This guide puts your Windows 10 system to sleep and ensures that it does not wake up on its own by covering the following content:
- What is Sleep Mode?
- How to Check What Made the System Wake Up from Sleep on Its Own?
- How to Resolve Windows 10 Waking Up from Sleep on its Own?
What is Sleep Mode?
The “Sleep Mode” on Microsoft Windows consumes less power, and everything is loaded in the RAM. When a user wakes the system up, the programs stored in memory are brought back to life, thereby allowing the users to continue from where they left off. Most systems are configured to enable the sleep mode automatically after a specific period. But in some rare cases, when the user places the system into sleep mode (manually), the system wakes up immediately, which can be frustrating.
How to Check What Made the System Wake Up from Sleep on Its Own?
You can use either of the following two methods to check what made your system wake up when you put it to sleep:
Method 1: Using the Command Prompt
In this approach, you can follow these steps to check the “Wake History Count” on your system:
- Press the “Windows + S” keys, enter “CMD”, and trigger “Run as administrator”.
- Now enter the “powercfg -last wake” command to view the factors responsible for the last system’s wake-up.
Method 2: Using the Event Viewer (Windows Logs)
“Windows 10” keeps track of all activities in “Windows Logs”. These logs can also determine the cause of your system waking up. To view them, follow these steps:
- Press “Windows + S” and enter “Event Viewer”.
- From the left pane, find and select “System”.
- In the right pane, select “Filter Current Log”.
- Now, scroll down, find, and mark “Power-Troubleshooter”.
- Apply the changes by hitting the “OK” button.
- Go back to “Event Viewer’s” main window, right-click on the event, and view what caused the system to wake up.
How to Resolve Windows 10 Waking Up from Sleep on its Own?
The “Windows 10 waking up on its own” limitation can be resolved by applying the following methods:
Method 1: Disable “wake timers”
The “Wake Timers” are the timed events set by users or the OS. In both cases, it wakes up the system if it is sleeping. Disabling the “Wake Timers” could prevent your system from waking up on its own, and it can be done by following these steps:
Step 1: Launch Power Plan Settings
Press the “Windows + S” keys and enter “Edit Power plan” to launch the “Power Plan Settings”:
It will now launch the following window, and from here, click “Change advanced power settings”:
Step 2: Disable “wake timers”
Following “Step 1”, the following window opens from where you can disable the “Wake Timers”. For doing so, scroll down, find “Sleep”, expand it, and finally “Disable” the “Allow wake timers” option:
Method 2: Disable “Automatic Maintenance”
In Microsoft Windows 10, “Automatic Maintenance” mainly focuses on your system’s diagnostics. It is scheduled daily at specific time intervals and can wake the system up. To disable it, press the “Windows + S” keys, enter “Change Automatic Maintenance settings”, and navigate to it:
From the following window, unmark the option saying “Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time”:
Now, it will not bother you when your system is sleeping.
Method 3: Limiting the Network Adapter
The “Network Adapter” can also wake your system from sleep due to network traffic. To disable it, go to the “Device Manager” by pressing the “Windows + S” keys and entering “Device Manager”:
From the “Device Manager”, find “Network adapters”, expand it, right-click on the network adapter, and select “Properties”:
Now, unmark the option saying that “Allow this device to wake the computer”, and it will halt the network from waking up your system:
Method 4: Change Active Hours of Windows Update
When the system is in the “Sleep Mode”, and there is a scheduled update to be installed, it may wake the system from sleep. To tackle this, you must change the active hours during which the system can install the update. To do that, press the “Windows + S” keys, enter “Windows Update settings” and open it:
In the following window, select “Change active hours”:
Now, choose the appropriate time that suits you to install “Windows Updates”:
Method 5: Change the Devices That Can Wake Up the System
Sometimes a faulty mouse can also cause the system to wake up. To fix it, the priority should be to fix the hardware, or you can disable the devices that can wake your system. To do so, likewise open “Device Manager”, scroll down, and find “Mice and other pointing devices”. Expand and select “Properties”:
Here, open the “Power Management” tab and unmark “Allow this device to wake the computer”:
Method 6: Tweaking Registry
“Windows Registry” is a database to store opinions and configuration settings for Microsoft Windows. By accessing the registry and making a few modifications, users can prevent their Windows 10 from waking up on their own. To do so, launch the “Registry Editor” by pressing the “Windows + S” keys and entering “Registry Editor”:
From the following window, navigate to this path “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0” and find “Attributes” in the right pane:
Now, right-click on “Attributes” and hit “Modify”:
In the below window, replace “2” with any digit in the “Value data” field and trigger “OK”:
Now, reboot the system, and it will hopefully not wake up on its own.
Note: The “Registry Editor” should not be tampered with by beginners, as any incorrect setting can lead to severe consequences.
Conclusion
Windows 10 can wake up on its own due to many reasons, and the same is the case with fixing. To fix it, users can “Disable Wake Timers”, “Disable Automatic Maintenance”, “Limit the Network Adapter”, “Change Active Hours of Windows Update”, “Change the Devices That Can Wake the System Up”, or “Tweak the Registry”. This guide resolves the “Windows 10 waking up from sleep on its own” limitation.
