Windows 10: How to wake laptop from sleep using secondary monitor only?

I am hoping there is a simple solution to this that I am missing...

I have a laptop running Win 10 Home x64, all the latest updates. Generally, when I put it to sleep, it will wake with just pressing a button on my USB keyboard, I do not need to use the actual laptop keyboard to wake from Sleep.

I just today got a larger monitor to use as my primary display, since this laptop doesn't travel very often. It is connected via HDMI cable. Windows recognized it right away and immediately wanted to clone the display, that's the default. Then I closed my laptop--it is already set for nothing to happen when the lid closes--and interestingly, though I guess it makes sense, Windows no longer recognized the laptop's screen as a display option. So in my Display page it only detects a single Display, which is the HDMI connected monitor. OK, fine, so far, so good, I suppose, though I imagine some Display resolution settings might need some attention if I do need to use the laptop screen, but no problem.

Until I put it to sleep. When asleep it no longer wakes at my USB keyboard. If I open the laptop and press the keyboard and close it again it wakes right away on the external display, still detecting it as the only display. But it requires me to press the laptop keybaord for some reason.

The only reason that this is a hassle is because I built a display stand for the monitor to sit on and the laptop fits underneath, with just enough room for ventilation and USB access, but not really for opening the screen every time I want to turn the machine on.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

:)

 

Using laptop as desktop - can't wake it from sleep with wireless mouse or keyboard.

• 4. Test waking from Sleep with the monitor connected to the laptop.
• 5. Disconnect the monitor from the laptop, reboot, then test waking from Sleep without an external monitor.

No luck with monitor connected. Disconnected the monitor, rebooted, then tested wake-from-sleep with no external monitor - no luck.

 

Display problems, Fullscreen any application causes laptop monitor to black out.

Hi everyone,

I have a sneaking suspicion this is a driver issue, but I don't know how to resolve it.

Asus N550JK laptop running Windows 10, with an Intel display adapter and Nvidia display adapter. Both drivers fully updated (but the problems were occurring before the update too).

Two monitors: my external monitor is my primary monitor, my laptop monitor is my secondary monitor.

I can do anything on the external/primary monitor just fine, but whenever I go to fullscreen anything on the laptop/secondary monitor, the image goes away, the screen goes black. Any application at all! (word processor, web browser, PDF viewer, settings window,
anything) I can reproduce this every time.

I thought maybe it had something to do with scaling, or with animations, so I fiddled with those, and still nothing.

I can get the image back on the laptop/secondary monitor a number of ways: restarting, sleeping/waking up, and Windows+P -> second monitor only -> extend ("rebooting" the laptop monitor).

Any idea how to resolve this issue?

Best regards,

Kyle

 

Hi, this seems similar:
Waking up laptop through USB mouse/keyboard? - Windows 10 Forums

See #8

More detail here if needed:
Allow or Prevent Devices to Wake Computer in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

However note even a MVP could not solve this on his:
Keyboard no longer waking the computer (used to work). - Windows 10 Forums

 

Dalchina,

Thanks for the post and the links, the first one especially. I had searched the forums and not seen it.

With that said, I had already all of the devices set to allow to wake up the computer. I had not enables sleep timers so we will see if that changes things. I have set it now, and will check back in later.

My situation is a little different, unfortuantely, so I am not sure if it will help. The poster of that first post seems to have had the problem that the computer would *never* wake up when pressing the USB keyboard, he always had to press the laptop keyboard. However my situation is different. When I have the laptop screen open I can use the USB keybaord and it will wake the computer fine. When the screen is closed is when it does not work any longer.

I noticed in my most recent attempt this interesting thing: I have an LED that is solid blue when the computer is on, off when the computer is off or in hibernate, and blinks orange when in sleep. When I first pressed my USB keyboard it turned blue for a split second, then went back to blinking orange. Subsequent pressing of the USB keybaord did nothing. When I opened the laptop to press a key I had to actually open the screen enough that when I pressed a key the screen turned on before it would wake. When I just opened it a crack and pressed a key it did nothing. The laptop screen itself had to turn on before the computer would wake up. As soon as the light from the laptop screen was visible I closed the laptop and it didnt matter, the computer woke up and my HDMI monitor turned on. But I had to let that laptop screen turn on first.

