Computer Keeps Restarting, Wont Stay in Sleep Mode

[kmo_9000]

As the title says, my computer will randomly turn back on after I shut it down. Last night I had to shut it down twice because it restarted instead of shutting down.

Similarly, the computer simply will not stay in sleep mode. I try to put it to sleep and it will just turn right back on.

It was doing this a few months ago so I re-installed windows and that fixed it for a while, but now it's doing it again. So I am unsure whether it would be a hardware issue, reformatting windows fixed it for a while at least.

I used Sean's Windows 7 SSD Install guide, although I didn't do all of the tweaks. I don't know if anything in that guide could cause this.

Any tips on troubleshooting this? I literally don't know where to start. Google doesn't seem to bring up anything relevant.

 

[Hippy Lemonz]

If that happened to me I would freak out. I was going to say just try leaving the power button cable unplugged from the mobo for a little bit to see if it turned on by it self but If
re installing windows fixes it for a while, I'm not sure if it will help. Does it work fine when you boot up from a drive other than the SSD?

 

[Hippogriff]

I had a similar problem (only the not able to put it in sleep mode part) and disabled the Wake-on-Lan (don't remember how, honestly).

 

[kmo_9000]

The computer works perfectly fine in all other respects, it just has this problem. I just want to be able to put it to sleep more to conserve power.

I don't generally boot from anything but the SSD. That is where the OS is located, and the only other HDD is the 4tb storage drive.

 

[Johan45]

Have you ran any Anti virus/ malware to see if someone is hijacking you?

 

[kmo_9000]

I am pretty sure I don't have any viruses on my computer. This doesn't seem like a problem a virus would cause. It's more like when I hit "shutdown" the computer instead "restarts." It happens right away, but once it's shut down it doesn't randomly turn on by itself.

 

[Johan45]

I had a bnackdoor get into my system before and that's exactly how it acted. Turning itself on seemingly at random. I'm not saying it is a virus but a clean install fixed it so it sounds like software issue.

 

[Mandrake4565]

What is set to wake it out of sleep mode? I noticed that if my mouse sensitivity is set too high mine will wake up on it's own randomly.

 

[kmo_9000]

I made sure to turn off sleep wake timers in the power options. And when I check the wake log it never shows any device as waking the computer.

 

[Mpegger]

It's software/driver related. I have nearly the same issue. I used to always put my computer to sleep instead of shutting it down. At some point in time, it started to wake up randomly and would not stay in sleep mode. I tried every solution I could find and to this day, still cannot get it to stay in sleep mode, so I have to shutdown. The only logical reason I can think of, is software/driver related. Even the Windows logs does not show what it is that woke the computer from sleep.

 

[kmo_9000]

Mpegger, yup. I have no idea what could be causing this. I wonder if it is a Windows 7 issue.

 

[Hippy Lemonz]

Maybe it's restless? Do you shut down using the physical button or through your OS?

 

[kmo_9000]

Through my OS.

 

[mrsteve0924]

i had this same problem when i first installed windows 7. finally figured out it was a media center scheduled task waking up computer to get updates.

To find out what event/device woke up your Windows from its sleep state, go to command prompt (maybe run as admin) then type this:
powercfg – lastwake (or without dash)
or
powercfg –devicequery wake_armed

should help you narrow it down.

 

[wingman99]

In windows 7 you have to not allow the LAN to wake up the PC.

 

[Hippy Lemonz]

I've got no idea. Good luck finding answers! I'm out.

 

[Mpegger]

It's a known problem, with no known fix. It doesn't happen to everyone, and nothing works to try and fix it other then re-installing Windows from scratch, and then 1 by 1, install updates, software, and drivers till you find the culprit. 1 by 1! And thoroughly test each install over the course of a day or two to see if that particular software/update/driver is the culprit. I dunno about you, but taking months to reinstall Windows is not something I want to do.

And again, as the OP and I have said, nothing shows up in the logs. Both the Windows log and powercfg come up blank for the program or event that woke the PC. Disabling everything from allowing it to wake the PC also does nothing.

There are plenty of posts out there on various websites and forums, with the same exact issue, all with the same exact "have you tried this", or "do this to fix it", etc etc, with not one method working. All eventually end up reinstalling Windows, only to have the issue eventually crop up again. I have a couple of other PCs here which have no problem staying in sleep mode till manually or automatically being woken, but those Win7 boxes have little to no software installed on them other then the regular updates from Microsoft. So as I've said, its software/driver related, but damned if I know whats going on.

 

[kmo_9000]

Ya I went through all of my devices to make sure they are not allowed to "wake" the computer.

It's not that kind of problem, the computer wakes up or turns on right away not after a couple hours. I've had that problem before on other computers and solved it, but this seems to be entirely different.

 

[mrsteve0924]

I am pretty sure I don't have any viruses on my computer. This doesn't seem like a problem a virus would cause. It's more like when I hit "shutdown" the computer instead "restarts." It happens right away, but once it's shut down it doesn't randomly turn on by itself.

so after you hit shutdown the computer actually shuts off and turns back on right away? how long is it shut off for? a few seconds? does it really ever shut off or is it just rebooting?

 

[kmo_9000]

Its restarting as if I hit restart when I hit shut down. It wakes up immediately when I put it to sleep.