What could be causing windows to fail to sleep or hibernate, and revert system settings?

Question

I am running Windows 8.1 on my system (Dell e6520) and the symptoms are this:

1. My PC won't sleep or hibernate. It the screen turns off, but the fans just run and run, and after a little while, it completely shuts down, and when I start it back up, everything is closed, like it was a fresh boot/restart.
2. I'm have a weird issue with outlook described here and the fix works fine - modifying a registry value. The weirder part is that after my computer fails to sleep or hibernate, and it starts back up, the registry value is GONE, like I never modified it, and thus the outlook error message is back.
3. I thought maybe a graphics driver was preventing the sleep/hibernate, so I attempted to uninstall the NVIDIA graphics driver and control panel. HOWEVER, once the computer fails to sleep/hibernate, the NVIDIA graphics driver and control panel appear BACK on my system, like I didn't uninstall them.

What could be happening here? I really need to be able to sleep/hibernate so I don't lose work or my work state, and these issues are really concerning.

What I've tried, without success:

1. Uninstalling graphics driver mentioned above
2. Disabling hibernate and using sleep
3. disabling/re-enabling hibernate
4. Disabling startup items
5. Sleeping as local system admin account
6. disconnecting all USB, network, and bluetooth devices

Solution 1

Try to run Command Prompt as Administrator.

Then type:

powercfg -devicequery wake_armed

( Description: List devices that are currently configured to wake the system from any sleep state. )

For any device listed here (such as Network adapters or Mouse), go to Device Manager, find the device, right click and select properties.

Finally, go to tab "Power Management", uncheck "Allow this device to wake the computer".

If all the devices have been unchecked, running the command again would give: NONE.

Try the computer to sleep/hibernate. If the sleep/hibernate is now working, then one of the devices must have prevented sleep/hibernate from working correctly.

Additional:

If you want to see all the available user-configurable devices, you can type:

powercfg -devicequery wake_programmable

( list devices that are user-configurable to wake the system from a sleep state ).

Solution 2

I have also fixed my issue, It turns out after trying just about everything it is related to network devices. After right clicking all of my network devices and choosing Disable i was once again able to perform a standby. Then through a process of disabling different combinations of my available network devices I was able to pinpoint which device had the issue. A quick uninstall and re-install of that device driver fixed the issue.

I would recommend trying the virtual/exotic network devices first as they are more likely to be contributing to the issue.

Comments

[Outdated Computer Tech]

I have the exact problem with my file server, it will not go into hibernation or sleep mode, i enter hibernation/sleep, it instantly turns right back on without touching anything. But i think the problem might be a KVM switch, but i'm not exactly sure.

[Outdated Computer Tech]

this might help: windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/…

[xdumaine]

@Sickest That does not help. I've seen that page and done quite a bit of troubleshooting and research before posting here. That problem does not describe my problem, either. Mine doesn't turn right back on when touched, it completely shuts down.

[Outdated Computer Tech]

i knew it prob wouldn't. i don't think anyone could really answer your question, because i personally think sleep/hibernate mode is really hit and miss, i've owned at least 10 different computers in the last 5 years. Sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes, it doesn't. so many different factors could be involved, but good luck.

[S_BatMan]

@xdumaine Since installing windows 8.1 on my Laptop (m14xr2) i have been experiencing the exact same issues. Might be worth holding of on 8.1 for a few months. I'll keep trying different things and if i get an answer i'll make sure to drop it here.

[S_BatMan]

@xdumaine have you got virtualbox installed ?

[Sebastian Graf]

I got the same problems regarding sleep/hibernation. Also, if I enable fast startup, I get the same symptoms: It takes forever to shutdown, as if it repeatedly fails to write the hibernation file. I'm curious what virtualbox has to do with it, which I have also installed. Good hints btw.

[xdumaine]

I don't have any virtual or networked devices attached or connected, so this isn't applicable to me.

[Sebastian Graf]

For me both on-board WLAN and LAN adapters seem to be the culprit. However, I'm already on the most up-to-date drivers :(. I wonder what I can do about it...