So this leads me to thinking it is not connected to the USB devices but rather has something to do with the relationship between waking the computer and turning on the laptop screen. If enabling the sleep timers doesnt work then I will also try openign the screen a crack but then using the USB keybaord and seeing what happens... My guess is that laptop screen turning on is where the action is happening, and that is what I need to try and work around or prevent...

 

I'm wondering what your 'When I close the lid' is set to..

 

I mentioned in the first post but it was buried in the middle of the sentence - set to do nothing when the lid closes, for all power plans. The screen still turns off, though, when it reaches a certain point, when it is around 1" or maybe 1.5" away from closing. And it seems that in order to wake from sleep it has to be opened to past whatever that sensor point is.

Also, just checked, and nothing has changed, which is to say USB keyboard isnt waking it up even with the sleep mtimers enabled, etc.

Since my Dispaly settings are *only* showing the external monitor, and not even recognizing the existence of the laptop screen as long as it is closed, you would hope/assume that the OS would just ignore any commands or routines that are dependent on that screen being on or off... But it must not recognize the lack of that screen when it is in sleep mode...

 

I have spent a good deal more time hunting and I am empty handed. All around the net people have brought up this same issue, (I should have Googled before coming to this forum, I suppose) with varying results, all based on laptop model, it seems.

The advice is common:
1) Set lid close to do nothing
2) Make sure wake from usb is enabled in bios/uefi, if you have that option
3) Make sure usb selective suspend id disabled
4) Make sure usb ports and keyboard/mouse are not turned off during sleep
5) Make sure usb ports and keyboard/mouse are given permission to wake from sleep
6) Make sure Allow Wake Timers is enabled

In some cases USB and even wireless keyboards will wake with lid closed, in other cases, like mine, they won't.

Even before I started playing with the settings I was able to wake from sleep using my USB keyboard. The discovery is only that it will not wake from sleep when the lid is closed. The only thing that I can deduce is that the sensor that alerts that the lid is closed somehow prevents the machine to wake from sleep. When I crack the lid enough to disengage the sensor I can wake the machine and close the lid again less than a second later, literally--the moment my sleep LED switches from orange to blue--and it wakes fine. But it needs that initial push to come with the lid open and the built-in display selected.

When the lid is closed it recognizes the built-in display as no longer being available, and the only monitor available in my Display settings is my HDMI connected one. So one would assume that the ability to wake would not depend on a non-existent monitor, but I guess that is not the case. I think it is likely one of two scenarios:
1) When the computer goes to sleep it ceases to recognize that the built-in display is not connected/active. So by going to sleep it assumes the built in display is the main display, and hence won't start without it
2) Regardless of what the Display settings offer in terms of connected displays, the machine always wants the lid close sensor disengaged in order to wake.

I don't know why some computers can wake with the lid closed (not using a hub, mind you) and others cannot, because it seems like a software issue, not hardware. But somewhere in driver land I suppose is where the issue persists. The only other suggestion is to remove the sensor that indicates the screen is closed, and then set Display mode to only use second screen. I am not sure what kind of sensor is on my machine, I assume a magnetic one since I do not see a button anywhere... But since I do still want to be able to use this laptop as a laptop, on occasion, I don't want to go ahead with that kind of surgery.

I could try a Wake Over LAN option, but I don't have access to ethernet connection for the machine, and even if I did that is less than ideal. Plus it may run up against the same wall I am hitting now, seeing as how the external keyboard works fine with the display open.

If anyone has any other ideas, specifically think about how to get around the machine's insistence on having the built-in display on when waking, and not involving surgery, they would be appreciated!

:::Edit::: I should add that I am one of those who cannot allow devices to wake the machine using an elevated command prompt, I am always blocked saying only an administrator can do so, even though I am the only user on this laptop and have complete administrator privileges. Regardless of how I open the elevated command prompt, whether via the direct "Administrative Command Prompt" button or right clicking on a shortcut and choosing Open As Admin, it doesn't seem to matter, no dice, can't change anything. However from within the Device Manager I don't have any problem. I suppose, looking at the list of available devices, I might consider trying some other device, like a Bluetooth device of some sort, and see if that works (?) but I do not know what device I would try, and I doubt it will overcome this display issue.

