Windows 11 23H2 - System goes back to sleep (AFTER waking) in 2 Minutes

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

Working with a brand new W11 23H2 install that is exhibiting some very strange sleep behavior. The machine GOES to sleep correctly - every evening at 11:00pm per a standard script I have been using for years. This machine also does a correct WOL - using another script that I have been using for years.

But what this new build is doing (VS say the Windows 10 machine right next to it) is going BACK to sleep after exactly two minutes of (presumably) "idle time" (according to the Event Logs) - here is the sequence (highlighted) - where the machine wakes at 5:10:29am and then exactly 2 minutes later goes nighty-night again:

Now - I am very familiar with the "why" of this - it is most likely coming from this setting (exposed by the cool Power Setting Explorer utility):

There's the ole "2-minute warning" and presumably - the reason why this machine hits the sack again after 2 minutes of doing nothing.

But for some context - I wake two machines in my office at 5:10am every morning for work purposes - but depending on when I stagger into my office with my coffee cup - it could be 15 minutes after wakeup or an hour after wakeup and still need the machines at the ready.

Now for the oddity - this 2 minute "System unattended sleep timeout" is also present (and active) on my main Windows 10 workstation - but this one does NOT honor that 2 minute timeout - idle or no idle - this machine stays on and ready for action - regardless of when I get to my desk.

So - the questions:

1. Why is the W11 machine honoring this 2-minute timeout and the Win 10 machine simply ignores it and keeps cruising along?
2. How can I disable this behavior permanently on the Win 11 machine so it does not go back to sleep? Is it as simple as upping this Sleep Timeout to some ridiculous value like 480 mins to ensure it does not go back to sleep at 5:12am everyday?

Appreciate any tips from the field.

Cheers

Sonic.

glasskuter · Jan 19, 2024

SonicMojo said:
Why is the W11 machine honoring this 2-minute timeout and the Win 10 machine simply ignores it and keeps cruising along

If you've searched this forum you will find that Sleep issues of all kinds are one of the most common subjects. The only definitive answer I can give you is that not only does 11 handle sleep, sleep states, and power differently than 10 and all previous OSes, but some newer hardware does as well.
Because of this, what folks have come to expect as the norm with previous operating systems and hardware can be thrown out the window. The how or why of it, only MS (and the the hardware venders)knows.
From situations I have observed here on the forum, depending on a users needs and his hardware, many users have had to compromise in their power settings to reach an acceptable result. That result and the changes one made to achieve it will not always be exactly as it's been in the past, nor will it always be exactly what the user wants.
.

allan · Jan 19, 2024

I've never been a fan of hibernate or sleep. Believe it or not, in all these years Microsoft has never perfected either. Personally, I just set my hd & display to power down after 20 minutes of non-use, and I power down my systems at the end of the day.

Edwin · Jan 19, 2024

I don't do the Sleep thing either...,
I don't even have the System unattended sleep timeout thing!

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

glasskuter said:
If you've searched this forum you will find that Sleep issues of all kinds are one of the most common subjects. The only definitive answer I can give you is that not only does 11 handle sleep, sleep states, and power differently than 10 and all previous OSes, but some newer hardware does as well.

Interesting observation and one that is beginning to make more sense...

On the Win 11 machine - I ran powercfg /sleepstudy which kicked out this interesting report:

In the instance of this 2 minute timeout today - the power subsystem is reporting a state that I have not seen before called "Screen Off".

I can only assume that this state relates to Win 11 (or maybe the motherboard) doing a quick "probe" of the screen you have attached to the machine at wakeup time. Interestingly - this machine is attached to a Samsung 40 inch plasma TV - which is in fact in an OFF state - as I actually turn the power off each day on this thing.

Seems that Windows 11 (or the machine Or both) detects this - and then because nothing is actually happening within that 2-minute timeout (Idle) - the machine falls back to sleep

Which is markedly different from how Windows 10 reacted to this. In my prior build - attached to the very same TV - the machine would wake and sit there with the screen off -forever - but fully awake - waiting for me to turn the TV on and get down to business.

Conversely - just did a sleep study on my "work" workstation - and while it is connected to a Dell Ultrasharp monitor that follows the machine sleep pattern (machine goes to sleep at 11:00pm and monitors goes low power state at 11:05pm) - when this machine wakes at 5:10 - it also wakes the screen - resulting in no such power state called "Screen Off".

Not even sure if Screen Off is a thing in Win 10 but it looks like I might have an answer.

This - and a growing list of other "oddities" are beginning to pile up against Win 11 and is slowly pushing me back to a unified Windows 10 environment where I do not need to worry about all these "changes".

Sonic.

x BlueRobot · Jan 19, 2024

SonicMojo said:
1. Why is the W11 machine honoring this 2-minute timeout and the Win 10 machine simply ignores it and keeps cruising along?

You could check with the following from a command prompt window:

Code:

powercfg /lastwake

However, I believe this only returns the last wake timer which fired.

SonicMojo said:
2. How can I disable this behavior permanently on the Win 11 machine so it does not go back to sleep?

Just change the power scheme policy settings to be sleep never as mentioned already by @Edwin.

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

x BlueRobot said:
Just change the power scheme policy settings to be sleep never as mentioned already by @Edwin.

Sleep = Never

Is already on.

Win 11 (and possibly this new hadrware) is ignoring this setting completely - which is kinda the point of the thread.

Once this machine wakes (via script) - I do not want it to sleep - ever - until 11:00pm in the evening when another script specifically tells it to go to sleep.

This is behavior that I had for 3 years - prior to this Win 11 build.

