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My desktop PC keeps waking up every time I put it to sleep. I put it to sleep, it wakes up. I put it to sleep again, it wakes up. I put it to sleep once more, it wakes up! It only stays asleep for about half a minute and then just wakes up again. Why is it doing that? I mean I know that Microsoft was trying to be smart with Windows 8 (on so many levels!) and they have put in place some wake timers so that the PC may wake up in order to install updates or perform some "maintenance" tasks. But I have already been over those settings. They are disabled, and there are no pending maintenance tasks.

Have a look:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>powercfg /lastwake
Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
  Wake Source Count - 0

C:\Windows\system32>

This output is unintelligible! Not human! If a specific service or process has waken the PC, this command should point it out. But nope, it just says 0. Thanks Microsoft! That says a lot!

These are my currently set wake timers:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>powercfg /waketimers
There are no active wake timers in the system.

C:\Windows\system32>

That's right, none!

These devices are armed to wake the PC:

C:\Windows\system32>powercfg /devicequery wake_armed
HID-compliant mouse (002)
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller #2
HID Keyboard Device (001)
Logitech Optical Gaming Mouse G400s (001)

C:\Windows\system32>

Here is my power configuration setting:

scr1

Here is my Action Center setting: scr2

As can be seen, all the relevant settings have been set to disabled. So what's the problem then? How do I stop this?

Update:

It appears now that this has nothing to do with network devices waking my computer, WOL (wake on lan). I have ensured that all my NICs have WOL enabled only for magic packet. If there was any wakes caused by WOL, there should be no wakes caused by WOL wakes anymore. Instead, this appears to be a Windows maintenance issue. I will post my findings at the linked duplicate question page.

Samir
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  • Please [edit] your question to include the output from `powercfg /devicequery wake_armed` – DavidPostill Jul 11 '15 at 18:00
  • @DavidPostill Done! – Samir Jul 11 '15 at 18:03
  • OK. Run event viewer > Windows Logs > System > Right click > FilterCurrent Log > Event Sources > select "Power-Troubleshooter" > OK. What is the first (latest) event (general tab)? See http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/179257-wake-source-read-event-viewer-log.html for instructions/screenshots – DavidPostill Jul 11 '15 at 18:10
  • @DavidPostill First it says `The system has returned from a low power state.` Then it states `Wake Source: Unknown`. – Samir Jul 11 '15 at 18:14
  • Did you check all the answers in [How can I prevent my computer from waking up accidentally?](http://superuser.com/q/494235)? in particular the accepted answer for the `Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller`? – DavidPostill Jul 11 '15 at 18:17
  • @DavidPostill Yes, I have been over that, including other questions here on SU and on different Microsoft KB articles. I see that I also upvoted Richards' answer for that particular question. I also added some comments. This is from last year. – Samir Jul 11 '15 at 18:27
  • @DavidPostill I see I have WOl enabled for the Realtek. That's essentially what the command output told us already. But I will try enabling the magic packet option. – Samir Jul 11 '15 at 18:29
  • Turn `Allow this device to wake...` and `WOL` (uncheck) **off** to stop it waking ... – DavidPostill Jul 11 '15 at 18:33
  • Could the NICs be sending or receiving "pulses" at regular intervals that might wake up the system? Try to stop all activity by not allowing them to wake it (temporarily) – paul bica Jul 11 '15 at 19:13
  • @DavidPostill I have done a simple test now where I tried waking the PC from another PC over LAN. The line `Wake Source: Unknown` is logged when the PC is waken up by Realtek NIC. I actually have 2 Realtek NICs on the board, and I get the same result with both. I checked the Windows log from 24 h earlier and it appeared the same way. So I am confident now that this is indeed the device that kept waking my PC. – Samir Jul 12 '15 at 17:42
  • @sammyg So now you know what to do to stop it happening (your question was "How do I stop this?") ;) – DavidPostill Jul 12 '15 at 17:45
  • @DavidPostill But it's interesting that it says "unknown". I have another PC which also has 1 Realtek NIC on board, and when I reverse the process, i.e. use this PC to wake that other PC over LAN, then that PC (which also runs Windows 8.1 Pro) properly logs the wake source as "Realtek NIC". It's weird like that! But I guess this just has something to do with the Windows configuration this particular PC. But as I recall, this PC has always said "unknown" even after reinstalling Windows 8 on it. Windows just doesn't like it... I guess. I will test installing Realtek drivers on both PC. – Samir Jul 12 '15 at 17:47
  • @DavidPostill Yes... I mean I do use WOL on these two PCs. But when this incident happened yesterday, none of the two were powered on, and I was not issuing any wake command. I normally use my router interface to wake them. But maybe my router was doing something unexpected. So I need that WOL feature. What I have to prevent it is I have added the option to wake on "magic" packet only. I hope this helps. Only time will tell. This does not happen to me very often to notice it. – Samir Jul 12 '15 at 17:53
  • It happened yesterday when I was sending the PC to sleep and powering off monitor to do some cleaning of my desk. I actually suspected my monitor at first! Because it has a USB hub built in! Because when the monitor is powered off, it's sort of like pulling out the USB cable for the hub. Normally, on this PC, when I pull out USB cable for mouse or keyboard, it actually wakes the PC. That's why I suspected the USB hub in my monitor. But then it kept waking, even with monitor on, so I ruled that out. – Samir Jul 12 '15 at 17:55
  • But yeah, this question is a duplicate of the one linked to above. I should have done more testing before I posted. I was starting off from the assumption that this was somehow related to the automated waking and installing of Windows updates in Windows 8. As it turned out, that wasn't the case. – Samir Jul 12 '15 at 18:01

1 Answers1

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Try checking in Device Manager for anything that can wake the system up from sleep. Specifically, you will be looking for a device that has a Power management tab, if you see a option for 'Allow this device to wake up the computer.', ensure that is unchecked too.

Leonard Lee
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  • Those would be the two Realtek NICs. – Samir Jul 11 '15 at 18:16
  • Include virtual keyboard, virtual mouse, the physical USB mouse, and there are 3 additional "USB Input Device" devices. Then there is the physical USB keyboard as well. – Samir Jul 11 '15 at 18:21