 

Hi, I began to suspect this could be a problem particular to your model/range of laptops.
I searched for
Acer Aspire usb keyboard wake

(you could try variations on that)

See:
Wake from sleep using USB mouse/keyboard broken - Acer Community - 304492
Waking Acer laptop from sleep w/ USB keyboard. [Solved] - Acer - Laptop Tech Support
Acer V3-571-6850 Wont wake up from standby via ext... - Acer Community - 16297

for example.

However: it is reported elsewhere.

This could be the basic issue to attack:

See:
Desktop wont wake up when screen goes to sleep - [Solved] - Windows 10

 

I never thought to search the Acer site, I just jumped right into it being a W10 issue. Huh. Thanks for being helpful, dalchina, and not just chastising me for not searching. (I did search, I swear, but, well, not enough, or correctly, it seems).

Your first assessment above is most likely right, it just can't happen with my model of Acer. I realized I have a BIOS update that I can do, so I will, and that might change things, but I am not betting on it.

As for the second link, that was just a longer way of listing items 2 & 3 from my list above, which I have already done, and which dont address the specific issue of waking from usb working when lid is open but not working when closed. So, yeah, thanks, Acer.

I suppose I should mark this thread solved, since there doesn't seem to be any way around it. I will maybe comb through the Acer boards tomorrow a little more (it is late where I am) just in case someone has figured out a way around it. I suppose I wil leave this thread open til then, just in case someone might think of a non-invasive way to trick the computer into thinking its lid is open even when it is closed...

 

Solved, maybe?

In my searching today I found two possible solutions. But I am off to classes for the day and haven't tested either of them... If they work they won't take long to test, but if they don't work, well.... Let's just say I want to have some free time in case something explodes.

Basically what I need to do is convince the computer that the lid is no closed. I found two solutions that supposedly can do this. The descriptions and methods to accomplish them are below. Does anyone have any thoughts on these? I will post my results once I play with them, but just in case anyone has some experience or ideas I thought to post this before I jump in.

1. Replace the driver that is associated with your lid with another, unrelated driver. --> This was first suggested, on a Polish web forum, when people had the same problem in Windows 7, and some people claim it still works in Windows 10.
2. Create a registry entry for keeping the lid always open. --> I actually prefer this option, if it works, because it is easier to switch a registry value back and forth if I want to reverse this than it would be to find the lid in the Device Manager, which will no longer be listed as a lid thanks to its "new" driver, and update it with the correct driver. However, I havent seen confirmation of this working across the board.

Method 1:
1. Open device manager
2. In "System devices" find "ACPI lid"
3. Open "ACPI lid" properties, and go to "Driver" tab.
4. Select "Update driver"
5. Choose "Browse my computer for driver software" and "Let me pick..", UNcheck "Show compatible hardware"
6. And now...in "Manufacturer" (or possibly "Microsoft") heading, select "(Standard system devices)" and model: "Volume manager"
7. Keep clicking next and so forth until it is done, reboot, and youre all set.

Method 2:
1. Open Registry Editor2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{xxxxxxxxxxxxx}\0000
Note: {xxxxxxxxxxxx} = the specific GUID assigned to your video card. Under that GUID you should see 0000, and maybe also 0001+/ . 0000 is the native, laptop monitor, and the others are additional displays you have used
3. Within the 0000 key, add a DWORD value called "LidAlwaysOpen" and set its value to 1


:::Edited after testing:::
Boo!

Adding the reg value did nothing.

Changing the driver halfway worked... Which is to say that when I changed the driver, after closing the lid my Display settings still showed two monitors connected, my laptop screen and the external. Seems promising! But then when the machine went to sleep the result was the same, it would only wake up with the physical lid open. Which leads me to believe that adjusting the driver might work from a software side, but when asleep the hardware, and thus the physical switch (I am assuming magnetic), takes precedence. The OS has to be active for that driver to have an effect, which means there is a low-level function somewhere that doesn't pass through that driver.

Oh well, I am out of ideas. Maybe just build a new stand for the monitor so it is easier to open the laptop lid...