Inexplicable (to me, at least) sleep problem

Phill3990: For some reason, or lack thereof, the software won't allow me to quote you message and reply to it.

As for there being a contradiction, that is incorrect. The thread has always been about a failure to go to sleep, not about it waking up unbidden. What I stated, rather succinctly I thought, is that the only time it wakes is when, if asleep, either the daily backup or the daily SuperAntiSpyware issues a command to wake up.

Not Myself said:

Well, I guess that I won't set it to ninety minutes, as apparently there is no such interval in Power Options; given that lack, I've set sleep to one hour.

You can set the sleep time to ninety minutes in advanced settings

Looking at your thread history it seems you've had sleep and hibernate problems for a long time.
Did you fix the previous problem(s), did they just magically go away, and come back ... ?
If you did fix them, what did you do ?

If I had all these problems I would do a clean re-install of Windows, and keep the system clean, with a minimum of startup items.

In post#1 you stated

Suggestions, ideas, incantations, chants, and/or other methodologies to ameliorate the problem accepted.

Then when folks here give you ideas and suggestions, you reject them...and say that can't be the problem.
Why ask for help and then tell the person trying to help you "that can't be the problem" ?

Read what you stated in post#15

2. I could disable all startups, of course, and if my WinPatrol theory does not pan out, that would be a reasonable next step. Unfortunately, if that does work, then I'd have to re-enable a few startups, then spend several hours to see if the problem recurs, and so on. I need to find and fix the culprit, I'm just tired of testing, knowing that testing is nonetheless the likely answer.

3. Could we please drop the discussion about my startup list? It has been that way for several years, and, as I have stated, it does what I want and/or need, so it shall remain as it is. It not only does not cause problems, it allows me to run my computer as I see fit. I don't care what others say, they are not me, they don't use my computer. Right now, I'm using 5% CPU, 53% Ram, not even close to choking a horse; WinPatrol, for example, is using a grand total of 0% CPU, 6572K Ram, about the equivalent of perhaps a teaspoon of oats.

It seems you know testing is needed, but yet you reject testing suggestions/ideas given to you ...
By now you could have disabled all non security startup items (as suggested) to know if one of them is causing your problem.
Did you ever try or answer about using a Restore Point ?

I tested a W7 64 system as far as I understand your problem description ...
Set Sleep to 1 minute, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
Set Sleep to 2 minutes, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
Set Sleep to 2 hours, waited 5-10 minutes, PC stayed awake (as it should), no problem.
Set Sleep to 1 minute, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
Set Sleep to 2 hours, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
This system has 5 startup programs
Avast AV (free), MBAM (paid), WinPatrol (free), EMET, Process Explorer.
I use HYBRID Sleep.
The OS was installed 4+ years ago.

So, for me there is nothing magical or mystical when setting the sleep timer to 2 hours ...
It works as it should, without any incantations or chants.

Normally I have auto sleep set to 30 minutes and turn off display set to 25 minutes.
For Patch Tuesday I change the auto sleep setting to 1 hour, so Windows can run any background maintenance it wants to.
If I'm doing something special that might take several hours, I set auto sleep to never.

As far as incantations and chants to fix this, maybe some other forum would be more helpful

Win 8.1 is a different story, if you want to discuss that ...

DavidW7ncus said:

Not Myself said:

Well, I guess that I won't set it to ninety minutes, as apparently there is no such interval in Power Options; given that lack, I've set sleep to one hour.

You can set the sleep time to ninety minutes in advanced settings

I must have done that the day that I was running the sequential testing, though I don't recall going into the advanced settings to chose ninety minute--or else I just believed that I had set sleep to ninety minutes.

DavidW7ncus said:

Looking at your thread history it seems you've had sleep and hibernate problems for a long time.
Did you fix the previous problem(s), did they just magically go away, and come back ... ?
If you did fix them, what did you do ?

