HTPC won't return to sleep

[tch65721]

HTPC wakes and records fine but won't go back to sleep. It also wakes in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and stays on.

Settings:

Balanced / Require a password on wakeup / setting: No
Hard disk / Turn off hard disk after / setting: never
Internet Explorer / JavaScript Timer Frequency / setting: maximum performance
Desktop background setting / Slide show / setting: Paused
NA: Wireless Adapter Settings / Power Saving Mode / setting: Maximum Performance
Sleep / Sleep after / setting: 3 Minutes
Sleep / Allow hybrid sleep / setting: On
Sleep / Hibernate after / setting: 5 min
Sleep / Allow wake timers / setting: Enable
USB settings / USB selective suspend setting / setting: Disabled
Power buttons and lid / Power button action / setting: Power
Power buttons and lid / Sleep button action / setting: Sleep
PCI Express / Link State Power Management / setting: Moderate power savings
Processor power management / Minimum processor state / setting 5%
Processor power management / System cooling policy / setting Active
Processor power management / Maximum processor state / setting 100%
Display / Turn off display after / setting: never
Multimedia settings / When sharing media / Setting: Prevent idling to sleep
When playing video / setting: Optimize video quality

Please let me know if you see any obvious issues or have suggestions. Thanks.

[newfiend]

HTPC wakes and records fine but won't go back to sleep. It also wakes in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and stays on.

Settings:

Balanced / Require a password on wakeup / setting: No
Hard disk / Turn off hard disk after / setting: never
Internet Explorer / JavaScript Timer Frequency / setting: maximum performance
Desktop background setting / Slide show / setting: Paused
NA: Wireless Adapter Settings / Power Saving Mode / setting: Maximum Performance
Sleep / Sleep after / setting: 3 Minutes
Sleep / Allow hybrid sleep / setting: On
Sleep / Hibernate after / setting: 5 min
Sleep / Allow wake timers / setting: Enable
USB settings / USB selective suspend setting / setting: Disabled
Power buttons and lid / Power button action / setting: Power
Power buttons and lid / Sleep button action / setting: Sleep
PCI Express / Link State Power Management / setting: Moderate power savings
Processor power management / Minimum processor state / setting 5%
Processor power management / System cooling policy / setting Active
Processor power management / Maximum processor state / setting 100%
Display / Turn off display after / setting: never
Multimedia settings / When sharing media / Setting: Prevent idling to sleep
When playing video / setting: Optimize video quality

Please let me know if you see any obvious issues or have suggestions. Thanks.

There is a setting in Media Center > Tasks Settings > General > Optimization
If you have Perform Optimization Checked it will wake at what ever time you have set there and defrag the recording drive (among other tasks I may not know about).
That may be why it wakes at night,.
As far as figuring out why it woke you can open an elevated CMD Prompt
then type...
powercfg -lastwake
then hit the enter key
it should tell you what last woke up the PC
You can also install MCE Standby Tool from http://slicksolutions.eu/downloads.shtml#MST The Latest Windows 7 Beta Works just fine.
it works wonders for a pc that seems to have sleep issues. Make sure you read all the tabs and set it correctly. (S3-Standby) also make sure the BIOS is set to use S3 Sleep Mode.
newfiend~

[CyberSimian]

Multimedia settings / When sharing media / Setting: Prevent idling to sleep

Shouldn't this be set to: Allow the computer to enter Away Mode.
(I use Vista, so I may have misremembered the Win7 options.)

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[tch65721]

There is a setting in Media Center > Tasks Settings > General > Optimization
If you have Perform Optimization Checked it will wake at what ever time you have set there and defrag the recording drive (among other tasks I may not know about).
That may be why it wakes at night,.
As far as figuring out why it woke you can open an elevated CMD Prompt
then type...
powercfg -lastwake
then hit the enter key
it should tell you what last woke up the PC
You can also install MCE Standby Tool from http://slicksolutions.eu/downloads.shtml#MST The Latest Windows 7 Beta Works just fine.
it works wonders for a PC that seems to have sleep issues. Make sure you read all the tabs and set it correctly. (S3-Standby) also make sure the BIOS is set to use S3 Sleep Mode.
newfiend~

I knew it wasn't but I checked to be sure and it is not set to wake for any reason. I made sure it wasn't when I started having these wake up issues.

It woke again last night (these undesired wakeups are infrequent) and I did as suggested.
The result means nothing to me:

wake history 1
wake history [0]
wake source count 0

Mean anything to you?


MCE standby tool had no effect. I'll try sleep only soon.

I changed the setting on sharing media and it had no effect.

[newfiend]

MCE standby tool had no effect. I'll try sleep only soon.

Are you using Hibernate? If so you want to set Hibernate to DISABLED.. And use Sleep only mode (S3 Mode) only!
If your using Hibernate that could be the issue.
Disable hibernate in the BIOS, Set the BIOS to use sleep mode S3 only
Set MCE Standby tool to use S3 mode as well.
If you a have any wireless devices (mice or keyboards etc.) connected to the PC make sure they are off as they can wake a PC as well (any mouse movement will re-wake the PC.. etc..)
let me know if this is your issue, if not we'll try other things.
If you were/are using Hibernate.. after it is disabled you can delete the hiberfil.sys file on your C: drive and free up quite a bit of space as well. more info here : http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windo ... erfil-sys/
Also.. Windows 7 or 8.0/8.1 for your OS? Just making sure we're on the same page for OS here since you posted in the Win 7 MC area..
newfiend~

[dmagerl]

Run powercofg -requests when it doesnt go to sleep and it should tell you whats keeping it awake.

Also, if you have "Change when the computer sleeps" in the Power control panel set to "never" it will never go to sleep after it wakes.