Sonic.

x BlueRobot · Jan 19, 2024

Have you disabled Modern Standby?

Try3 · Jan 19, 2024

SonicMojo said:
going BACK to sleep after exactly two minutes of (presumably) "idle time"

SonicMojo said:
Now for the oddity ... my main Windows 10 workstation

Perhaps the keyboard of the oddity is being used during the unattended timeout period?

The words you've used in your posts make me think the computers in question use S3 Sleep not S0 Modern standby but I think it would be worth removing all doubt by running the command
PowerCfg -a
on each one to find out what power states they have available.

Denis

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

x BlueRobot said:
Have you disabled Modern Standby?

And what exactly is Modern Standby and where do I find that?

S

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

Try3 said:
Perhaps the keyboard of the oddity is being used during the unattended timeout period?

Denis

The mouse and keyboard on each machine have been removed for any "power" wake scenarios and there is no activity on any machine until I sit down in front of them.

It is simply bizarre that the Win 10 machine wakes (even with that 2 minute Idle timeout set) and the machine stays in a running state ready for logon - while the Win 11 machine says "no action after 2 mins? I am going back to sleep, yo"

S

Try3 · Jan 19, 2024

Sonic -

I was still [too slowly] editing my last post when you asked about S0 Modern standby.
I was adding a test to check if it was available.

Denis

glasskuter · Jan 19, 2024

SonicMojo said:
This - and a growing list of other "oddities" are beginning to pile up against Win 11 and is slowly pushing me back to a unified Windows 10 environment where I do not need to worry about all these "changes".

Fully understandable...it's natural for us folks of a certain age to have difficulties with change...but...sooner or later moving on will be a necessity if one wants to remain current and receive updates. I've learned to roll with the flow. Might as well accept change now rather than later.

My particular machine offers the old S3 sleep that I know and love so everything works as I've always expected. I am curious as to exactly which sleep states are available on your machine. Would you please open a command prompt as admin and type powercfg -a
post a screenshot

Edwin · Jan 19, 2024

I'm not sure if this has any bearing on the actual Power Config, but, I always apply Brink's Ultimate Performance tweak...

Add or Remove Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

glasskuter said:
Fully understandable...it's natural for us folks of a certain age to have difficulties with change...but...sooner or later moving on will be a necessity if one wants to remain current and receive updates. I've learned to roll with the flow. Might as well accept change now rather than later.

My particular machine offers the old S3 sleep that I know and love so everything works as I've always expected. I am curious as to exactly which sleep states are available on your machine. Would you please open a command prompt as admin and type powercfg -a
post a screenshot

Well - it's not so much a difficulty with change - my week to 10 days with Win 11 has been (for the most part) fine - but I am simply not seeing any real justification to move - for my work (and sanity it seems :) - the time wasted this last two weeks trying to navigate Win 11 idiosyncrasies (like this item, core parking, oddball audio latencies and a score of others) is simply not worth the time in the long run.

What I need is the OS to stay out of the way (permanently) and not have to baby it or try to figure out why it's behaving differently than a rock solid Win 10 machine on my other desk.

While I realize that Win 10 has a limited span - that does not occur until late fall 2025 - which is more than enough time for me. I will continue to test Win 11 in a closed environment - but there has simply been too much weirdness here to deal with it day to day.

I guess I crave stability over "new and shiny".

And - to you request - funny you should ask - just did a powercfg -a on both machines and they are identical:

S3 on both - so I (logically) would expect the same sort of "S3" sleep behavior - but that seems to be not possible with Win 11

S

dacrone · Jan 19, 2024

What make/model is your pc?

hsehestedt · Jan 19, 2024

In a quick glance of this topic, I had not noticed any mention of screen saver settings. Is it possible that you have the screensaver set to turn on but just a blank screen?

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

Edwin said:
I'm not sure if this has any bearing on the actual Power Config, but, I always apply Brink's Ultimate Performance tweak...

Add or Remove Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

Yep - I have a very customized "Ultimate Plan" of my own cooking here - but it appears for Win 11 - regardless of how much Power I crave and how much I need this PC to wake up (and stay up) - Win 11 finds a way to ignore all those settings (like NEVER Sleep) all in what appears to be some sort of weird ass need to save power every sec of the time.

S

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

dacrone said:
What make/model is your pc?

Custom hand built:

Motherboard	ASUS Prime z790-A
Chipset	Intel z790
BIOS	1601
CPU	Intel Core™i5 13600K (LGA1700)
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB (2x32GB) (CMK64GX5M2B5600C40)
Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics 770
Monitor	Samsung LN40B530 LCD TV
Keyboard	Keychron V6
Mouse	Logitech G502
LAN	Intel i226-V
HD1 - System (C:\)	Samsung 990 PRO NVMe (1TB)
HD2 - Data (D:\)	Samsung 980 NVMe (250GB)
HD3 - Libraries (L:\)	Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe (2TB)
HD4 - Samples (S:\)	Seagate FireCuda SSHD ST2000DX002 (2TB)
Case	Coolermaster CM 690 II
Cooling (CPU)	Noctua NH-U14S
Cooling (Exhaust Back)	Noctua NF-S12A-ULN
Cooling (Intake Front)	Noctua NF-S12A-PWM
Cooling (Exhaust Top)	Noctua NF-A14-PWM
PSU	Seasonic Focus GX-750
Printers	HP LaserJet 1505n

SonicMojo · Jan 19, 2024

hsehestedt said:
In a quick glance of this topic, I had not noticed any mention of screen saver settings. Is it possible that you have the screensaver set to turn on but just a blank screen?

View attachment 84523

No screensaver in play.

S