Vista Spontaneously Awakens from Standby

[mxcrowe]

After several weeks of normal operation, my system has begun waking from standby every two hours for 2 minutes. I suspected some MCE issues, but have found no specific culprit in the task scheduler. While in (S3) standby, the system will spontaneously wake up every two hours and then put itself back to sleep after a couple of minutes. The system event logs show the system waking up exactly 2 hours after I put it into standby. It posts a resource publication, a couple of TCPIP events, then says the system has resumed from sleep. Then there is a User PNP event, a Browser event, another resource publication event, then it shows the system entering sleep mode again. The whole thing takes exactly 2 minutes. Two hours later, it does the same thing (as long as I didn't wake it up manually in that interval).
This is a relatively new behavior. The system has been operating normally with S3 standby for several weeks, but recently started this spontaneous wakeup. I cannot find anything in the task scheduler that allows the system to be woken up. And I certainly DO NOT want the system to wake up from standby unless I press the keyboard!
Does anyone know how I can track down whatever is causing this to happen???

 

[garysgold]

The only thing I can think of that might be causing it to wake every 2 hours is Windows Sideshow. If you have that installed, go to control panel(classic view)/windows sideshow. At the bottom of the page click on 'set my computer to wake automatically'. See if that helps. This is only a guess. Hope it helps. The only other thing I know to check is in device manager click on properties for mouse and network adapters. Click on the power management tab and make sure 'allow this device to wake the computer' is unchecked. These would probably be more random in waking the comp.

Gary

 

[SIW2]

After several weeks of normal operation, my system has begun waking from standby every two hours for 2 minutes. I suspected some MCE issues, but have found no specific culprit in the task scheduler. While in (S3) standby, the system will spontaneously wake up every two hours and then put itself back to sleep after a couple of minutes. The system event logs show the system waking up exactly 2 hours after I put it into standby. It posts a resource publication, a couple of TCPIP events, then says the system has resumed from sleep. Then there is a User PNP event, a Browser event, another resource publication event, then it shows the system entering sleep mode again. The whole thing takes exactly 2 minutes. Two hours later, it does the same thing (as long as I didn't wake it up manually in that interval).
This is a relatively new behavior. The system has been operating normally with S3 standby for several weeks, but recently started this spontaneous wakeup. I cannot find anything in the task scheduler that allows the system to be woken up. And I certainly DO NOT want the system to wake up from standby unless I press the keyboard!
Does anyone know how I can track down whatever is causing this to happen???

Hi,

2 minutes is the default time for it to return to sleep after wake up, if it's been idle.

You might like to try step 4 in this tutorial to find out what could be causing it to wake up

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-power-options-sleep-mode-problems.html

Please let us know when you find it - could be of help to others.

Hope it helps

SIW2

 

[Brink]

Hi Mxcrowe,

In addition to the above posts, the reference to TCPIP seems to indicate that your network device may be waking up the computer. You might check Step Six in the above tutorial link to have the "Wake computer" option disabled for the network device.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[mxcrowe]

Sideshow shows no devices installed, so it doesn't even provide me with the option to have the computer wake automatically. I was hoping I could turn this off, but no option to do so. I checked the task scheduler again for Sideshow, and "autowake" is disabled.
Power management tab for my NIC is set to not allow the device to wake the computer. Everything except the keyboard is disabled for waking the computer, so I suspect it is some (new) piece of software. I ran a game (accidentally) in MCE mode the other day, and saw the MCE screen for the first time. I'm still suspicious that this could be the culprit, but can't see any such settings to wake the computer.

 

[Brink]

See if your BIOS power management settings has a "Wake on LAN" type option, and make sure that it is disabled to if available.

Also in Step Two in http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-power-options-sleep-mode-problems.html , make sure that the Multimedia settings - When sharing media is set to Allow the computer to sleep.

 

[mxcrowe]

I tried the "powercfg -devicequery wake_armed" command, and it returns nothing. Somewhat surprising, as I at least expected to see the keyboard there. The system wakes (manually) on a specific keypress. I'm still thinking something s/w related...

