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General discussion

Power Plan Does Not Work to Put Computer to Sleep

Jul 16, 2007 1:30PM PDT

I have Vista Home Premium. The good news is that (after some tweaking to Device Mgr) I am able to put my computer to sleep manually and it will stay that way until I wake it up manually. The bad news is that none of existing power plans, or even new ones I create, will work to turn off my display or put my computer to sleep -with one weird exception: If I change one of the power plans to put computer to sleep in one min, this will work. Nothing greater than one min will work. I have reinstalled Power Management and that did not solve problem. Any ideas?

Discussion is locked

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Same problem with screensavers?
Jul 18, 2007 10:39AM PDT

That's usually a sign that there is some form of activity going on, causing the timer to reset before Sleep mode is to be engaged. Wireless keyboard/mice have been known to cause that, though it could also be a program periodically running in the background or even the internet connection. The former can usually be solved by updated software/driver while the latter can be harder to track down. However, one nice test is to see if the same problem occurs with your screensaver. If so you know it's some sort of activity keeping it 'awake' while if the screensaver does work as expected it's likely a problem specific to Seep mode. That should help narrow down the possibilities.

Let us know.
John

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Screensavers will not work either
Jul 19, 2007 3:31AM PDT

John - I have same problem with screensavers, so your suspicion about some background process is a good one. However, I already did a selective startup and stopped all my startup programs from loading, but this did not help. Other things I've done are to go to Device Manager and prevent my wireless mouse and network adapters from waking up my computer. I do allow my keyboard to wake my computer so I can use my sleep button to wake it up in the morning, but maybe I need to change this too and, instead, just use my power button to wake computer. Only other device I have connected to the PC is my HP printer. Should I disconnect my printer to see if that's the problem?I've also reinstalled Power Management. Besides stopping my startup items from loading, what other things can I do to test whether there might be some background process going on?

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Do you have an old keyboard/mouse?
Jul 19, 2007 3:24PM PDT

It's not so much the setting for them to wake the computer as it is the signal that's sent back and forth. It doesn't tend to be as big of a problem as it used to be, but the first thing I like to do is replace them with an old wired keyboard/mouse combo and see if the problem remains.

As to the printer, unless there's a file in the queue I don't see it causing such interference.

Finally, have you tried Safe Mode (without networking)? Selective startup is good, but that will eliminate the internet connection and various Microsoft processes as well.

John

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(NT) Don't Worry Your Not The Only One.
Jul 20, 2007 2:55PM PDT
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Both of my VISTA Home Premium desktops will not auto sleep
Aug 15, 2007 4:29AM PDT

From what I've read in forums all over...
The power management function does not activate on a lot of VISTA
machines.
My first one is a HP w/vista preloaded, the other a Gateway w/vista pre-loaded.

No screen saver will activate either... I don't care about that.
Not using any wireless KB or mice.
No KB fix that I've seen yet.

Probably will have to wait for SP1.
What a simple function... all I want is for my PC's to turn off the display and shut down the HDD when un-attended. Sometimes I just turn off the LCD monitor and walk away. Sometimes I will put the units into sleep mode thru the start menu (but that requires manual effort) and they both respond normally when I wake them up... guess I am thankful for that function... Thanks Mr. Gates!


I still have my XP machine downstairs and a I use it a lot more than my new Vista one. I love XP. It works great!