[SOLVED] Something is preventing the system from idling.

[Shalou]

Hello everyone. The idling problem doesn't happen when I run the system on safe mode. I've been searching about this everywhere and couldn't find anything helpful. I've tried powercfg -requests, powercfg -devicequery wake_armed and none of them show something. I've tried checking "Event Viewer" but couldn't find anything helpful there too. I feel like there is an active program that is preventing the computer from idling. I'd really appreciate a help. Thank you. ^^

 

[Shalou]

I'll try formatting the computer with backing up the necessary files.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You need to have Speedstep enabled. The system CANNOT dynamically change clock speed if it is disabled. Was it already disabled or did you disable it after I asked the question?

Also, we need to actually identify WHAT the problem is, because "idling" and "sleep state" are entirely different things. Entirely.

Also, what power plan do you have it set to in Windows?

 

[Shalou]

You need to have Speedstep enabled. The system CANNOT dynamically change clock speed if it is disabled. Was it already disabled or did you disable it after I asked the question?

Also, we need to actually identify WHAT the problem is, because "idling" and "sleep state" are entirely different things. Entirely.

Also, what power plan do you have it set to in Windows?

My power plan is balanced. By idling I mean, it doesn't go to sleep and doesn't turn off the display after set amount of time.
I cannot confirm whether Speedstep is enabled or disabled because currently downloading Windows 10. But as far as I can remember, when I was roaming around the BIOS, I saw it disabled.
Edit: I've googled about it and apparently, with HWiNFO64 I can see if it is disabled or enabled.

https://imgur.com/a/L9JaBji

View: https://imgur.com/a/L9JaBji

But I don't know if this means that it supports speedstep or the speedstep is enabled.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Right. Present doesn't necessarily mean enabled, and you need to look in the BIOS settings for that. Make sure it is enabled.

So, as far as going to sleep, will it sleep if you manually choose sleep from the Start/Shut down menu? Is it only that it won't do it automatically on it's own? FYI, as I said before, "idling" is not sleep.

Idle, in a nutshell, means no active user programs open, no user directed processes running and generally, sitting undisturbed on the desktop for about five to ten minutes. Obviously things that might run automatically like Windows update, other program updaters or processes that load automatically when Windows starts can have an affect on this but generally speaking that is how we describe "idle".

Sleep, obviously, is not that. Sleep is the computer SEEMINGLY powered off, but in reality is only in a very low power state, ready to resume when a defined trigger is activated like touching the keyboard or moving the mouse, depending on what you have settings at in device manager.

See if you can put it to sleep manually, if so, that tells us something.

 

[Shalou]

Right. Present doesn't necessarily mean enabled, and you need to look in the BIOS settings for that. Make sure it is enabled.
See if you can put it to sleep manually, if so, that tells us something.

Just checked BIOS and it is enabled.
Putting the computer manually to sleep works. However, when I put it to sleep, after 10-15 minutes it wakes up and after a few minutes it goes back to sleep again.

 

[Darkbreeze]

When you reinstalled Windows, did you do a CLEAN install, deleting ALL of the existing partitions on the primary drive used by the OS and then point the installation to install on the unpartitioned, unformatted space? Or did you just do a refresh, reset or restore?

It would be advisable to do a full clean install, as outlined at the link I'm going to give you down below, but first, download these drivers and put them on a flash drive or something so you have them already before doing the installation so you can install them immediately following the Windows installation.

Realtek LAN/Ethernet network adapter: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/lan/Realtek_LAN_Win10_V1015052015.zip

Intel H87 chipset drivers: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/Intel_Chipset_10117.zip

Realtek audio chipset drivers: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/audio/Realtek_Audio_Win10_V6_0_1_7503.zip

Intel integrated graphics driver: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/vga/Intel_VGA_Win10-64-V1018154248.zip

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Shalou]

When you reinstalled Windows, did you do a CLEAN install, deleting ALL of the existing partitions on the primary drive used by the OS and then point the installation to install on the unpartitioned, unformatted space? Or did you just do a refresh, reset or restore?

I haven't reinstalled Windows 10 with cleaning partitions yet. I'm planning to keep it like this for a while because I just got a new sound card for my guitar. I want to have sum fun with it. ^^
But I appreciate all the help you and Colin gave me since I've started this thread. I didn't even think someone would just spend this much time on this topic, lol.

 

[Darkbreeze]

👍

 

[Shalou]

After installing Windows 10 again with all unnecessary files removed, sleep works flawlessly now.

Darkbreeze and Colin, thanks for trying to help out with this situation. <3

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yep, I kind of thought it might which is why I leaned toward stringently making that recommendation above. Glad you got it sorted out man.