Solved Wake On Lan and S0 power state or alternative wake solution.

Ridder · Jan 14, 2024

Hello everyone,

I have been using WOL for many years. I had to change the PC (now W11 Pro) and now I can't Google any working solution. I followed many tutorials including this one. I found out the problem is the Modern Standby state S0. This is my powercfg -a.

The following sleep states are available on this system:
Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Connected
Hibernate

The following sleep states are not available on this system:
Standby (S1)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.
This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

Standby (S2)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.
This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

Standby (S3)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.
This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

Hybrid Sleep
Standby (S3) is not available.
The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

Fast Startup
This action is disabled in the current system policy.

Of course, I tried this tutorial.

The interesting fact is that WOL works first +- 2 minutes after shutdown. Would it be possible to change the time from 2 minutes to infinite? I have no idea if it is possible to change it via regedit or something else. Waking up from sleep/hibernation doesn't work even during those first 2 minutes.

Is there any working solution, please?

In the worst-case scenario, I found some alternatives:

Smart plug + power on after power loss
PiKVM

Any other idea, please?

Try3 · Jan 14, 2024

S0 Modern Standby is not sleep so you cannot WOL.
It does look like you are misinterpreting what you see.

All the best,
Denis

Ridder · Jan 14, 2024

Thank you for your answer, Denis. I will ask differently. Is there any option how to turn on my PC remotely? I need to connect to this PC 4 times per week via RDP.

Berton · Jan 14, 2024

Maybe some sort of PDU/Power Distribution Unit that allows access from the Internet? Back in the late '90s a shop I worked in had an APC unit that could be logged into and mainly used to reboot a computer by power control, but that was in the Dial-Up days. The BIOS setting for power failure would have to be changed from stay off to always on to allow the computer to boot up.

Ridder · Jan 14, 2024

trumpy thank you. I spent the whole weekend with this issue and I saw your link and I know I would need S3 which I don't have. That's still not answer on my question. On the official Microsoft website I see this:

Do not enable S3 wake-on-LAN (WoL) on Modern Standaby capable systems. Waking a computer with a magic packet is natively supported by Modern Standby. Enabling legacy S3 WoL is not necessary and may cause DHCP and/or DNS packet storms on your network.

If I understand it correctly it should work with S0 as well.

ish4d0w · Jan 14, 2024

Hello

You absolutely do not need to resort to power cutoff solutions. There are more elegant solutions. This cannot even be considered a solution, only a blunt workaround.

Modern Standby is technically compatible with Wake on LAN. The problem is that Modern Standby is still a relatively new concept and isn't without implementation flaws.

You said waking up worked for two minutes after entering Modern Standby mode. This means that it isn't a compatibility problem, it is a configuration problem. It is entering a lower power state than it should, possibly powering down your NIC. (Network interface card)

You have to

update your network drivers (and I mean it, not just a scan with Windows Update but from manufacturer's website OR if there is no update then directly from the component's manufacturer's website). For example if you have an Intel NIC go to intel.com and use their driver update assistant
Go to device manager, select the network interface card click properties then enable all power options both in special/advanced tab and power management. It needs to stay powered on in sleep mode AND accept magic packets. Disable any power saving options.
Go to power plan settings (legacy control panel) and disable power savings for the network interface.
update your BIOS and reset to default settings (Be careful with this if you have bitlocker/device encryption enabled). Also watch for the storage controller and boot settings before the reset

You wrote

The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

It appears you have Hyper-V enabled. You know this could actually be a problem. It should work but then again, this is one more potential ground for problems. Try it when Hyper-V is disabled, it might work.

In the worst case, if you can't get it to work, you might want to revert to S3 sleep which seems to be more reliable for Wake on LAN. In some cases you can disable Modern Standby and enable S3. See this thread , this guy over there was attempting to do the same thing.

Good luck

Try3 · Jan 15, 2024

Ridder said:
Is there any option how to turn on my PC remotely? I need to connect to this PC 4 times per week via RDP.

In S0 Modern standby, your computer is not asleep.
S0 Modern standby is an idle condition not sleep.
So WOL would be trying to wake something that is not asleep.
- I have no idea about how it would behave since I have never used WOL.
- I've been monitoring S0 Modern standby threads for about five years and I think you are the first to enquire about WOL.
- I did find an MS article on the subject.
Wake On LAN for Surface devices - MSLearn

When I tested several computers against each other last year, I found that S0 Modern standby used as little power as a comparable computer did in S3 Sleep.
Power consumption in S0 Modern standby and S3 Sleep - my post #85 - ElevenForum
I also discovered that the way to allow scripts to run during S0 Modern standby was to set the Power options entry Sleep after to Never.
This stops S0 Modern standby from entering a later phase that does not allow scripts to run. It is this aspect that, I suspect, is why you reported different results for the first few minutes in S0 Modern standby.
Running scripts during S0 Modern standby - my post #86 - ElevenForum

I know nothing about remote working.
You can set your S0 Modern standby to maintain its network connection and that seems to be essential.
You can use the command PowerCfg -a to find out its network connectivity state.
Enable or Disable Modern Standby Network Connectivity in Windows 10 and 11 - ElevenForumTutorials
- I think you need to use Power options to prevent that later phase in order for your remote commands to have any effect but you'd need to experiment to be sure.
- You'd also need to avoid using Start, Power, Sleep and any equivalent commands.
- I'll be very interested in your results.
But if you chose to hibernate the computer instead of allowing it to enter S0 Modern standby then I think the situation will be the same as it would have been before S0 Modern standby was even a gleam in the devil's eye.

