Windows 10: Windows 10 Won't Sleep

@TDOZ, thanks for your input.

As far as I'm aware Realtek is just used for the sound on my computer. Nonetheless, I checked my network drivers and did find that setting on one of them. I disabled it but still no sleep!

Thanks anyway

 

Hi, I just noticed you have 2 x external HDD connected. Are you using one of those for any Widows 10 backup services? It is possible it might be dynamically looking for new files, and doing incremental backups? Do you have any sort of scheduled backups or special backups set up? What are the external HDD used for, and do any programs use them all the time? TD.

 

@philc43, I'm using a power plug to connect to the internet. I tried disabling the wireless adapter but it didn't work. Strangely, it wasn't as simple as that. I'll explain at the end of this comment.
@TDOZ, I am using one HDD as a backup and the other is just for random files. It's only plugged in when needed. I tried unplugging the HDD used for backup. This did not solve the problem. However, same as above it was not as simple as that. By the way, in terms of settings, the backup HDD was just left as default.

So. I disabled the wifi and the backup HDD and the computer went to sleep. Repeatedly. Didn't seem to be a fluke. Great, I thought.

I attempted to narrow down which was causing the issue and it seemed to be the HDD. I activated the Wireless and the computer was still sleeping. I restarted the computer to see if that would start the issue again. It did. *Sad

At that point, with either the wireless or HDD disabled, or both, the computer still would not shut down. Then I thought I'd test the USB port the HDD was attached to. I unplugged it and the computer started to sleep. Strange as I tested all USB ports before but fine I went with it and began to test.

Repeatedly, the computer would sleep with the HDD unplugged and not sleep when it was plugged in. Then it gets confusing and very frustrating. I decided to plug other devices into that USB port to see if it was the port itself. On a couple of occasions, this theory was confirmed. Other devices plugged into that port stopped the computer sleeping. However, suddenly the consistency stopped and the computer went back to not sleeping. Even with every cable unplugged apart from the monitor and power, the computer would not sleep.

I am so confused. I'm not great with computers but I can usually narrow down an issue by process of elimination and then google the issue. Here, there is no consistency! One minute I think I've found the cause and the next it's back to not working.

I've probably put at least 8 hours into trying to resolve this. I'd happily perform a clean install of windows 10 at this point but who's to say the issue won't just return?

What do you guys think? Should I do the clean install?

 

Great job in narrowing down the cause. I think the repeated plugging and unplugging of the ports can get the power management confused and a restart is needed to sort out the ports.

Personally I would not do a clean install because the problem will probably come back to haunt you again. If possible try to get to a position where you can work without the backup HDD and only plug it in when you want to back up or when the system tells you to reconnect it. That is the way I work and I have to admit I occasionally get times when my system will not go into sleep mode by ityself. This generally sorts itself out next time I restart the system and I just live with it.

 

Hi, thanks for the very useful info and things you have down to narrow things down. I recall a similar issue on my current home build, but when it was under the WIN7 OS: I found that whenever ANY USB3 device was plugged in, it would NEVER go to sleep. I remember that you said you had an issue with the drivers, and I found that there was a later one available from the Motherboard manufacturer (although it was a Beta level at the time) that fixed the issue. I like to use the Piriform Speccy program to have an easy/handy GUI way of looking look at the hardware and mobo devices and drivers, but the WIN10 1511 update removes that, as it is not compatible. However, you can use the "portable" download that WILL run under WIN10 1511, as it ONLY uses the 32-bit mode. Try here for the Speccy Portable download:
Speccy - Builds
and if you can tell us the USB3 controller type, I will try to find what might be needed . Another great free tool I would recommend for getting a nice web-viewable (HTML file) report of what is on your PC - is Belarc Advisor. It is free for personal use, and even gives you a report on any security patches you might be missing. Hope this moves you forward a bit more *Smile TD

 

Thanks for both of your comments.
@philc43, that's the trouble. I don't feel I have narrowed it down at all as there is no consistency. Other than the brief period this morning when I thought I was on to something, I've not been able to replicate the results. In fact, I can't make the computer sleep at all now. I tried disabling wifi, turning off backup and unplugging the HDD and, just for the sake of it, unplugging everything except power and monitor. I then restarted the computer and it would not sleep...
@TDOZ, It would make sense, as per this mornings attempt, if it were a USB3 issue. On the other hand, I now can't replicate the results. So maybe it isn't.
I downloaded Speccy but I must admit I'm not sure what to do with it. Nor am I sure how to identify the USB3 controller type. I attached a screenshot. Does that help at all?




Thanks again to you both

 

Have you updated your video drivers? They can cause sleep issues...

 

One potential culprit to eliminate as complicating sleep/shutdown/power states would be "fast startup". It causes some unexpected behavior (from perspective of some users) on some machines. Disabling that is one of the first things I do upon an upgrade or clean install. See Tutorial here: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...dows-10-a.html

 

Hi @Azucho98. I've updated my graphics card. Nvidia GTX 760. Do you mean anything else?

 

Hi, thanks for the screenshot. I had forgotten that the motherboard you have has TWO sets of USB 3.0 controllers. One is the ASmedia, and the other is the Intel one. I think you have 6 sockets!! Nice. Except for the fact that there seems to be LOTS of reports of USB issues with those 2 controllers. Apparently the Microsoft drivers are not as good as the actual manufacturers ones. I can look into that later on,out for the day now.

In the meantime, just in case it is coming straight back out of sleep (looking like it never went to sleep), try this command from the elevated command prompt (right click on the windows start pane/box and choose "Command Prompt (Admin)" and key in:
powercfg –lastwake
andpost the results.This might give some useful info to go on - not sure, but easy to try. One thing I used to find under WIN7 was that this "failure to sleep" used to happen a lot (some later patches would fix it for a while), and if I changed any power settings, it went away for a while. It rarely happened under WIN10. Some folks disable the sleep timers (set to never), and sleep the PC manually, to keep it consistent.

 

@Word Man, thanks for your comment. I gave it a go but no joy. Still no sleep.
@TDOZ, If I have to sleep the PC manually I will but I'd really prefer for it to work correctly. I have a terrible memory and without doubt would regularly forget to make it sleep. Here's the results you asked for + some you didn't

C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg -lastwake
Wake History Count - 0

C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg -devicequery wake_armed
Logitech HID-compliant Unifying Mouse (001)
HID-compliant mouse (001)
Logitech HID-compliant Unifying keyboard (003)
HID Keyboard Device (006)

C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg -waketimers
Timer set by [SERVICE] \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\svchost.exe (SystemEventsBroker) expires at 08:41:08 on 05/12/2015.
Reason: Windows will execute 'NT TASK\Microsoft\Windows\Media Center\mcupdate_scheduled' scheduled task that requested waking the computer.

 

I think you may have found the problem! You have a task scheduled which relates to Media Center. This is no longer in W10 and is a carry over from your previous windows version and should have been removed. If you go into Task Scheduler you can find the Media Center folder in the Microsoft->Windows Library and delete it. Hopefully this will get rid of those wake requests that are preventing the sleep action.

 

oooh, this sounds promising.

I went to task scheduler and tried to delete the Media Center folder but am unable to do so. It first said I had to remove the tasks, so I did. Now it says, the folder is not empty? I attached an image. Fingers crossed we're nearly there!

 

You may have to go into the folder location from within file explorer and delete the folder and its subfolders (if any) from there.

You will find it in C:\Windows\System32\Tasks

 

Hey. I deleted the folder and restarted the computer. There are now no results when running "powercfg -waketimers" in command prompt but the computer still won't sleep. *Sad