Windows 7: Computer waking from sleep

I have my computer set to go to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity which it does. However, after about 15 minutes of being asleep, it wakes itself up. Then, after 30 minutes of inactivity, it goes back to sleep. And so on and on.

How do I find out what is causing the machine to wake up so I can fix this endless loop of waking and sleeping?

In the Event Viewer, under Windows logs > System, there will be entries relating to the power off/on of the computer.

Wake Source - Read Event Viewer Log

Look for entries with the source, "Power-Troubleshooter". There should be one that will say "The system has resumed from sleep", along with a timestamp. It should also have a "Wake Source" - that is where you will hopefully see what caused the wake-up.

I attached a little screen shot to demonstrate.

Thanks for the quick response. After following your instruction, I came up with this:

So, it appears my network is somehow waking the machine from sleep? What next? Thanks.

This would be a Wake-On-Lan (WOL) feature. You can either disable this in the BIOS, or set it to only wake up after receiving what's called a "magic packet".

In Device Manager, doulble-click on the network device in question to bring up the properties. On the Power Management tab, you should see a checkbox called "Allow this device to wake the computer". Un-tick this to disable WOL altogether, or make sure the checkbox underneath ("Allow only a magic packet...") is also ticked.

Other devices, such as the mouse and keyboard, will also have this setting (but without the magic packet option), so if you're still having issues with random wake-ups after this, it'll probably be one of those.

I have turned it off in the BIOS. I didn't see any such setting as "Allow this device to wake the computer". I only had the setting shown in the attached image. So, I turned it off in the BIOS. Haven't reached a sleep cycle yet so, I don't know if it has worked yet or not. Please stand by...

EDIT:

OK, turning off Wake on LAN in BIOS worked. Machine now stays asleep 'till I wake it up.

OK. I had originally marked this thread as solved but, it is far, far from solved. This has become an on going issue that seems to have no resolution whatsoever. If anybody could please help, I would much appreciate it.

Thanks to CreepinJesus for pointing me in some sort of direction.

Things I have tried so far:

1. Turned of the Wake on LAN feature in the BIOS. This has absolutely no effect whatsoever. The machine completely ignores this.

2. Disabled Wake on LAN feature for NIC in Device Manager.

3. Set keyboard and mouse to NOT be allowed to wake computer in Device Manager.

In the Event Viewer, I was seeing events from Google Update and Windows Sidebar occurring at the same time the network device was waking the machine up. so,

4. I disabled Google Update Services

5. Disabled Windows Sidebar Platform.

None of these things have worked!

I have been in e-mail contact with MAINGEAR tech-support and as well as the above, they have suggested the following:



Computer says I have the latest NIC driver. Intel's "Auto check" says the NIC driver I have installed is not recognized. Weird considering it's an Intel NIC!

There is no such setting to change suspend types in BIOS


Nothing from Microsoft that I haven't already tried.


I've been at this all week (my week off work) and am at my wits end. I thought I had it semi solved as it went 16 hours without waking up. Today, however, It started waking, sleeping, waking, sleeping again. The event viewer shows nothing except that the network device is what's waking the machine. Why is this happening? I have Wake on LAN turned off in BIOS. The machine is ignoring this completely. I don't understand.



I want to think this is some software "phoning home" or something but, the Event Viewer is showing nothing. If the Wake on LAN feature is off in the BIOS, nothing should be able to wake the machine up, right? I don't know, Please help.

It may be media streaming settings, but I'm pretty sure this actually prevents sleep altogether, rather than waking it up after a few minutes.


You can have a look anyway:

1. In Power Options, click on Change plan settings next to the plan you're using
2. Click Change advanced power settings
3. Scroll down to Multimedia settings
4. Check the two options in there allow the computer to sleep

Yes. I forgot to mention. I did check the media settings at one point. They were set to allow the computer to sleep.

This is really becoming frustrating. I'm thinking about backing up and formatting. Something I have installed at some point is causing this. I have no idea what it is or how to track it down. At least not with the tools that Windows has provided. A "start over" is beginning to look like my only solution to ensure I get what ever it is that's causing this.

Have you checked the three power management network adapter settings under the Advanced tab as well as the Power Management tab?

I don't have that setting under the Advanced tab. Only under Power Management.