Monitor goes to sleep but computer isn't

Amos · Dec 20, 2022

Hi,
The monitor is set to sleep after 45 idle minutes and the computer is set to sleep after 60 idle minutes.
While the monitor goes to sleep, the computer isn't.
In this window, I set everything as explained. Actually, nothing changed when it suddenly started but the computer still fails to sleep.

Windows version:

Any idea what can be the problem?
Thanks

johnlgalt · Dec 20, 2022

Usually an application installed will set a setting to not allow Windows to sleep while it is running. Check all your app, particularly ones you've newly installed from just before this started occurring, and see if you can find it in there.

There are plenty of other things you can check, as well, but this is a good starting place - usually, when something that has worked like this all of a sudden stops working, something has changed, and the best troubleshooting for that kind of a response to to go back and see what you might have changed, and installation of new software is a likely culprit.

Amos · Dec 20, 2022

Thank you for replying.
I didn't install anything lately except for cumulative updates and other updates of windows itself so not sure where should I "go back" to. When I had this issue in the past (a problematic mouse that kept "jumping" even without touching it), both the monitor and computer fail to sleep. I was thinking that if something would prevent my computer from sleeping, the monitor would stay awake as well.

Is there any command I can run to check what keeps it from sleeping?

Ghot · Dec 20, 2022

Amos said:
Thank you for replying.
I didn't install anything lately except for cumulative updates and other updates of windows itself so not sure where should I "go back" to. When I had this issue in the past (a problematic mouse that kept "jumping" even without touching it), both the monitor and computer fail to sleep. I was thinking that if something would prevent my computer from sleeping, the monitor would stay awake as well.

Is there any command I can run to check what keeps it from sleeping?

You might try some of these... like the /waketimers or /devicequery maybe...

Powercfg command-line options

You can use the powercfg.exe tool to control power schemes (also named power plans) to use the available sleep states, to control the power states of individual devices, and to analyze the system for common energy-efficiency and battery-life problems.

learn.microsoft.com

More info...

Wake Timers - How can i see what is set to wake my computer?

social.technet.microsoft.com

Amos · Dec 20, 2022

Thanks, I ran the commands and got the following. I must add that the computer is not waking up because of "something", it is never going to sleep to begin with.

The only 2 things I see here are the keyboard and the mouse which are not "jumping" without touching them, because when I do move the mouse/press a key, the monitor wakes up, meaning they weren't the problem.

Any other idea what I can check, will be much appreciated.

Ghot · Dec 20, 2022

Amos said:
Thanks, I ran the commands and got the following. I must add that the computer is not waking up because of "something", it is never going to sleep to begin with.

The only 2 things I see here are the keyboard and the mouse which are not "jumping" without touching them, because when I do move the mouse/press a key, the monitor wakes up, meaning they weren't the problem.

Any other idea what I can check, will be much appreciated.

View attachment 48052

try....
powercfg -DEVICEQUERY wake_armed

I don't have a complicated setup... this is the result I get, which is accurate for my comp...
I don't use Sleep or Hibernate, either. My monitor is set to shut off after 5 minutes, and that's it.

Besides the mouse or keyboard, the only "other" thing that wakes my monitor, is if I bump the computer desk which moves the mouse.

Amos · Dec 20, 2022

Ghot said:
try....
powercfg -DEVICEQUERY wake_armed

I don't have a complicated setup... this is the result I get, which is accurate for my comp...
I don't use Sleep or Hibernate, either. My monitor is set to shut off after 5 minutes, and that's it.

View attachment 48055

Besides the mouse or keyboard, the only "other" thing that wakes my monitor, is if I bump the computer desk which moves the mouse.

I ran it before

If the mouse/keyboard were the problem then my monitor would stay awake as well, that is what happened in the past. That's what confuses me.

Ghot · Dec 20, 2022

Amos said:
I ran it before
View attachment 48056

If the mouse/keyboard were the problem then my monitor would stay awake as well, that is what happened in the past. That's what confuses me.

It's confusing me as well.

Have you tried setting the monitor and the computer to sleep after the "same" amount of time?

