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Question

Computer won't wake up after sleep mode

Nov 11, 2012 1:20AM PST

I built this computer in March of this year and everything worked great. I had my power options set up so I could switch between high performance and power saver for when I'm not using it. Power saver was set up to turn off display and put the computer to sleep after 1 minute. I don't recall changing any of the advanced settings but maybe I forgot something.

I used to wake it up simply by hitting the space bar and everything would come back on. I just did a clean install of Windows 7 two days ago and since then when I choose power saver and it goes to sleep after whatever time I set it to, it no longer wakes up. Well, this is where I'm lost because it still makes the same noises like the fans spinning harder and all that but nothing appears on my monitor. At first I thought it had something to do with my monitor but I just realized that the lights on my mouse don't come on either. Which they used to before when I'd hit the space bar.

Any help would be much appreciated.

My build:
Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
(RAM) 8.00GB
System type: 64- bit

Not sure if any other info is needed but please let me know if I missed something.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
It's likely you didn't repeat what you did before.
Nov 11, 2012 1:54AM PST

Did you keep your notes about Windows installation? Such as motherboard drivers and that BIOS setting to keep the USB power on and wake on interrupt? Remember I can't tell you exactly what it is with a custom machine. That's something for the folk that built the machine to supply.
Bob

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Computer won't wake up after sleep mode - New!
Nov 11, 2012 4:51AM PST

I'm just looking for somebody who knows a little about the advanced settings in the power options to see if maybe I've got something set wrong.

Is this BIOS setting you're referring to going to be in my BIOS menu somewhere?

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While I know the advanced power options it won't help
Nov 11, 2012 5:18AM PST

Because I don't have your machine to look at. If you supply screen shots of the BIOS or the board's manual with the BIOS screens I can see if it's there.

Again, to wake from sleep from USB keyboard taps means we must have the USB power "up" and respond to the IRQ that happens (a BIOS thing along with drivers.)

It's quite complicated and why many folk scream at others about how in 2 decades a custom PC is going to be a support anchor. I like mine but I have my notes about settings and what drivers to install.
Bob

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Motherboard
Nov 11, 2012 6:39AM PST
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Chapter 3.5.7 notes it's disabled by default.
Nov 11, 2012 7:14AM PST

Why not turn that on?

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I'll try that
Nov 11, 2012 8:00AM PST

I'm not sure which one though. I'm reading up about PS/2 and it says it's a 6-pin Mini-DIN connector. My keyboard has a USB connection. I guess I'll turn them all on or one by one and see if any of them work.

Thanks again.

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Nothing
Nov 11, 2012 8:14AM PST

Well none of those worked. Could it really be something like that though? Because I've never messed with any of that before and hitting the space bar always used to work. The only thing I ever messed with before were the power options in Windows.

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You may have to do more.
Nov 11, 2012 8:45AM PST

Since the manual writes about wake on PS/2 and you have USB, you have to try the legacy keyboard option.

Again, I don't own your machine but this is the downside of custom machines. If the maker didn't tell you how they set it up, you rarely find you can go back.

-> When in sleep mode the power LED blinks. Let's hope it is.
Bob

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Bad PSU
Apr 8, 2013 12:37PM PDT

Can be a bad powersupply. Look in the windows system log files, If your getting a kernel power error, chances are, this is the problem.

Had a computer last week, that would power up, run fine. After sleep, computer would wake up, however no display output. Replaced PSU, works great.

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Won't wake up
Nov 24, 2012 3:27AM PST

Check your settings for keyboard and mouse: there is a setting to allow both to wake up computer from sleep. It is possible these are not set correctly

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Answer
Nothing clean about it
Aug 17, 2013 10:50AM PDT

I had to laugh when you wrote he'd had to do a "clean install". There is no such thing as a Windows clean install. PLUEEZE!

I've been dealing with Windows sleep issues for at least ten years. You'll think you've solved the problem and it comes back months later without warning. Just one of the those things Microsoft has never been able to get right. You see, they're only about half as smart as they want you to believe they are.

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Answer
Fix for when computer won't wake up from sleep
Dec 10, 2015 7:40AM PST

I have struggled with this problem for weeks. It's maddening. I have the same system you do. Here's what I stumbled on that worked for me so far. I don't code or program, so if I can follow these steps, you can too:

I noticed the problem is always worse after installing MS updates. So first thing, clean your computer with something like CCleaner. I clean files and registry. Then use CCleaner to turn off everything that bloats your startup.

Now run a program that finds and eliminates spyware, adware, malware, such as SuperAntiSpyware. Make sure any antivirus program you have (such as Norton) gives you a good report.

Go to your sleep settings: Start, Control Panel, hardware/Sound, power options. On left menu, choose "change when computer sleeps". Select "change advanced power settings."

Open SLEEP in the list under ADVANCED SETTINGS. Set the 4 items there as follows:
sleep after 20 min
allow Hybrid Sleep OFF
Hibernate after NEVER
Allow wake timers DISABLE

If this doesn't work, try: Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings. select Restore default settings and accept. Then follow above from "go to your sleep settings" again. You may want to restart your computer after this.

Finally, I found that doing a thorough cleanup of the MS Silverlight software that is always installed in full or in part (whether you want it or not) when you update Windows helped a lot. Follow the instructions for "let me do it myself" at this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2608523

I also uninstalled then reinstalled Chrome. (You might want to disable all your Chrome extensions.) Not sure if Chrome problem was related (Chrome wouldn't work at same time I was having the not-waking-up problem) but it's no big deal to do this, and everything ran much faster after this.

I hope this helps you. Good luck!

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Computer WON'T WAKE UP
Sep 30, 2016 5:17AM PDT

HOW do you do all this stuff when the computer WON'T WAKE UP?

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It it won't wake or power up
Sep 30, 2016 9:44AM PDT

Then it's a broken PC and the above does not apply.

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unplug from the wall for half hour
Sep 30, 2016 7:20PM PDT

maybe the PSU shut itself off and cutting off all power will allow it to reset.