If I had all these problems I would do a clean re-install of Windows, and keep the system clean, with a minimum of startup items.

The current sleep problem has been around for a week or so, which tells me that it has not existed for a long time; previous problems have either solved themselves or I found the solutions. Hardly a reason to re-install Windows, as I have one, and only one problem now, namely the failure to sleep.

In post#1 you stated

Suggestions, ideas, incantations, chants, and/or other methodologies to ameliorate the problem accepted.

Then when folks here give you ideas and suggestions, you reject them...and say that can't be the problem. Why ask for help and then tell the person trying to help you "that can't be the problem" ?

When suggestions have nothing to do with the problem, as some of the suggestions made in this thread have done, I chose to ignore them.

Read what you stated in post#15

It seems you know testing is needed, but yet you reject testing suggestions/ideas given to you ...
By now you could have disabled all non security startup items (as suggested) to know if one of them is causing your problem.
Did you ever try or answer about using a Restore Point ?

I've not had time to test using the disable feature; I've not rejected it, I simply have not had the time yet, it is on my agenda.

I guess I forgot to reply about restore point, but given the amount of work I've done since the problem started, and also given that now I really don't know how long ago it started, I don't think that is a feasible thing to try. Rejected? No, simply dubious.

I tested a W7 64 system as far as I understand your problem description ...
Set Sleep to 1 minute, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
Set Sleep to 2 minutes, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
Set Sleep to 2 hours, waited 5-10 minutes, PC stayed awake (as it should), no problem.
Set Sleep to 1 minute, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
Set Sleep to 2 hours, no problem sleeping or wakeup.
This system has 5 startup programs
Avast AV (free), MBAM (paid), WinPatrol (free), EMET, Process Explorer.
I use HYBRID Sleep.
The OS was installed 4+ years ago.

So, for me there is nothing magical or mystical when setting the sleep timer to 2 hours ...
It works as it should, without any incantations or chants.

Normally I have auto sleep set to 30 minutes and turn off display set to 25 minutes.
For Patch Tuesday I change the auto sleep setting to 1 hour, so Windows can run any background maintenance it wants to.
If I'm doing something special that might take several hours, I set auto sleep to never.

As far as incantations and chants to fix this, maybe some other forum would be more helpful

Win 8.1 is a different story, if you want to discuss that ...

Nothing mystical to me, either, until recently. I've had the monitor sleep setting at thirty minutes, the computer setting at two hours for several years. Now that that has stopped working, I see nothing wrong with looking for incantations and/or chants to beguile the computer into behaving properly.

Anak said:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but nowhere in this thread have I seen the suggestion to start from the beginning and set your power plan to default, test to see if it is working; Then make the adjustments you deem appropriate, and see if your new settings hold.

I had a similar situation a month and a half ago where my hybrid sleep settings went haywire, the only change was Windows monthly patch Tuesday.

I searched online, tried all kinds of settings, ran CHKDSK and SFC scans, checked for malware, even cleaned out the machines case, checked the motherboard connections and reset the RAM, to no avail.

Then a fēowertyne niht ago as I was sitting here contemplating my next move I saw that default button on the power plan window and I thought, what the heck lets try it, and I made minor adjustments along the way. Ever since then my hybrid sleep has been purring like a kitten.

I'm hoping this works for you also; Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Good point, thank you! I've kept noticing that button as I've been testing, but for no reason whatsoever have not tried that, except that I remember doing just that once, likely a long time ago for a different problem which it did not solve.

I would send myself an email reminding me to try Default, except that I would then have to remember to check my email...

Your suggestion shall be tried later: Right now, I've got my computer running SiriusXM's Saturday morning four-hour "Baroque and Beyond" program (my wife and I look forward to that every Saturday,) during which the computer never goes to sleep even when sleep is working properly, nor would I want it to go to sleep.

You wrote "fēowertyne niht": Is that a Welsh translation of Anglo-Saxon?