problem' is normal as my Vista system behaves the same. Probably this has come to the fore with me because I have sleep/screen set to 1 min for testing. Usually, my time to sleep would have been longer than the YT clips.

@maliksaad - I am now on a local account and am getting variable sleep delays, but mostly 30sec. The last four tests were one at 4m10s and the other three were 30s. Sleep delays, IMHO, should be about 7s, but I can live with 30s. How long are your delays from trigger to sleep?

Mine is about 6/7 sec. I don't know why yours is so long. I think opened programs in the background might cause this delay.

 

[linw]

Yes, 6-7 sec is 'normal'. The problem with the 'open programs' theory is that it will always shutdown in 1-2 sec from the keybd sleep button and the shutdown/sleep from the rt click 'start' button.

 

[videodj]

Well I've been following ths thread for a while and tried all the fixes here, but still my pc sleeps un-reliably. Usually when it stops sleeping, I've notice my USB 2 ports stop working and only a reboot will fix it. I'm now thinging of returning to windows 8, which worked every time for me, I really hop MS fix this soon.

Are there any 3rd party solutions that handle power management?

 

[Fr3lncr]

Well, I went through the whole thread over the last couple of days and tried all the suggestions but I'm still SOL. I'm running a clean install of 8.1 Enterpriese on an Asus P8Z77-V Pro MB, never had Homegroup set up and confirmed its disabled, I fully disabled Skydrive (don't use it anyways), I don't use Metro apps (everything that can be uninstalled is uninstalled), I do use a MS Account for login, disabled USB power options for my Logitech keyboard/mouse, and I need WOL enabled so my XBMC HTPC can wake it up to stream content from my PC.

Basically, the PC wont go to sleep on its own but it will go to sleep if I put it to sleep manually and it will stay asleep (seemingly) until I send a WOL command.

It is bringing back bad memories as when I first did a clean install of Win 8 last year, I had power problems as well but they seemed to be driver issues as after Asus released updated drivers and I did a wipe/reinstall, things worked themselves out.

Since I've reinstalled way too many times already due to another issue, I'm not tempted to go back to 8.0 just to get this fixed. I guess I'll either have to manually put it to sleep each time I walk away from it, or just switch back to Windows 7 since I have a dual boot setup.

Errr... Why can't things just 'work' the way they should? Or why do I continually have bad luck as of late with regards to tech.

So I guess I didn't try "everything". I disconnected my account to a local account and voila! For the last three days it sleeps on its own again like it used to.

Must still be a 8.1 thing as I had a linked account on Windows 8 and it slept fine.

Oh well, just glad it is working again without any real loss in functionality.