Question PC wakes every morning around 5am. But cannot pin down the wake alarm

[Starlionblue88]

Greetings,

I built a new PC a couple of months ago based on an ASUS ROG Strix Z390-i. Every morning, it wakes around 5am and since it is in the bedroom, it wakes me up. I know it is an ACPI wake alarm since I've run the "powercfg /lastwake" command on it.

I have followed the steps listed here and here.

In summary, I have tried:

• Disabling wake timers in Power Options.
• Disabling network card wake up. The only device which can wake the PC is the mouse.
• Disabling Reboot AC and Reboot Battery items in task scheduler, as well as taking ownership of the executables and changing permissions so that Windows cannot overwrite them.
• In Security and Maintenance, unchecking "Allow scheduled maintenance tasks to wake up my computer..."
• Uninstalling ASUS ROG Armoury since it created a wake timer.

The only clue remaining that I can find, is a wake timer based on "Start Menu Experience", which sometimes shows up. However, and this is the frustrating bit, I am unable to find the task in Task Scheduler.

Any suggestions welcome.


Find below some powercfg stuff.





C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /A
The following sleep states are available on this system:
Standby (S3)
Hibernate
Hybrid Sleep
Fast Startup

The following sleep states are not available on this system:
Standby (S1)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.

Standby (S2)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.

Standby (S0 Low Power Idle)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.





C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /devicequery wake_armed
Microsoft USB Dual Receiver Wireless Mouse (Mouse and Keyboard Center)
Microsoft USB Dual Receiver Wireless Keyboard (Mouse and Keyboard Center) (001)

 

[Unolocogringo]

have you checked power options in BIOS ?
No wake timer set there?

 

[DeauteratedDog]

Try powercfg -waketimers

Note: you have to run the command prompt "as administrator" for this to work (at least for Windows 7, not sure about 10).

I had a problem with this and and found that some software (GoToMeeting?) was setting a timer.

 

[Starlionblue88]

Thx for your replies.

have you checked power options in BIOS ?
No wake timer set there?

I have checked but I can't find any wake timer options in the BIOS, and I think I've examined every item there. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Try powercfg -waketimers

Note: you have to run the command prompt "as administrator" for this to work (at least for Windows 7, not sure about 10).

I had a problem with this and and found that some software (GoToMeeting?) was setting a timer.

Yes, I have checked wake timers. Mostly no active timers, but one that shows up from time to time is "Startmenuexperience". I suspect this might be the one that wakes the PC. Unfortunately I have been unable to find it in Task Scheduler.

 

[DeauteratedDog]

From: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-waking/537b6473-83b3-49ee-a11d-312c9c44a36b

This looks promising:
Disable Wake Timers:

• Open Control Panel and categorize it to view by small icons.
• Click on Power Options and select Change Plan Settings for the power plan that is set.
• Click on Change Advanced Power Settings and expand Sleep.
• Expand Allow Wake timers and Disable it.

 

[Unolocogringo]

your manual.
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...ING/E14477_ROG_STRIX_Z390-I_GAMING_UM_WEB.pdf

on page 3-18 item 3.6.8 is APM or advanced power management.
This section is for Wake timers etc...

 

[Vic 40]

In bios also disable "PoweronLan" and for same usb devices as well. Nevermind,saw you already did that. 😴

 

[mdd1963]

Just wake at 5 am and start using the PC?

 

[Starlionblue88]

From: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-waking/537b6473-83b3-49ee-a11d-312c9c44a36b

This looks promising:
Disable Wake Timers:

• Open Control Panel and categorize it to view by small icons.
• Click on Power Options and select Change Plan Settings for the power plan that is set.
• Click on Change Advanced Power Settings and expand Sleep.
• Expand Allow Wake timers and Disable it.

Thanks for that. Unfortunately, I already set that to Disable. No effect. 🙁

 

[Starlionblue88]

Hi again. I am still having this issue, and it is quite baffling to me. I have reinstalled Windows, just in case something weird was up with the old install.

• In Power Management, I have set wake timers to "Disable"
• In Security and Maintenance, I have ensured "Wake computer" is unchecked.
• In Task Scheduler, I have taken ownership of the relevant UpdateOrchestrator tasks, and unchecked "Wake computer".
• I have used Task Scheduler View to check that there are no tasks with "Wake to Run" checked.
• Running "powercfg /waketimers" shows no active waketimers.
• Running "Get-ScheduledTask | where {$_.settings.waketorun}" in Powershell shows two tasks, both in "Disabled" state.
• Running "powercfg /devicequery wake_armed" shows only the mouse and keyboard.

