Windows 8.1 refuses to sleep

[NCguy]

Any insights would be great!

I am by no means an expert in anything computer related but I did manage to resolve my sleep issue. At least for now.

I would look at it analytically.

1. You implied it previously did sleep. Was this for quite a while and then you now have the sleep problem? If so, what if anything changed?
2. Have you gone through your power settings to make sure you have them set the best way to facilitate sleep? Earlier in this thread there is a checklist.
3. Are you using an MS account? I have found my computer will only sleep reliably if I am using a local account. Others seem to agree.
4. Did you check what processes or drivers may have prevented sleep using powercfg -requests from an elevated Command Prompt? I set overrides for anything that was listed. \FileSystem\srvnet seems to be the main culprit.
5. Related to above are you in a Homegroup? Many say that will cause a sleep issue. I was able to remain in a Homegroup and obtain sleep by doing the process overrides I mentioned.

I would start with some or all of these and see if that helps.

Bru, if we are resolved to only a local account then we are implicitly saying that sleep, using Microsoft built in, is more important than onedrive. Are we assuming that this is the case for most people?

 

[Wynona]

Bru, if we are resolved to only a local account then we are implicitly saying that sleep, using Microsoft built in, is more important than onedrive. Are we assuming that this is the case for most people?

I would say it depends on whether the individual uses OneDrive, or, how important OneDrive is to each of us.

I haven't used OneDrive all that much, except to kind of check it out, but today, I decided to put the contents of my external drive onto OneDrive for security. So for me, OneDrive has just become more important than sleep. Who'd've ever thunk it?

That said, so far, both the desktop and the laptop sleep reliably.

Got an Android tablet? Talk about yer sleep values; ya cain't keep the silly things awake!

 

[NCguy]

Bru, if we are resolved to only a local account then we are implicitly saying that sleep, using Microsoft built in, is more important than onedrive. Are we assuming that this is the case for most people?

I would say it depends on whether the individual uses OneDrive, or, how important OneDrive is to each of us.

I haven't used OneDrive all that much, except to kind of check it out, but today, I decided to put the contents of my external drive onto OneDrive for security. So for me, OneDrive has just become more important than sleep. Who'd've ever thunk it?

That said, so far, both the desktop and the laptop sleep reliably.

Got an Android tablet? Talk about yer sleep values; ya cain't keep the silly things awake!

I guess if you do need onedrive and you can't sleep without a local account then StandbyHelper may be your only option? Hate to sound like a commercial for StandbyHelper but it just does most of what Windows sleep was intended to do. And with zero effort.

 

[wilpang]

Any insights would be great!

I am by no means an expert in anything computer related but I did manage to resolve my sleep issue. At least for now.

I would look at it analytically.

1. You implied it previously did sleep. Was this for quite a while and then you now have the sleep problem? If so, what if anything changed?
2. Have you gone through your power settings to make sure you have them set the best way to facilitate sleep? Earlier in this thread there is a checklist.
3. Are you using an MS account? I have found my computer will only sleep reliably if I am using a local account. Others seem to agree.
4. Did you check what processes or drivers may have prevented sleep using powercfg -requests from an elevated Command Prompt? I set overrides for anything that was listed. \FileSystem\srvnet seems to be the main culprit.
5. Related to above are you in a Homegroup? Many say that will cause a sleep issue. I was able to remain in a Homegroup and obtain sleep by doing the process overrides I mentioned.

I would start with some or all of these and see if that helps.

Hi Bru,

1. It went to sleep yesterday evening when I was testing it, I did fiddle with the Power settings after using the Power Troubleshooter which changed a few settings which I didn't like but nothing I can see that would interfere with Sleep.
2. I've gone to through the settings and I can't see anything which might cause a conflict unless for example 'Turn off hard drive' must be 1 min before sleep time.
3. My laptop automatically logs me into my Hotmail account and I'm not sure what you mean by Local Account!
4. I've used powercfg -requests and there was no issues, tried powercfg energy which reported no issues.
I'm not part of a Homegroup either...

Thank you for getting back to me though, Windows 8.1 won't sleep - fixedByVonnie suggested Turning off IPv6, would that help?

 

[bru]

Hi Bru,

1. It went to sleep yesterday evening when I was testing it, I did fiddle with the Power settings after using the Power Troubleshooter which changed a few settings which I didn't like but nothing I can see that would interfere with Sleep.
2. I've gone to through the settings and I can't see anything which might cause a conflict unless for example 'Turn off hard drive' must be 1 min before sleep time.
3. My laptop automatically logs me into my Hotmail account and I'm not sure what you mean by Local Account!
4. I've used powercfg -requests and there was no issues, tried powercfg energy which reported no issues.
I'm not part of a Homegroup either...

Thank you for getting back to me though, Windows 8.1 won't sleep - fixedByVonnie suggested Turning off IPv6, would that help?

The local account refers to how you log in to the computer. Win 8 (and 8.1) prompts you to either use or set up a Microsoft account when you first set up the computer. You can change to a local account (in Accounts I think you choose Disconnect from your Microsoft account) but then some things like One Drive will not be synced. It sounds like you used you Hotmail account to set up the Microsoft account.

As for IPv6, it is one of the many tweaks that has been suggested. I am sure it worked for someone but it did not resolve my sleep issue. Can't hurt to try.

 

[Jesse Williams]

Whenever mine was having issues sleeping, I returned it to the manufacturer and they fixed it. It sleeps now. Also, I believe it was a program that was causing it to mess up. So, I would first attempt to reset or refresh it. If that doesn't work, try and see what program might be interfering. If that doesn't work, contact your manufacturer if it's under warranty and ask them to fix it. The warranty work should be free if it's under warranty.

