Solved HELP! I'm brain-dead from troubleshooting a power problem. What am I missing?

Sorry @Dru2. I meant @Fabler2
It seems more than one "2" was one too many. I did mention I was brain-dead at the moment.

glasskuter said:

A friend brought me a i5-1135G7 Dell All-in- one that would not wake from sleep. Cold boot required every time. No logs are generated.

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If anybody knows Dell's inside out it would be @fireberd
What is the exact model of this all-in-one?

Are the mouse and keyboard wired or wireless? If wireless I'm wondering if the All-in-One Bluetooth/WiFi card is not receiving the wake-up call. I know it isn't likely under normal circumstances because it should be waiting for the wake-up signal but what if the Bluetooth/WiFi card is faulty? Just a thought.

Flashorn said:

I'm not sure I can be of any help here but, have you set these in control Panel:
(these are mine so, play around with the notebook you have)

View attachment 87763

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I was wondering that too. Does it operate ok if you set sleep to "Never"? (I also do that).

Have you tried booting into Ubuntu as this would eliminate a hardware fault?
Or image with Macrium but restore from one of your own images, just for fun - see if Macrium really can restore to different hardware.

When you clean-installed 10, did you delete all the partitions first? I wonder if there is something lingering like a fart in a spacesuit.

What is the model number? e.g. Inspiron 5678

Dell usually has custom power configurations tailored to hardware.

A clean install sounds great but with proprietary hardware and required Dell drivers doesn't always work. Deleting all partitions removes hardware diagnostics and a recovery partition that can restore to original factory setup if all goes wrong.

fireberd said:

What is the model number?

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Please see post #12:

fireberd said:

What is the model number? e.g. Inspiron 5678

Dell usually has custom power configurations tailored to hardware.

A clean install sounds great but with proprietary hardware and required Dell drivers doesn't always work. Deleting all partitions removes hardware diagnostics and a recovery partition that can restore to original factory setup if all goes wrong.

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I have never found the OEM recovery partition to be of any use. It's there to give the tech support staff and easy way to sort out customers' gaffes. Who needs this partition when it's easier to do a repair install? The OEM recovery will remove all personal files and reinstall all the bloatware!

kelper said:

I have never found the OEM recovery partition to be of any use. It's there to give the tech support staff and easy way to sort out customers' gaffes. Who needs this partition when it's easier to do a repair install? The OEM recovery will remove all personal files and reinstall all the bloatware!

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I got a new Inspiron 16 5630 at Christmas. Other than a link to buy Office 365 and the trial Norton I didn't find any Bloatware. Both were uninstalled as I have Office 365 and use Defender (and Malwarebytes). To my surprise Support Assist even works as it should.

glasskuter said:

would not wake from sleep

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Did you verify that S3 Sleep was actually being achieved?
You can check transitions between power-sleep states in Event viewer. You can set up an Event viewer, Custom view that lists them.
You can import the Power - S0ix-S3Sleep-Hibernate transitions Custom view I use for this - Importing EV, CV - my post #13 - TenForums
This Custom view definition works in both Win10 & Win11 and in both S3 Sleep computers & S0 Modern standby computers.


Was this computer always an S3 Sleep one or has it been converted from S0 Modern standby [S0ix]?
As I understand it, Dell Bioses have resisted S0ix disabling - S3 Sleep enabling for several years now.



Denis

My theory is that the computer does not actually achieve sleep and is still running. Are there any lights to prove the computer does go into sleep?

To close everything up here, after about 3 hours sleep and another pot of coffee, this morning I ran through the thread again. @kelper Excellent suggestion of using Linux and, I did that. Yes, the problem remained which is more substantiation it's a flaky piece of hardware.

@fireberd It may very well be due to the lack of Dell's proprietary power plan that was removed when I did a clean install of 10 and doesn't exist in Linux, but that plan did exist when it was on 11. I'll never know now.

@Try3 Denis I wish you could have gotten into the thread earlier because No, I didn't know to try your sleep transitions trick. I can't answer if it had been converted from S0 to S3. I suspected from the get-go it would be S0 related since it's an all in one and the first thing I checked was what sleep state was used. I was surprised to see S3 available, S0 not supported.
I left it with Sleep=off, turn display off after 10 min and the owner picked it up already. At least it's usable. Hopefully, if this is a hardware problem, whatever piece of hardware is the cause won't degrade further because this is a really strong running machine.

The sun is shining, it's 70 degrees, spring flowers are blooming, and the birds are singing. This one has tested me so I'm going to chill in my backyard and put this mess behind me.
You guys are great and I'll make my very own sleep troubleshooting guide from your helpful suggestions. I hope I can return the favor sometime.

glasskuter said:

@Kepler Excellent suggestion of using Linux and, I did that. Yes, the problem remained which is more substantiation it's a flaky piece of hardware.

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I also think that's a useful trick.
Having the ability to run a separate OS with a full set of capabilities [unlike, say, booting from an InstallUSB or an imaging utility USB] provides a means of eliminating software from the investigation.

The last time I played with Linux [Ubuntu] was a decade ago and, at that time, Linux [Ubuntu] could be run from a bootable USB.
So the test could be done in a few minutes without any need to disrupt the installed Windows OS.
@kelper - Does this para make sense? Do you have a recommendation about versions / download sources / ?????

glasskuter said:

@Kepler

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Linda,
If Kepler was a member of this forum he would be about 450 years old.
Our kelper is several weeks younger than that.


Denis

Note for all -
At the moment, the forum software is corrupting mentions. Typing, for example,
@kelper
turns into
[USER=12683]@kelper[/USER]
rather than the expected
@[USER=12683]kelper[/USER]
and no mention is created. We currently have to manually edit it to create a mention.

I've seen this happen in my posts and the posts of others.
I've reported it to wotsisname - who has tried to mention kelper.

@glasskuter

Any version of Linux would do. When I suspect a hardware problem I just download the latest Ubuntu iso and burn it to a USB with Rufus.

@Try3 In my case it was a typo for @kelper - kinda like I got Dru2 and Fabler2 crosswise last night. (I'm going to use the old "being old" excuse but it's exhaustion and frustration more than anything).
Regarding Linux distros, I have both Ubuntu and Mint on usb and use them occasionally for file recovery. Of the 2 I prefer Mint but there's not an ounce of difference really. It never occurred to me what a good tooI using one would be in this case, but it's an idea I won't forget in the future......unless "being old" kicks in and I forget.

I did that recently to establish something was a hardware issue, although I actually tried installing Ubuntu to test things out. Turning sleep off seems to have solved it for now though.

I've always had problems reinstalling Windows after Mint, but not after Ubuntu.

Hazel123 said:

I actually tried installing Ubuntu to test things out.

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There's never any need to install it. Run it right off the usb. It's a great troubleshooting tool that way.

@Hazel123
@glasskuter
@kelper
I've felt like many of our new members must feel.
So many of the Linux webpage descriptions assume people already know Linux. One of them said I needed to do a loopback mount.

So I moved on to HowToGeek whose article is written in English instead.
So I'll use Ubuntu.
Using Ventoy to set it up sounds interesting as it would then also allow me to add other ISOs for booting from.
So that's tomorrow's essential & long overdue chores delayed again.


All the best,
Denis

I expect Hazel & glasskuter will see these mentions triggering their notn bell red sign and kelper will not. His mention looks different.

Try3 said:

Our kelper is several weeks younger than that.

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Several centuries, please!