Windows PCs can't sleep properly, and Microsoft wants it that way

The gist:

The always-on nature of phones and tablets is incredibly convenient. Wouldn’t it be great if your (non-ARM) laptop or desktop could do this too? Save power when you’re not using it, but still be ready at a moment’s notice?

Microsoft certainly thought so, which is why when Windows 8 was released, it introduced a new feature called Connected Standby. If the hardware indicated support (foreshadowing), instead of telling the BIOS to enter system standby, Windows would enter Connected Standby.

I first ran into the wonders of Modern Standby on my Dell Inspiron 5482, an 8th generation Intel 2-in-1 laptop with a spinning hard drive. After a few months of owning it, I started noticing that it wasn’t sleeping properly. If I closed it, I could still sometimes hear the fans running even 15 minutes later. If I put it in my backpack, there was a good chance I’d take it out at 0% battery or to the fans running at full blast and the CPU dangerously close to overheating. Half the time the hard drive wouldn’t even spin down, which sure is nice when you’re planning to be jostling it around in a bag for a couple hours.

The worst part of this all was that Dell gave you no official way to disable Modern Standby. Windows itself isn’t any help, either. If the BIOS says it supports Modern Standby, Windows takes it at its word and completely disables the ability to enter S3 sleep (classic standby). There’s no official or documented option for disabling Modern Standby through Windows, which is incredibly annoying.

Another issue with Modern Standby is what can trigger wakeup events, and for how long. Supposedly, only certain built-in Windows functions, like updates and telemetry can actually wake the device up, but so can apps installed through the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft probably deserves most of the blame for this mess. It created the feature and has been (allegedly) pressuring vendors to implement it and discontinue support for S3 sleep.

I just shut everything down.

I can't think of a scenario where I need a PC/laptop in less than 10-20 seconds.

Phone? Sure, if I want to take a quick photo or something, but a PC? Where's the hurry?

The always-on nature of phones and tablets is incredibly convenient. Wouldn’t it be great if your (non-ARM) laptop or desktop could do this too?

No, it would not.

My laptop is not a phone. I do not want it to notify me about things when it's inactive. All I want from suspend to RAM is for it to quickly[0] return to its previous state[1].

[0] Compared to suspend to disk, even with an SSD

[1] This isn't an excuse not to save work before suspending

Almost no modern sleep modes are able to work with Linux properly either, and BIOS support for S3 sleep mode is slowly being removed by certain larger manufacturers. Very crappy.

Try to put my PC to sleep? 1 of 3 things happens: it either goes to sleep normally, it goes to sleep but wakes itself up 2 seconds later, or the PC actually just shuts down. Try to shut down my PC? 1 of 2 things happens: it either shuts down, or it restarts.

I think the problem is Windows.

I dunno why I individually responded to people when I should've just done this.

It's because one of your peripherals is set to wake state. You can google how to figure that out.

I turned my mouse and keyboard off from this. The mouse will wake it even if you move it. So f that. Keyboard. Some. Keyboards will wake just by having an active transmission (so manually turn it off every time - no thanks)

Now I manually have to touch my power button to wake.

Yeah just what I want from my PC: for it to be more like the always-on, nagging attention whore that is my phone. /s

I dont even bother anymore. I just shutdown. Need me on my computer in 1 minute? Sorry.

This article is a wall of text spreading fake info. The sleep states work fine in windows if you have any idea how it works. And this has been the case for at least 8 years.

If you have any issue go into cmd type powercfg -requests and windows will tell you what is keeping it awake.

And doubling down if you really want your pc to wake if its off and you slap your keyboard just tweak your bios wake options and done.

This shit is so obnoxious I’ve started having to use hibernate again.

Potentially my mac does the same thing, but it doesn’t wake itself up stealing monitors, running fans at 100%, and becoming a space heater like the two windows computers I have. If it does wake itself up, then I don’t notice.

wow they’re just like me

I had the same problem with my work-issued Thinkpad. No overheating, but frequently pulling the laptop out of the bag and finding battery dead. Solution I found was to bind the power-button to "hibernate", and just using that any time I knew I was going to be putting it away into my bag.

One problem I ran into writing my first Windows Store application like 10 years ago was that Windows Store seemed to have no interest in mobile-style security where you request permissions one-at-a-time and only the ones you need - the intended workflow was that you either requested no secure privs and let your app be "untrusted", or you made your app "trusted" and requested all the privs. This was actively recommended by MS.

Of course, this means "wake from sleep" would be something that every app would have permission to do accidentally, even if they didn't want to.

My girlfriend laptop turns on in the middle of the nights for no fucking reason. As a Linux user this shit is creepy

This also happens on Linux, after 20 seconds, my computer just wakes up 😠 (definitely not because I don't have enough disk space)

Mine started acting up a couple of weeks ago. I've since switched to Linux. I can't have a PC that powers on throughout the night. Eats power.

My work issued E15 Ryzen 5000 sleeps and hibernates fine. Plus it lasts a long time in both. I wonder if it’s an Intel bug.

Can anyone explain how this is different from Power Nap on Macs? I’ve never heard anyone upset about that.

Yeah, at this point I either leave the computer on or shut it down. Sleep and Hibernate are both too unreliable.

Yeah, shit like this (but by no means limited to this) is why I use Linux exclusively for my personal computers. It used to be that putting a Linux laptop to sleep was a hit-or-miss affair that took a lot of configuration. Now it just works, no muss no fuss.

Didn’t some tech youtubers talk about this a few months ago? I swear I remember seeing a video on this…

I've just started turning off my PC when I'm done with it because a mouse farting on the mouse will wake it up. Also if I do manage to get it to sleep it wakes itself up every few hours to check for updates.

“The always-on nature of phones and tablets is incredibly convenient. Wouldn’t it be great if your (non-ARM) laptop or desktop could do this too?”

Easy, get an M series Mac :P

They can if they don't use "Modern Standby" or whatever. My Zen 4 PC sleeps just fine, fans stopping and all. Just had to disable allowing network adapters to wake the device from sleep in device manager, else random broadcast messages could cause the standby to end.

I actually like suspend to RAM. Makes my laptop usable after sleep a bit faster. But absolutely not on Windows because then my fans are still spinning after minutes like many have reported. But I was simply able to disable that with a registry tweak and it's now going to regular ACPI S3 when I close the lid. Is my Framework Laptop 13 (i5-1240P) an uncommon exception?

This has literally been a problem since Windows ever came into being. I remember long nights of wrestling with this garbage on Jurassic versions of Windows.

I have one laptop running Windows and I just changed the BIOS/UEFI setting so that closing the display turns off the computer.

Also handy for Linux distros with poor standby/sleep support.

My ARM laptop is great. Was dirt cheap and it's pretty damn good for what it is

There was a work around to prevent laptops to drain trough the night whilst in sleep. Removing the power cable before closing the lid activates a different sleep mode, than closing the lid with the power cable still connected.

Linus tech tips dit a video on this a while ago. If I recall correctly.

Found it

Btw, if my pc wakes up seconds after if try to manually via XfCE power menu, but sleeps fine by itself (20 minutes inactivity), what could that be?

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neither does your car or TV

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