Solved Can't get a daily Shutdown working in Task Scheduler...

Peter,

Peter B said:

only a hard shutdown via the power button will revive it

Click to expand...

I think you could usefully monitor power state changes & shutdowns-starts in Event viewer to check exactly what is going on.

Please use an earlier post of mine about how to set this up
my latest S0 responses - explanation and suggestions - post #6 - ElevenForum
which takes you through setting up an Event viewer, Custom view for power state changes and you can then use the same procedure to set up a Custom view for shutdowns-starts using the attached Power - Starts, shutdowns.zip


All the best,
Denis

Thank you again, Denis, for your continued input - because I didn't make notes yesterday of the times the sleep problems occurred and, given the huge amounts of data the expanded event viewer provides, I thought I'd start over today and manually log my activity, just to try and pin specific errors down more accurately.
I thought I'd activate sleep shortly after I've finished posting this and report back later in the day, if that's okay...

Peter B said:

given the huge amounts of data the expanded event viewer provides

Click to expand...

If you import those two Custom views you need only look at them not anything else.
[Apart from rebooting then re-checking PowerCfg -a results when you enable/disable S0 Modern standby
Added later - and then testing S3 Sleep because it is possible for PowerCfg -a to say S3 Sleep is enabled yet the computer can still be incapable of using it - my test machine froze instead of going into S3 Sleep.]

I do not think you ought to bother looking elsewhere in EventViewer unless one of those Custom views identifies a specific entry worth looking into.

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If you are ever going to try to track down events by time then you can use the existing Custom view, Administrative events [which is a stupid name for 'All events'].
- You cannot filter that particular Custom view.
- But you can right-click on it in the left-hand pane, export it, re-import it under a slightly different name and you'll be able to filter that new view. I use the name Administrative events - Filterable just to remind me where it came from.
- You cannot copy Custom view, Administrative events / Administrative events - Filterable to another computer. Some of its sources are hardware-specific.
- You can run Event viewer more than once at the same time. If I ever use Administrative events - Filterable then I put the window on the right-hand side of the display then run Event viewer again & put it on the left-hand side to use to browse around things that Administrative events - Filterable identifies without losing my place in that view.


Best of luck,
Denis

Thanks for your patience and fabulous advice, Denis - I'll have to wait until the weekend to thoroughly wade through everything again and take some action.

At the moment, I've abandoned Sleep entirely and reset everything to 'always on'

And I'm sorry, too, that your jealousy at my 'S3 State' was premature.

Well, with any luck, I'll be jealous again by Monday.

Best of luck,
Denis

An update - I think I've cracked it - I started over and went through all the settings with great care and all seems to be well now, even after a few re-starts this morning.

Possibly, the clincher was disabling the USB Selective Suspend setting, but not entirely sure about that.

The only other thing I did was to enable the lock screen after Sleep via Local Group Policy.

So, hoping not to trouble you again and thank you so much.

Denis

Peter,

I've just corrected part of my post #23 above.

Try3 said:

[Apart from rebooting then re-checking PowerCfg -a results when you enable/disable S0 Modern standby
Added later - and then testing S3 Sleep because it is possible for PowerCfg -a to say S3 Sleep is enabled yet the computer can still be incapable of using it - my test machine froze instead of going into S3 Sleep.]

Click to expand...

I just discovered this so thought I should add it.

All the best,
Denis

Hi again Denis

I just read your last post - everything is working fine at present, Sleep, awakening from Sleep, Scheduled Tasks running on time - but being inquisitive, I just ran the powercfg -a command and I don't know what to make of the results now.

There's a Screenshot attached.

Updated...because there was a comment saying that S3 was blocked by 'graphics', I accessed Device Manager and searched for an updated Intel Iris driver on my machine, not 'everywhere' - and it found and installed one 2 months newer than the one in use...unsure why it occurred, but S3 is now back, at least for the moment.

Peter,

I've never seen results like your first one today.
Sleep states are closely associated with display drivers.

This is only speculation but display drivers do sometimes get corrupted and there is no diagnostic test for this.
When people get strange symptoms that seem to me to be display-misbehaviour, I suggest reinstalling the display driver without being able to give them a test to do that proves it is required.
Perhaps you have just discovered such a test. If anybody ever posts PowerCfg -a results like your I'll tell them to reinstall their display driver.


All the best,
Denis

And the beat goes on...last night, Task Scheduler didn't shutdown my Laptop - I checked this morning and once again, S3 was disabled by a graphics problem.

But this time, in Device Manager, I wasn't able to find an alternative driver on my machine to fix it.

So I downloaded the Intel Driver and Support Assistant and it installed a driver from earlier this month and I'm now back in business with S3.

Hopefully, this might be my last post on the matter...

Peter,

I haven't seen repeated display driver corruption before.

Were there any Windows or driver updates between the last good shutdown & last night's failure?
Is there some particular display-related application that you have run before the failures but haven't run before the successes?


Denis

Hi yet again Denis

The Cumulative Update to 22621.1635 and the .NET Framework updates were installed yesterday morning, but 2 other Task Scheduler items ran okay a short time afterwards.

I can't think of anything else unusual that I've done - I don't really do a whole host of things during a typical day except check for Windows Updates first thing, check my emails, back up all my files to a USB Drive, perform a Macrium Differential Backup, then the rest of the day, it's usually just a bit of web-surfing.

Another footnote, just for information...after this morning's update to 1702, Windows installed an older Graphics Driver and S3 was again disabled by a Graphics conflict.

I went round the buoy again and reinstalled the latest one from Intel's site and all's well again.

Annoying, but at least I know how to fix it, if it happens again.

WU should never be able to install an older driver in place of a newer one.
Perhaps that should be the focus of your investigation.


Denis

Hi Denis

Whether WU should or should not be able to do that, it absolutely did - I've been OCD about checking the S3 status and immediately before the update, it was fine.

I then rechecked immediately afterwards and it was disabled by a graphics conflict and the same error was showing in Disk Management, displaying an old Driver that wasn't working.

I only posted here, in case it might be useful for anyone in the future...

Peter,

I wasn't doubting you.
I was suggesting that it should be the focus of your investigation. It is not normal behaviour and it seems to me to be at the heart of your problem.

If I had that problem I would side-step it instead of resolving it properly.
... Disable Include Drivers with Windows Updates - ElevenForumTutorials
I would then get my driver updates from the computer OEM & individual device maker websites and only use a WU-offered driver update if I had no choice.

Since I run a driver backup every time I do a driver update & I include several driver listings at the same time, I would compare the inf files for the two different updates to see if any of the driver version & driver date entries in them shed light on the problem. The only time I have had to do that in anger it took me a good couple of hours to identify the relevant driver & its good-bad versions so it's not a step to take lightly. I can talk you through how I make my driver backups & driver listings if you want but you won't like it.


All the best,
Denis

Hi again Denis and thank you for your perseverance.

For the moment, I've disabled driver updates in Group Policy and I'll suck it and see how I get on.

(I don't like not liking things )

Regards

I just found this thread about the exact same problem I was having with my Intel NUC (running Windows 11 Pro) not shutting down via a Task Manager schedule I had set up for when the computer is in sleep mode. I tried different ideas presented here all to no avail. I did go into the system BIOS and noticed that Power Mode S3 was disabled and S0 enabled. I disabled S0 and enabled S3. Now my Scheduled Shutdown task, plus a couple of other tasks, now work perfectly. No tweaks to the registry or third-party software apps needed to fix the problem. Thanks to Denis for enlightening me on the various Power States, otherwise, I may never have found a solution to the problem.