 

[mxcrowe]

Also in Step Two in http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-power-options-sleep-mode-problems.html , make sure that the Multimedia settings - When sharing media is set to Allow the computer to sleep.

Well, the multimedia settings for my power profile said "Allow the computer to enter away mode". I have changed it to allow the computer to sleep. Perhaps the errant starting of MCE created this setting, or allowed this setting to start showing the wake up behavior?

So far, this is the only thing that seems to be a likely candidate. Could having it on "allow away mode" make the system wake up every two hours? (And the value of that is....?)

 

[Brink]

Yes, it could cause the computer to wake up.

It's usually only helpful in multimedia type situations so the multimedia device or program can wake the computer as needed.

 

[mxcrowe]

Nope...that didn't fix it. I put the computer to sleep at 11pm last night, and it continued to wake itself up every 2 hours. Something is running that wasn't there before...and it's really starting to annoy me...

 

[Brink]

Ok. When it wakes up next time, type in the powercfg lastwake command in a command prompt to see what it tells you woke the computer up last. It might help narrow down what is waking the computer up. It will be the new STEP FOUR here:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/63567-power-options-sleep-mode-problems.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[mxcrowe]

Ok, so I have to catch it on one of the 2-hour cycles and issue the command as soon as it wakes itself?
I tried the command after I woke it manually, and all it says is:
Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
Wake Source Count - 0

It doesn't list the keyboard as the waking event.

 

[mxcrowe]

I just came across this: The computer may unexpectedly resume from standby or hibernation and then automatically return to standby or hibernation after two minutes

I have no idea what is sending "magic packets" to my system every 2 hours, and why it suddenly started... Let's see if MS's workaround does the trick.

 

[Brink]

I hope it does help stop it. It is almost the same as Step Six though from the suggestion in this post eariler if you had already tried it.

 

[mxcrowe]

No, it's not the same. The recommendation from MS actually says to check the "Allow device to wake computer" box (I had it unchecked, since I didn't want the damn device to wake the computer). However, it also suggests checking the "Only allow management stations to wake computer" box, which meant nothing to me, but apparently has the effect of ignoring these unwanted packets or ICMP pings that awaken the computer. MS clearly bills this as a *workaround* to an unexpected behavior.

 

[Brink]

That's what I get for not reading it completely through. DOH! LOL

Is it still working for you ok with it?

 

[mxcrowe]

I was hopeful, but it still seems to be doing it. I went into standby, and a few minutes later, the system woke up. Presumably, it would then go into its 2-hour cycle. So I issued the powercfg lastwake command:
Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
Wake Source Count - 0
Type: Fixed Feature
Timer Expired (RTC)

I was really hoping that MS fix would do it, but it appears I'm back to square 1.

 

[Brink]

I found information in this link that may help. You might check to see if in Media Center to change the settings so the guide won't update automatically.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[mxcrowe]

I'm just baffled here...it didn't appear that the MS workaround did anything last night, so I just unplugged the LAN cable. When I checked this morning, it still comes on every two hours - exactly 2 hours. It changes the cycle time occasionally (not it is 12:32, 2:32, 4:32, etc.) and stays on for exactly 2 minutes. I went through every single item in the task scheduler and can find nothing that is allowed to wake the computer and nothing in their histories that matches the times the computer woke up. I went through Media Center, but could find no settings to change update times. In any case, any all Media Center task scheduler setting and events show that it is disabled for updates.

Does the "Type: Fixed Feature Timer Expired (RTC)" mean anything to you? That's what the powercfg command shows when I run it after it has auto-awakened. RTC is real time clock, I assume. Not really telling me anything...

 

[Brink]

Mxcrowe,

After doing some more searching around with Google, it appears that the "Type: Fixed Feature Timer Expired (RTC)" (Real Time Clock) is not always related to one particular item that was causing this. Here is a list of a few items to check:

• Turn off Vista Disk Defragmenter's automatic schedule.
• Uninstall any trial program that has expired.
• If you have a Hauppauge USB TV tuner card, uninstall and remove it as a test.