Windows 10: What is a Wake source for Windows computer? Why did my PC wake up?

This post will show you how to find out what woke your Windows 10 computer from Sleep. Putting our PC to Sleep Mode is one […]

This article What is a Wake source for Windows computer? Why did my PC wake up? first appeared on TheWindowsClub.com.

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PC wakes wakes up from Hibernate

Hello zolotoy,

Check using Option Two in the tutorial below to see if there may be an event log that may help ID what woke your PC.

*Arrow See Wake Source in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

If a device is identified, then you could prevent it from being able to wake the PC.

• See Devices able to Wake Computer in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials
• Allow or Prevent Devices to Wake Computer in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

 

Troubleshooting PCs spontaneously waking from sleep

I've also battled with sleep/wake issues over the years, and from experience have learned that trying to find, or rationalise, the root cause is a waste of time. All you need is `powercfg`.

`powercfg -devicequery wake_armed` from an Administrator PowerShell window/Command Prompt will give you a list of all devices that can possibly wake the PC. This command is interesting because very often, it will show devices that you'd never expect being able to wake your computer. I think in one instance I had the chipset device listed!

`powercfg -devicedisablewake "device_name_from_device_query"`will prevent said device from ever waking the computer. This command is 100% the only thing I have found that will resolve sleep/wake problems. Updating drivers, unplugging peripherals, switching to a cleaner power supply (UPS), changing ethernet cables... none of those have helped, yet`powercfg -devicedisablewake` has done the trick.

Note that occasionally, devices you have disabled wake for may start waking up the PC again - this happens if you plug a USB device into a different port, or occasionally when drivers are updated, because Windows sees it as a new device. In that case rerun `powercfg` to find and disable that device again.

If this does not resolve your wake issues, I would start looking at power fluctuations.

 

Troubleshooting PCs spontaneously waking from sleep

First off: I tried disabling wake-up by the mouse on both PCs and disabling USB Selective Suspend too, to no avail.

Thanks, I'll definitely look into that. Good to know that powercfg can list all wake-enabled devices, 'cause when I went through all ... eight-ish PCI-to-PCI bridge devices in Device Manager, none of them had wake events listed (in the "events" tab under Properties), which doesn't quite add up with one/more of them waking the PC a dozen or so times over the last few days. Of course, they don't even have the option to enable/disable waking the PC in the properties menu. I'll take a look at disabling a bunch of stuff through powercfg once I get home from work.

Sorry if I came across as rude, but honestly, your reply did not at all indicate that you'd read my post in the first place. I said I'd been looking at wake-up history in the Windows event log, and I listed several of the devices cited there as having woken up the PC. If you came away with the impression that I hadn't investigated this thoroughly, I suppose I might not have been clear enough, but it's all there in the post. While powercfg does give out some more detail (device IDs and such) than Event Viewer, it only lists the last wake-up, and as such doesn't really help in this instance, as it's clearly not a single device at fault, and tracking wake-ups over time seems more useful. Also, figuring out how to view wake-up events in the Event Log is what you do after you've concluded that powercfg isn't giving you enough information *Wink