All the best,
Denis

Try3 · Jan 15, 2024

Ridder said:
I know I would need S3 which I don't have

ish4d0w said:
you can disable Modern Standby and enable S3

There have been a range of experiences with disabling S0 Modern standby.
Disable Modern Standby in Windows 10 and Windows 11 - ElevenForumTutorials
The procedure for disabling it is very straightforward and is normally readily reversible but in one case I found that I had to restore my prior system image to reverse the change..
- Some people have found that disabling S0 Modern standby enabled S3 Sleep. They have then been able to carry on as happy as Larry.
- In one of my cases, S3 Sleep remained disabled afterwards so I carried on having to use hibernation. Several other people have reported the same.
- In one of my cases, disabling S0 Modern standby was reported, by the PowerCfg -a command, to have enabled S3 Sleep.
- - But, if I tried using S3 Sleep, the computer became totally unresponsive. I could not do anything to be able to use it again.
- - I recall that it also had difficulty reading its own disk or carrying out some commands even before trying out S3 Sleep. But my notes about this aspect of the problem were not clear.
- - I could not even power it off [until, as I discovered, I disconnected then reconnected external power].
- - I recovered the computer by booting to my system image boot disk and restoring the computer to its state before I had disabled S0 Modern standby.

Best of luck,
Denis

pseymour · Jan 15, 2024

A little word about multiple network adapters and Modern Standby that might help.

Networking power management for Modern Standby platforms

Outlines the requirements for incorporating graphics devices in Modern Standby designs. (networking-power-management-for-modern-standby-platforms)

learn.microsoft.com

Ridder · Jan 15, 2024

ish4d0w said:
You have to

update your network drivers (and I mean it, not just a scan with Windows Update but from manufacturer's website OR if there is no update then directly from the component's manufacturer's website). For example if you have an Intel NIC go to intel.com and use their driver update assistant

Done. I found it much newer than Windows Update and did all the settings for WoL.

ish4d0w said:
Go to device manager, select the network interface card click properties then enable all power options both in special/advanced tab and power management. It needs to stay powered on in sleep mode AND accept magic packets. Disable any power saving options.

After drivers update I found new power saving options so I disabled them.

ish4d0w said:
Go to power plan settings (legacy control panel) and disable power savings for the network interface.

I disabled power saving for PCI, HDD and everything possible.

ish4d0w said:
update your BIOS and reset to default settings (Be careful with this if you have bitlocker/device encryption enabled). Also watch for the storage controller and boot settings before the reset

Done. I also tried to disable different options I found which looked like it could do anything with power saving.

ish4d0w said:
It appears you have Hyper-V enabled. You know this could actually be a problem. It should work but then again, this is one more potential ground for problems. Try it when Hyper-V is disabled, it might work.

I checked it and it has never been enabled. It is still disabled, despite what Microsoft says, it is turned off.

Thank you very much for your help. I am going to study the next posts here.

Ridder · Jan 16, 2024

Try3 said:
- I did find an MS article on the subject.
Wake On LAN for Surface devices - MSLearn

This is in line with the topic Enable or Disable Modern Standby Network Connectivity in Windows 10 and 11 - ElevenForumTutorials

Try3 said:
I also discovered that the way to allow scripts to run during S0 Modern standby was to set the Power options entry Sleep after to Never.
This stops S0 Modern standby from entering a later phase that does not allow scripts to run.

This was one of my first settings to put Sleep after to Never. I can't see any difference.

Try3 said:
I know nothing about remote working.
You can set your S0 Modern standby to maintain its network connection and that seems to be essential.
You can use the command PowerCfg -a to find out its network connectivity state.
Enable or Disable Modern Standby Network Connectivity in Windows 10 and 11 - ElevenForumTutorials
- I think you need to use Power options to prevent that later phase in order for your remote commands to have any effect but you'd need to experiment to be sure.

I couldn't see this variant in Power options so I used this tutorial. Now I see I have this option Enabled.
I Enabled this option also via Windows Terminal, Local Group Policy Editor.
The last thing I did was download and open the reg file from the tutorial. I have all AC and DC settings on value 1 for all schemes.

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\f15576e8-98b7-4186-b944-eafa664402d9\DefaultPowerSchemeValues

The only interesting fact I found here is that if I set Attributes on value 1 here

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\f15576e8-98b7-4186-b944-eafa664402d9

It changes automatically to value 2 after I turn off the PC. After restarting it remains on value 1.