And yet, every night the darned thing wakes up, and wakes me up, at least once. Event Viewer shows the Wake Source as "Device - ACPI Wake Alarm".

Any hints appreciated.

 

[my_pc_build]

Can you work out why the PC is waking?
Sometimes Windows tries to updates at times it thinks the computer is not in use.
You could look into blocking that. (I had to do a few things, including telling windows it's a private metered connnection, so I sometimes have to hit it violently now to make it update - appeals tothe Joker in me. ).

 

[Starlionblue88]

Can you work out why the PC is waking?
Sometimes Windows tries to updates at times it thinks the computer is not in use.
You could look into blocking that. (I had to do a few things, including telling windows it's a private metered connnection, so I sometimes have to hit it violently now to make it update - appeals tothe Joker in me. ).

Unfortunately all I get is "ACPI Wake Alarm "as the wake source, which is pretty vague, especially as I can't find any active wake alarms in the system...

As mentioned in my post, I did indeed block updates from waking the PC. The wake events don't result in update checks, so I think it must be something else. There are not tasks with "wake to run" checked...

I am rather annoyed that I have disabled wake timers in power options, and yet the machine is woken up them daily...

 

[my_pc_build]

Unfortunately all I get is "ACPI Wake Alarm "as the wake source, which is pretty vague.

As mentioned in my post, I did indeed block updates from waking the PC. The wake events don't result in update checks, so I think it must be something else. There are not tasks with "wake to run" checked...

I am rather annoyed that I have disabled wake timers in power options, and yet the machine is woken up them daily...

Sorry I missed that - in my case I did several things which I thought would stop Windows updating whenever it pleased and it still continued to do so (it needed a real beating, so I gave it one).

While you work on the problem (sorry if I've also missed that you've already done this) would you consider unplugging the pc (if it's a desktop), or removing the main battery (if it's a laptop) whilst you sleep to put an end to these 5 am wakings?

All the best.

 

[Starlionblue88]

Sorry I missed that - in my case I did several things which I thought would stop Windows updating whenever it pleased and it still continued to do so (it needed a real beating, so I gave it one).

While you work on the problem (sorry if I've also missed that you've already done this) would you consider unplugging the pc (if it's a desktop), or removing the main battery (if it's a laptop) whilst you sleep to put an end to these 5 am wakings?

All the best.

Thanks for your reply.

I can certainly use "Shut Down" and it won't wake up. However then I have to restart it from scratch every morning. It seems so... primitive... 😆

Also, at this point, I am genuinely curious as to what is happening. I don't like being stumped like this...

 

[my_pc_build]

I've had PCs in the past that would wake from sleep if a device on the same powerboard (e.g. desklamp) was turned on (long story). Is there anything on the same circuit in your house that goes off regularly at 5 am (obviously not an alarm clock!) - e.g. a water heater turning on?
All the best

 

[Starlionblue88]

I've had PCs in the past that would wake from sleep if a device on the same powerboard (e.g. desklamp) was turned on (long story). Is there anything on the same circuit in your house that goes off regularly at 5 am (obviously not an alarm clock!) - e.g. a water heater turning on?
All the best

That's an interesting line of inquiry. The PC is sitting on a surge protector but still. I might check the dehumidifiers and some other stuff. Thanks.

 

[Starlionblue88]

Hi again. I'm still having this issue.

This wake timer comes up from time to time. "Timer set by [SERVICE] \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\System32\svchost.exe (SystemEventsBroker) expires at 22:58:30 on 1/02/2020.
Reason: Windows will execute 'NT TASK\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Universal Orchestrator Start' scheduled task that requested waking the computer."

In Task Scheduler it does indeed show "Wake the Computer to run this task."

I've now taken ownership of the file and unchecked "Wake the Computer" in the task using psexec. We shall see.

 

[Starlionblue88]

Fun wrinkle: If I take ownership of the "Universal Orchestrator Start" file and then remove "Wake the Computer to run this task," Windows creates a new file after a day or two, and then reinstates the task including "Wake..."