Windows 10 Waking From Sleep
Overview
Since switching to Windows 10 I have been seeing the computer being woken up from sleep from random events here are some of the things I looked at to solve the wake up issue.
Setup
Set the computer to sleep and then allow it to wake up. When it does open the command prompt as an administrator by pressing the Windows key so that the start menu appears and then type cmd. It will list Command Prompt. Right click on it and select Run as administrator.
Power Config
These commands will list out what last woke the computer up in the command prompt. Starting with the post common type in
powercfg -lastwake
This will list out the number of things that triggered the computer to wake up (Wake History Count) and for each number of things it will list each item in turn starting with the Wake Source as the item that woke the computer.
Devices
If the type listed under the Wake Source is Device then it’s something that is hardware related such as a mouse, keyboard, etc. This requires going into the device manager to allow or disallow devices from waking it up. An easy way to list out all devices that could potentially wake up a computer is using this command in the command prompt:
powercfg -devicequery wake_armed
The above example shows that a Human Interface Device (HID) (a generic input device), Razer BlackWidow Ultimate (keyboard), Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I217-V (network card), etc are allowed to wake up the device.
To change the settings for a device, right click on the start menu button > Device Manager.
From the window find the device which are categorised by the type. Right click on them and go to properties. There should be a Power Management tab. If not then it may be a different device with a similar name which often happens with USB devices. Tick or untick the Allow this device to wake the computer option depending if you want to allow or disallow the device from waking the computer up. Press OK to save the changes.
Timers
If the type listed under the Wake Source is a Timer then use the command:
powercfg -waketimers
to see what timers can start the computer.
Timers are usually tasks that are scheduled which can wake the computer up to perform the task. This goes beyond the scope of this post but check Windows Task Scheduler or to disable all timers go to the Power Options in the Control Panel > Change plan settings (for the selected plan) > Change advanced power settings
Go to Sleep > Allow wake timers to change to the desired setting.
Tips
Here are some things I changed that stopped waking my computer up when I didn’t want it to.
Mouse – I always disable the mouse from waking the computer up. A simple slight movement detected by the computer can cause the mouse to wake up. For example on hard to read surfaces which causes the cursor to twitch can easily wake the computer up.
Network Card – I changed the setting to Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer up. Without this option checked (it wasn’t on by default for me) it would wake up straight away. I could only guess it was either it had power i.e connected to another device or something sent data to the computer.
NT TASK\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot – A timer from what looks like a Microsoft task. Going to the task scheduler > Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > UpdateOrchestrator will list a Reboot task which can wake the computer to the the task. To change this double click on the Reboot task > Conditions tab and untick the Wake the computer to run this task to stop it from booting the computer up when it’s asleep.
Summary
As annoying it can be to troubleshoot the random wake up by the computer you find it isn’t random at all. Microsoft needs a better way of showing this information (Notification Centre maybe?) if they want to promote this way of working and saving energy.
How To Prevent Your Computer From Waking Up Accidentally