Try3 said:
- You'd also need to avoid using Start, Power, Sleep and any equivalent commands.

I always use the Start menu + Power Off icon + Power Off button.

Try3 said:
- I'll be very interested in your results.
But if you chose to hibernate the computer instead of allowing it to enter S0 Modern standby then I think the situation will be the same as it would have been before S0 Modern standby was even a gleam in the devil's eye.

If I hibernate my PC I can't Wake on Lan him either.

So far I am still not successful. Thank you, Denis, I am going to study the next posts.

Try3 · Jan 16, 2024

Ridder said:
This was one of my first settings to put Sleep after to Never. I can't see any difference.

The difference is that Task scheduler can run scripts if Sleep after is set to Never.

Ridder said:
I couldn't see this variant in Power options

I was just referring back to my previous para - the need to set Sleep after to Never.

Not knowing anything about remote working, it seems to me that you do not need WOL or anything else.
If the computer is in S0 Modern standby & Sleep after is set to Never then I would have expected any remote commands you issue to be obeyed as long as they did not involve needing the display on.
If you did need the display on then you'd need to precede the commands you wanted with a command to bring the display back on [i.e. exit S0 Modern standby] just as I did in my post about running scripts.

All the best,
Denis

Ridder · Jan 16, 2024

Try3 said:
There have been a range of experiences with disabling S0 Modern standby.
Disable Modern Standby in Windows 10 and Windows 11 - ElevenForumTutorials

Before:

Code:

The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Connected
    Hibernate

The following sleep states are not available on this system:
    Standby (S1)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.
        This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

    Standby (S2)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.
        This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

    Standby (S3)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.
        This standby state is disabled when S0 low power idle is supported.

    Hybrid Sleep
        Standby (S3) is not available.
        The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

    Fast Startup
        This action is disabled in the current system policy.

After:

Code:

The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Hibernate

The following sleep states are not available on this system:
    Standby (S1)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.

    Standby (S2)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.

    Standby (S3)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.

    Standby (S0 Low Power Idle)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.

    Hybrid Sleep
        Standby (S3) is not available.
        The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

    Fast Startup
        This action is disabled in the current system policy.

The PC acts the same. At least from WoL's point of view.

Ridder · Jan 16, 2024

Try3 said:
Not knowing anything about remote working, it seems to me that you do not need WOL or anything else.
If the computer is in S0 Modern standby & Sleep after is set to Never then I would have expected any remote commands you issue to be obeyed as long as they did not involve needing the display on.
If you did need the display on then you'd need to precede the commands you wanted with a command to bring the display back on [i.e. exit S0 Modern standby] just as I did in my post about running scripts.

I don't need the display at all. The only thing I need is to be able to connect to my PC which is located at home while I am traveling. Most of the time it is turned off. I need to be able to wake it/turn it on/whatever we will call it. That's the only thing I need. When the PC is turned on, I can run RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and I am happy :)

I am not an IT expert so I don't know if I understand you correctly. If I can send any different command that "activates/turns on/wakes up" I am happy with that but I don't know any.

Try3 · Jan 16, 2024

Ridder said:
If I can send any different command that "activates/turns on/wakes up" I am happy with that but I don't know any.

Providing that you have set Power options, Sleep after to Never, if you let your computer use S0 Modern standby and you just leave it like that without turning it off, it will use about the same amount of power that a comparable computer used to use during S3 Sleep.
If that is acceptable to you then I think you might well be able to issue remote commands to it whilst it is in S0 Modern standby.

I suggest you try this.
If you can, issue some command that has an objective result - writing to a log file perhaps. Anything really as long as it has a definite result that you can check.
If it does not work at first, try preceding the command you want to use with the example I used in the script-related post I linked you to before, a vbs command to emulate a key press. Then see if you get a response.

I know nothing about turning on a computer remotely. All my comments are about using the computer when it is already on & in S0 Modern standby.

Denis

Ridder · Jan 16, 2024

Try3 said:
Providing that you have set Power options, Sleep after to Never, if you let your computer use S0 Modern standby and you just leave it like that without turning it off, it will use about the same amount of power that a comparable computer used to use during S3 Sleep.

If you mean the PC will be turned on with Sleep after to Never and turned off the display then it will work for sure. Do you mean nonstop running PC right?

Try3 · Jan 16, 2024

Ridder said:
Do you mean nonstop running PC right?

Yes, that's what S0 Modern standby is.

Denis

Ridder · Jan 16, 2024

Ok, I think we misunderstood. If I turn on the PC with Sleep after to Never and leave it like that for days then RDP will work on the PC with S0 state. BUT it would work the same way on the PC with S3 so what is the difference? In this case, it doesn't matter what state your PC supports because it is still online so you just run RDP and connect to it. Done.

I need the following. Turn on the PC remotely from the other side of the world. Usually, I use a smartphone app to wake up the PC. Connect via RDP. Turn the PC off and repeat every few days. I was working like this for years but I switched home PC and can't figure out where is the problem.