Your best bet here... is still what @johnlgalt said in post #2.
When all of a sudden your computer starts behaving differently, you need to find... what changed.

The "devicequery" command tells us, that devices that can wake your computer are only the mouse and keyboard.
That pretty much leaves software.

I'd probably look for software or a process, that "needs" to have the computer, but not the monitor... awake.
Maybe something in Task Scheduler that's set to be triggered after a certain amount of idle time?
Or even some program that is scheduled to run every now and then, but doesn't need the monitor.

Something like a disk optimizer or 3rd party AV downloading definitions?
It's hard to tell without knowing what software you have running.

And, like you said... it's weird that it's only waking the computer and not the monitor.

Ghot · Dec 20, 2022

@Amos

You could always try an In-Place upgrade. That will fix just about any Windows problem.
Ofc it won't help with hardware or 3rd party software issues.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software

Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect (free)
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Get the Windows 11 ISO image and save it to your desktop...

Download Official Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to download an official Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft. Microsoft provides ISO files for Windows 11 to download. You can use these ISO files to clean install or in-place upgrade Windows 11. The Flight Hub can also help you keep updated on which Windows 11...

www.elevenforum.com

Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations. Your programs and data will be intact.

johnlgalt · Dec 21, 2022

Unless, of course, the latest Windows update(s) *IS* the problem lol.

But yeah, an in-place Upgrade usually fixes things that may be broken that you don't even know about. And with Windows, that tends to be more than you realize.

As for the Computer not sleeping while the monitor is: The monitor is sleeping, so no activity detected from the input devices which your testing confirmed. However, the computer itself staying awake is almost always because of a program or setting, which overrides the input settings for some reason.

If you're not ready to try an in-place upgrade yet, one other thing you can try is making a brand new power plan that has the settings exactly as you want it and test that - if it still happens, it is software (either OS or installed software) related, and if it stops happening, possibly some part of your power plan cinfiguration was broken in the registry somehow.

Amos · Dec 21, 2022

johnlgalt said:
If you're not ready to try an in-place upgrade yet

What do you mean by that?

I set my computer to sleep manually and it did and didn't wake up until I woke it up. I thought it might give me a clue but it didn't.

The current power plan is set exactly as I wanted :) Btw, the only thing that is running is Edge.

johnlgalt · Dec 21, 2022

What I meant is if you want to perform the in-place upgrade only as a last resort, then try a brand new power plan that you make manually.

Amos · Dec 21, 2022

johnlgalt said:
in-place upgrade

I meant to ask what do you mean by "in-pace upgrade"? :)

Not sure I understand in what way a new power plan is different than the one I already have.

Ghot · Dec 21, 2022

Amos said:
I meant to ask what do you mean by "in-pace upgrade"? :)

Not sure I understand in what way a new power plan is different than the one I already have.

An In-Place upgrade is also called a repair install.
It "fixes" Windows problems while leaving your programs and files... untouched.
Takes about 30 minutes total.

It compares your Windows install to a Windows ISO.
Anything Windows files that don't agree, it uses the copy from the ISO.

See post #9

The In-Place upgrade is the single best thing, Microsoft ever came up with. ^^

johnlgalt · Dec 22, 2022

Amos said:
I meant to ask what do you mean by "in-pace upgrade"? :)

Not sure I understand in what way a new power plan is different than the one I already have.

Yeah, as @Ghot explained in post #9 above, with links, too. I thought you had already read it, so I just referred to it.

His advice is solid, rest assured, so either way you decide to troubleshoot this, keep us posted and we can help further.

Amos · Dec 22, 2022

Last night it went to sleep so I will give it another night to see if it continues to go to sleep and update back.
The only difference is that more apps were running in the background (doing nothing but were running).

Ghot · Dec 22, 2022

Amos said:
Last night it went to sleep so I will give it another night to see if it continues to go to sleep and update back.
The only difference is that more apps were running in the background (doing nothing but were running).

I hope it works out for you. In the meantime, here's a song...

Amos Moses - Jerry Reed