Doesn't enter Sleep mode in idle with Homegroup


  1. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    Doesn't enter Sleep mode in idle with Homegroup


    I have a few computers running Windows 7 and I'm using Homegroup cause it's very useful.

    But I've discovered the problem that all of my computers no longer enter the sleep mode (suspend) in idle. There're no problems if I push the button, but never by timeout defined in Power Schema.

    I've tried all the group policies like Allow programs to prevent machine from going to sleep automatically, but nothing helped.

    Only screen goes black by timeout, but not the computer!

    I've even tried from scratch:
    1. On clean installed Win 7 I defined sleep-timeout as 2 minutes. Works.
    2. Defined network shared folder. The computer didn't go to sleep until any file is opened, but when I close all the files it goes to sleep normally.
    3. Joined the Homegroup... and that's all - even when I go to sleep no one of my computers won't! I had to manually push them to sleep, or to pull the network cord off - only in case when network is down (or all the devices are turned off) the computer will go to sleep.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #2

    So, are there really no ideas?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 9
    Windows 7
       #3

    I have the same problem. 3 Windows 7 desktops linked via Homegroup. None of them will go to sleep based on power settings. I had Vista on all 3 of these computers previously and they all would go to sleep just fine. This is obviously a Windows 7 problem, but I don't see anyone from MS responding to it anywhere.

    There is a setting under the power schemes - expand Multimedia settings, expand When sharing media, and then select Allow the computer to sleep. Allegedly, this setting lets your computer go to sleep even if you share media libraries with other computers in your home network. But it made no difference for me. Computers still won't sleep.

    I'm running Windows 7 32bit.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Yeah, I saw that settings and off course tried them — but there's no difference.
    Heh) It seems we will have "instant-on" home network forever!
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 9
    Windows 7
       #5

    I've been googling this a lot. Seems like this problem has been around since at least the early 2009 pre-release versions of Win7 and MS just can't seem to be bothered to fix it. They're out there in the market place touting their new energy savings/efficiency features and they just fail to tell anyone that if they have a home network none of their Win7 machines will ever go to sleep. That's the equivalent of a car manufacturer advertising electric windows, but the only one that works is in the driver's door. That manufacturer is obligated to provide what they advertise when they sell their product or they're in breach of contract. I could never understand why software providers can advertise what ever they want, but have no legal obligation to actually provide the product they advertise.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 9
    Windows 7
       #6

    Well, after turning off Homegroup on all the Win7 machines on my home network, all the machines sleep as they should. This is obviously a Win7 Homegroup bug.

    I would note that Win7 networking (without Homegroup) still has the same "sleep" issue that Vista had, in that accessing a sleeping Win7 machine via the Windows Explorer Network interface will not wake that machine up. Nor will pinging the sleeping machine utlilizing the machine's network name wake that machine up. The only way you you can wake it up is to ping it by its fixed IP address - which isn't always readily available if one is utilizing DHCP.

    I did note that with Homegroup one does appear to be able to wake a sleeping machine both by utilizing the Windows Explorer Network interface and by pinging its network name. But its hard to be sure given the sleep bug in Homegroup, since Homegroup seems to be constantly tolling the network, sort of like the old Windows XP wireless zero configuration used to do.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 9
    Windows 7
       #7

    Found a solution to Windows 7 Homegroup computers constantly waking up from sleep mode. Seems Windows 7 has changed some network response parameters. For some network cards Windows 7 will automatically set the "Wake on pattern match" property to "enabled". Set that property to "disabled" and your home network computers will stop waking up all the time.

    Don't know why they would set that default on the Home Premium version of Windows. It seems pretty obvious that pattern matching is going to constantly kick in on a home network.
      My Computer


 

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