I’ve already written about how to fix problems where Windows 7 won’t hibernate and Windows 8 won’t hibernate, but I haven’t talked about hibernation problems in Windows 10. Due to the large number of machines and the huge variety of hardware that Windows can run, every version of Windows will have problems going to sleep in certain situations.
Sometimes the problem occurs due to hardware, sometimes due to drivers, and sometimes due to incorrect operating system configuration. In this article, I will go over all the different solutions I can find to fix this issue on Windows 10.
Please note that I will try not to repeat the solutions already mentioned in the articles about Windows 7 and Windows 8, so feel free to read them if none of the solutions below work. Since Windows 10 is fairly new, there seems to be a lot of problems on certain machines, probably because the drivers don’t fully support Windows 10 yet.
The only real solution in such cases is to wait until the appropriate driver for Windows 10 is released. Method 1 is the best option if you find that many people with the same machine as yours are having trouble sleeping.
First method – update the chipset drivers
The fastest way to fix this problem is to download the latest drivers for your Windows 10 computer from the PC manufacturer’s website. For example, I have a Dell computer and using Dell System Detect, it automatically scans my system and finds all relevant driver updates.
The most important drivers for updating are chipset drivers, BIOS and network card drivers. If you have a custom built system, read my post on using third-party software to find and update drivers I also wrote earlier that it is probably not a good idea to update your BIOS, except in some cases like this where you might have hardware related issues. If you do decide to update your BIOS, read my post on how to check if an update is available for your BIOS.
In addition to updating your drivers, make sure you go to Settings> Update & Security and install all the latest updates for Windows 10 from Microsoft.
The second method – check power requests
Sometimes, certain Windows programs send power requests to the system that prevent the system from shutting down or entering hibernation. Usually these cases are valid, for example, when you are playing a DVD and do not interact with the mouse and keyboard for several hours, the screen will remain on.
Requests should automatically go away when the program is closed. However, there are times when it can get stuck. You can test all power requests by opening an elevated command prompt (click Start, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator) and enter the following command:
powercfg – requests
Ideally, you want all items to say “No”, which means there are currently no food requests. If you have something like SRVNET, check out the Windows 8 article I mentioned at the very beginning of the article.
Another good use for the powercfg command is to see what devices on your system can wake up the system. This usually includes a mouse and keyboard, but sometimes other devices such as network card, video card, etc. register themselves and can cause problems. Read Method 3 from my post on Windows 7 to prevent devices from waking your PC.
I also read that checking the “Allow only magic packets to wake the computer” checkbox for the network adapter also fixes the sleep problem. Also, to see the last device that woke up your computer, run the following command:
powercfg -lastwake
Method 3 – Run troubleshooters
Windows 10 has some good troubleshooting apps installed that can automatically fix many problems. Go to Control Panel, click on Troubleshoot, and then click on View All in the top left corner.
The two you want to run are power and system maintenance.
I’ve managed to run them on certain client machines, so it’s worth a try.
Fourth method – disconnect devices
I had one client whose computer was awake and after hours of trying to fix all kinds of fixes on Windows, it turned out to be a Logitech USB joystick that was causing the problem! So another, possibly simple solution is to disconnect all connected USB devices, restart your computer and see if Windows 10 goes to sleep.
This is especially true if you have any USB devices connected to your computer, such as writing tablets, joysticks, microphones, cameras, external hard drives, etc. If you find that this is one of your USB devices, try searching the latest driver for this device and install it.
Fifth method – clean boot
Apart from these problems, the only other reason is some kind of program or startup service that is preventing Windows from going to sleep. The only solution to this problem is to perform a clean boot You can read instructions here on how to perform a clean boot Follow the instructions for Windows 8.1 as they will be the same for Windows 10.
In a clean boot, you basically disable all startup items and then restart your computer. If you find that your computer goes into sleep mode, you now know that the problem is with one of the programs that are running. Then you turn on each startup program one by one and restart your computer until the problem returns. At this point, you will know which program is to blame. It’s a tedious process, but it works!
Before performing a clean boot, you can quickly check if it will work by restarting Windows in Safe Mode. If your computer sleeps normally in Safe Mode, perform a clean boot to find the program that is causing your sleep problems.
Method 6 – Restore Plan Defaults
Another quick fix is ??to restore the default power plan settings. Go to Control Panel, click Power Options, and then click Change plan settings next to the plan you selected.
Click on “Restore default settings for this plan” and restart your computer.
Method 7 – restore the computer
Obviously this is a last resort, but restarting your computer might be the only thing you can do if you’ve tried everything else. Read my post on rebooting your Windows 10 PC. Note that you can keep your data and files, so this is not a complete wipe of your system.
Basically, it’s a reinstallation of Windows 10 and that’s it. Many people have had success with this method, but it takes more time and risk. Be sure to back up your data before restoring your computer in case something goes wrong.
Other solutions are possible
There are a few one-off solutions that work for some people and no one really knows why. Anyway, I collected them here just in case you happen to be one of those people!
- Some users have stated that if they log into Windows 10 with a Microsoft account, the sleep / shutdown problem disappears when they change the password on their Microsoft account. It doesn’t make any sense, but for some it worked.
- If you have a Windows PC, you probably have a lot of Intel software installed, like Intel Management Engine, Intel Rapid Storage Technology, Intel Security Assistant, Intel HD Graphics Driver, etc. You really don’t need all of this software to get your system working, so you can try uninstalling those programs and see if that solves the problem.
- Disable or quickly disable launch. This is a Windows 8/10 feature that helps the computer boot very quickly from a shutdown (not restart) state. Just google it and see if it solves your problem.
Hopefully one of the above solutions works for your computer. If not, please leave a comment and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!
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