Windows 7 - Computer doesn't sleep when idle

I've been using my computer for about a month and the sleep function has worked perfectly until lately. It has been correctly going to sleep when commanded from the Start menu, and also after the allotted time (30 minutes) goes to sleep when the computer is idle.

But, for the last few days, it will not automatically enter sleep mode when I leave the computer idle for 30 minutes.

I've tried just about everything, but still no luck - the only way to set it to sleep is forcing it through the start menu.

I'm using the Balanced power plan and have disabled hybrid sleep. The display correctly turns off after 10 minutes. Hibernates set to never and Wake timers are disabled. USB Selective suspend is disabled. In the Device Manager the Keyboard only is set to wake up the computer from sleep - both the Mouse and Lan are disabled from doing so.

Any ideas?

elyk

Welcome to the Forum,

Have you rechecked the setting?

If the above does not work. Type cmd in search do not hit enter, right click and then run as administrator. In that cmd prompt type

powercfg -lastwake from CMD
Go to event viewer and look for any possible errors.

That may give some information.

I already have that unchecked - I'm afraid that's not the fault.

The powercfg -lastwake command returns basically nothing:

The problem is that the computer won't enter the Sleep mode when idle.

elyk

I guess there's not much interest in this topic, but I thought I'd share what I found after a lot of playing around to find the cause of the problem, but not the solution.

It may be a bug in WIndows 7, but in my machine at least I find that if I use a solid color background instead of the standard Aero backgrounds, the fault with sleep occurs. Sleep always worked if I force it with through the Start button, but fails to go to sleep if the computer is let idle for the required time.

If I load the regular Aero themes, sleep now works fine, but when I load a solid background color it fails to go to sleep during idle time. The fault is quite repeatable (I have to reboot after changing between solid and standard theme before fault changes state).

I wonder if this a bug?

elyk

First, allow me to assure you that every member of this forum was interested in your problem. Evidentally, no one had a solution that would be of any value.

I can comment that I have seen your situation, before, from other posters, but did not think about it until I saw your comment. I tell you this, because you ask if it is a bug. If your defintion of a bug is something that is built into the system that should not be there, then yes, I guess it is a bug, since others have had the same problem.

I hope that this does not decrease your enjoyment of the greatest OS, out there.

Take care.

I am having this exact same problem. Has there been any given solution?

Hallo Sunburn, It is really a process of elimination. Your problem could be caused by many things.
This tutorial will walk you through it;

Power Options and Sleep Mode Problems - Vista Forums

Hope this helps if not post back possibly start your own thread as this one is over three weeks old and was started by another poster.

None that I have found. I went through each and every item in the tutorial mentioned in the post above and nothing worked until I swapped out my solid color background with a standard Aero theme background. Sleep works flawlessly with a standard Aero background.

It's simply a bug in Windows 7 in my opinion. I can't imagine it's a feature.

My solution is to use the least distracting Aero background - a bit annoying, but it works. I want to be able to walk away from my computer and have it sleep after 30 minutes.

Elyk, Thank you for returning after all this time and sharing your solution. I am sorry that the problem could not be resolved in any other way. Take care and TY for helping.