Win 11 22H2 - No Screen off; no Sleep

Over the last week, my desktop has refused to turn the screen off or sleep as prescribed in the power settings. The reason APPEARS to be that something is repeatedly updating the "Last Activity" date and time, making the system believe that there is still an active user. I use an app called SmartPower to manage when periods of On/Off time. and the logs from this app indicate that the system remains active due to "user activity" under my username..

I have also turned of, and uninstalled this app (SmartPower) to test whether it is the cause. I set up the necessary power plan values in the power settings, but still the machine will not sleep or turn the screen off.

Other diagnostics I have tried include:

- Changing my mouse. I recently installed a new Logitech M510 mouse, along with Logitech "LOGI+ Options." I uninstalled both the mouse and the software.. I also installed a different, older mouse onto a different Logitech receiver.
- Restarted with startup items off.
- Several other options I found on other sites that do not really match my situation.

Finally, looking back on the SmartPower debug log, I see that the last successful "power off" sequence occurred around 10:50am last Sunday (Oct 22), and restart was initiated at 11:24am . As best I recall, I was nowhere near my computer at that time - nor was anyone else! But from then, every minute thereafter, the log reports 2 changes to the last activity date/time every minute.

A perfect answer to this would be ideal, but , maybe, as a starting point, someone could tell me if and how there is a way to determine which process is updating the last activity date and time every 30 seconds or so, even though there is no user activity from the keyboard or mouse.

Thanks for any help!

Graham

Probably not related but thought I'd throw it out there just in case. My PC wouldn't stay asleep and kept waking every few minutes the last few days after my latest Windows update. I had to go into Device Manger to the Network adapter properties and go to the power management tab and uncheck "Allow this device to wake the computer". It stays asleep now.

@FrancoDT: Thanks for your suggestion. As it turns out, I think I have identified the problem. It looks as though 2 USB devices associated with MS Flight Simulator 2020 are causing the problem. These devices are a Saitek joystick, and a TrackIR device for tracking head movements during game play. If they are connected by USB, they appear to be generating "User Activity" even if the software itself - particularly in the case of the TrackIR device - has been shut down.

I have been experimenting today to find out whether only one of the devices is causing this, but it appears that both/either are responsible.

I don't remember if I had the same problem when I was running FS2020 under Windows 10, nor whether it was a problem before I started to notice that sleep wasn't working about 2 weeks ago. I did notice that I had installed Win11 22h2 several days before I noticed the issue, so I cannot lay the cause at that door!

In any case, either this is a driver problem, or expected behaviour. I'm not sure which, but, for the time being, my workaround is simple: Unplug the two offending USB devices!

I hope this helps anyone else noticing these behaviours.

Graham

Good deal you found the cause. Just curious are those two devices listed under device manager when plugged in and have a power management tab that allows you to uncheck "Allow this device to wake the computer"? That might allow you leaving them plugged in.

I've had a pretty hard look through the Device Manager both in the default view, and view by connection. I cannot see any devices that are set to wake the computer. One diagnostic step I took earlier on was to turn off all the USB hubs to not allow them to turn OFF the computer to save poser. I may turn them back on!

Thanks again for your interest.

Thanks GreyBat!! you got me thinking that it could be my new Logitech X56 HOTAS causing this. And it was indeed it! (I see they also use Saitek)
I Was looking to resolve it for more then a month (Not exclusively.. )
Thanks again.

It's not just Saitek, I have the same issue with a throttle, and stick, from Virpil. My VKB pedals do not have the issue. One of these days I'll get around to updating the firmware for those two.

I just wanted to add a couple of things.... First of all, I found that the TrackIR device only interrupted sleep when it was connected via USB, and the supporting software task was NOT running. As long as there is a TrackIR task listed amongst the running processes, the device does not prevent the computer going to sleep. (I do find that, if I leave the software running without using FS, the device and the software stops responding and will sometimes prevent FS from starting. I have to force end the TrackIR task from Task Manager, then restart it, before starting FS. But that, you could say, is another issue!)

The second thing is that I decided to ditch the Saitek AV8R, which was well over 10 years old anyway, and replace it with the cheapest (!) Thrustmaster HOTAS. This device does not have a problem with sleep. It can remain plugged in and sleep works normally.