[DSperber]

I would think the middle-of-the-night wakeups are to update the GUIDE info, which typically is scheduled for twice a day (including its 3AM update, which is really the only one which typically pulls in new updated GUIDE data). This can take a while, as it also performs scheduling of new recordings based on the updated GUIDE data.

I wouldn't want to tamper with this, assuming it's possible.

[wbroadley]

I find the secret is to turn off Homegroups and also set your network adaptor's power management settings in Device Manager to only wake when it receives a magic packet

[newfiend]

I would think the middle-of-the-night wakeups are to update the GUIDE info, which typically is scheduled for twice a day (including its 3AM update, which is really the only one which typically pulls in new updated GUIDE data). This can take a while, as it also performs scheduling of new recordings based on the updated GUIDE data.

I wouldn't want to tamper with this, assuming it's possible.

This could very well be so.. Guide updates are a necessary evil and the pc will wake to download new updates so the guide says up to date. But with MCE Standby tool installed it should eventually return to sleep after the guide update completes. I am assuming from his post that he's using hibernate instead of S3 mode only. The PC handles those two modes entirely differently and he should be using S3 only.
newfiend~

[newfiend]

I find the secret is to turn off Homegroups and also set your network adaptor's power management settings in Device Manager to only wake when it receives a magic packet

I have a homegroup enabled and don't have a problem with my HTPC staying asleep at all. I do have my network adapter set to wake on magic packet and pattern match as well without any sleep related problems.

[newfiend]

Run powercofg -requests when it doesnt go to sleep and it should tell you whats keeping it awake.

Also, if you have "Change when the computer sleeps" in the Power control panel set to "never" it will never go to sleep after it wakes.

This is good information.. I would check the Power Control Panel for this as well..

[tch65721]

At this point I have tried everything there is to try...

Changed the bios from S3 to auto and back. Tried every setting S3, S4, S3+S4... nothing works. This stupid thing sill simply not resume sleep after waking to record.

The unwanted wakeups are not resolved either. At the risk of repeating myself, no it is not set to wake for any purpose other than recording.... not housekeeping , not guide data... NOTHING.

I'm so frustrated, TIVO Roamio is looking very tempting.

[newfiend]

At this point I have tried everything there is to try...

Changed the bios from S3 to auto and back. Tried every setting S3, S4, S3+S4... nothing works. This stupid thing sill simply not resume sleep after waking to record.

The unwanted wakeups are not resolved either. At the risk of repeating myself, no it is not set to wake for any purpose other than recording.... not housekeeping , not guide data... NOTHING.

I'm so frustrated, TIVO Roamio is looking very tempting.

I understand that this is frustrating. Getting a PC to Sleep and Wake correctly can be troublesome for some hardware components and windows.
Have you checked that the motherboard has the latest BIOS release as well as up to date drivers for all your hardware? I would start there next to make sure you have all the latest Drivers and BIOS available for your hardware.
The correct setting for sleep mode should be S3 - Suspend to RAM (Sleep) not S4 Suspend to Disk (Hibernate) or a combination of S3+S4. I have used that same setting on all my PC's without any issues (S3 Sleep mode).
For best results with the powercfg -lastwake command its best to run it as soon as the PC wakes for a more accurate result.
More info on how powercfg -lastwake can help narrow down the sleep issue here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threa ... es.158706/
It could be that the OS and or your BIOS or a Hardware driver are conflicting with the S3 sleep settings and not allowing the PC to re-enter sleep mode. Keep in mind that even with the MCE standby tool that even after it records etc. it won't return to sleep immediately.. it has a time period that must "time-out" before it returns to S3 mode (sleep aka suspend to RAM).
You can also have a look in Event Viewer for possible reasons it's not sleeping.
newfiend~

[CyberSimian]

it is not set to wake for any purpose other than recording.... not housekeeping , not guide data... NOTHING.

My internet connection is switched on only when I intend using it for a specific purpose. Consequently, I did not want to use the WMC option "wake every day at hh:mm to download the EPG". So I initially selected the option "download the EPG when the internet is connected". But I noticed an unexpected side effect: if WMC had successfully downloaded the EPG at some random time one day, it would wake up at the same time the following day to download the EPG (i.e. it would wake unexpectedly). I did not want it doing that, so I changed the WMC option to "manually download the EPG", which I would do once per week. So: what EPG setting are you using?

For a while I had my HTPC connected by a cable to my wireless router. I noticed that this had an unexpected side effect too. It seemed as though once connected, the router would remember that the HTPC was present, and occasionally ping it to see if it was still there. So I would put the HTPC to sleep, and then it would wake a few minutes later because it had been pinged by the router. Solution: set your network card not to wake in response to network pings/magic packets/anything.

Finally, your HTPC won't sleep if it is playing live TV, even if you switch the screen off. So press the STOP button when you have finished using it, and don't use any tool or option that causes WMC to start playing live TV as soon as it wakes (I think that the "Media Standby Tool" can be set up to do this).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[mercalia]

My MC wakes if I have the usb keyboard connected - even a slight movement of it is enough to set it off - random movements I think enough to keep it awake also? So I run it thru a usb switch that I can turn off - I use a remote control any way and ony use a key bard when I need to do PC stuff.

I had a faulty motherboard that kept on starting up. My current ancient dual core with G41 chipset board well behaved

[tch65721]

Run powercofg -requests when it doesnt go to sleep and it should tell you whats keeping it awake.

So I did this as it was running this AM... This was the result:

DISPLAY:
None

SYSTEM:
[DRIVER] \Filesystem\srvnet
An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine

AWAY MODE:
None

What does this mean?

[dmagerl]

Take a look at this
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... =w7itproui

[tch65721]

Take a look at this
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... =w7itproui

I had high hopes but shutting down streaming did not work either. I did not have time to check and see what the issue was...