 

[Deihmos]

This is like a broken record but this issue affects all my PCs so it isn't hardware related. The PC sleeps for a while but then will eventually stop and wouldn't work again unless I restart or log out then back in. Not interested in killing my server or file sharing or using local accounts which I did try and it did not solve the problem. Disabling IP6 did nothing either.

I decided to try something different. I created a new account and made it admin then changed my regular account to standard. Sleep has not stopped working as yet.

Edit. Stopped sleeping after a while so didn't work. I give up.

 

[wilpang]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I've noticed something when I was experimenting with the settings and have noticed that if Turn off the display is set to never in the Power Options the laptop sleeps with no issue. But if the screen goes off first or at the same time then sleep will not kick in which sounds like a bug...

Can one of you guys see if they can reproduce that maybe it's just mine!?

 

[Jesse Williams]

Mine is having issues sleeping again as well. I am absolutely tired of this. Let's just hope its a bad day for my computer, and tomorrow will be better.

 

[David Bailey]

My computer sleeps from sleep button or on a timer.
I have no special settings enabled.
It just sleeps & wakes up when I press the space bar.
No password on wakeup.

Win8.1.1 Pro/wmc

 

[wilpang]

Hi David,

My laptop went to sleep too when I first got it now it doesn't for some reason and I'm not even sure on what I've changed to cause this. There is no issue with manual sleep just the timer...

Have you tried post 1968 to see if it still sleeps then?

 

[David Bailey]

Hi David,

My laptop went to sleep too when I first got it now it doesn't for some reason and I'm not even sure on what I've changed to cause this. There is no issue with manual sleep just the timer...

Have you tried post 1968 to see if it still sleeps then?

I tried it with turning off the screen & never turning off the screen..

It worked either way.

The screen turned off when it was set to never when I just enabled sleep.

My computer is about 3 years old.

 

[Jesse Williams]

I just did a powercfg test on mine, and under system it says "System: [DRIVER] \FileSystem\srvnet. An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine." Can someone tell me what this means?

 

[Jesse Williams]

This is what helped mine, just now. Follow, this link (http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/32947-power-availability-requests-manage-windows.html.) Has anyone tried this?

 

[wilpang]

I just did a powercfg test on mine, and under system it says "System: [DRIVER] \FileSystem\srvnet. An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine." Can someone tell me what this means?

Hi williamsjesse17

Try the below link

Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 8.1 Not Going to Sleep

 

[Jesse Williams]

I just did a powercfg test on mine, and under system it says "System: [DRIVER] \FileSystem\srvnet. An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine." Can someone tell me what this means?

Hi williamsjesse17

Try the below link

Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 8.1 Not Going to Sleep

Wilpang, this link is what helped me fix mine.

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

 

[Gork]

1. Use a local account. This is key, without the local account it will never sleep reliably.

This is the ONLY fix which has worked for me. My Win8.1 PC won't sleep reliably even if a MS account is logged in as a second account in the background. As I have mentioned before, I have been through every single post in this thread and have tried every single idea which has been brought up with the exception of the outside program to force a sleep. I finally gave up on the MS account in Win8.1 and am waiting to see if I have the same luck with Win10 as others have posted having with Win10b.

For those who are just joining the thread recently, no. No true solution was ever found. Some people were able to get things working properly with odd fixes, but that seemed few and far between. The only two workarounds which seem to have truly helped most everyone is either installing a program to force sleep or using a local instead of a MS account.

And with that I won't be following this thread anymore. Good luck to all! See you in Win10!

 

[dwin78]

All,

I concur with Gork. I have been following this thread for well over year and finally joined today to post. I have had the same issues with all three of my PC's (2 Laptops, 1 Desktop) as long as i am signed in with my windows account. Basically, on initial restart, the machine will sleep but eventually sleep will stop working unless i log out or restart the machine.

I have read every post of this site and many others. Also, i am very tech. savvy as my primary job is working in Microsoft Products (SharePoint, Office 365). I have tried endless solutions (including re-formatting multiple times) but i have finally gave up because i think there is something wrong with my MS account. I refuse to switch as i have had this account for well over a decade. However, i know people who sign into MS account with no sleep issues so i think its not affecting most accounts. Most recently, i tried to changing my primary alias to outlook.com rather than Hotmail.com to see if that helps. (doubtful but i just can't stop troubleshooting..haha)

At this point, we either have to wait to windows 10 or hope that MS fixes this silently (backend issue with our accounts most likely). I have no idea what is causing it.

On a side note, there are many other issues that will cause your computer not to sleep so its worth doing some basically troubleshooting as this issue only seems to be affecting a limited number of users. For instance, i created a windows account on my dad's desktop for him with win 8.1 and he has no sleep issues.

 

[Deihmos]

I decided to switch one of my machines back to Windows 8 and sleeps works fine. That machine acts like my media server so sticking with win 8 isn't a problem. I can manage my laptop not sleeping since I usually just close the lid for it to sleep but I am thinking about switching all my other pcs connected to the television to Windows 8 until win 10 is released. After all this time microsoft hasn't fixed the sleep issue so I don't think they ever will. I just hope win 10 does not have the same problem.

 

[Deihmos]

All,


On a side note, there are many other issues that will cause your computer not to sleep so its worth doing some basically troubleshooting as this issue only seems to be affecting a limited number of users. For instance, i created a windows account on my dad's desktop for him with win 8.1 and he has no sleep issues.

The problem is with Windows 8.1 and like most people it works fine for a while then stops. All my computers with 8.1 have the same problem so it isn't hardware related.

You may think it is working fine but try not rebooting and logging out and see how long it lasts.