Question Why didn't my PC go to fully sleep after I locked the screen?

[Cowgoesmoo2]

When the PC should go to sleep when I go AFK, I expect the GPU light to be off, the fans turn off, the mouse lights turn off. That has happened and usually does, so often that I don't even know what causes that exactly. Because I just walk away and it should just happen, no power draw.

But I lock the screen (win+L) and I come back 2 hours later. The screen is dark, but fan is on, CPU cooler is running, GPU lights are on. What?
All my settings should be set to a 5-minute AFK = sleep. Why does locking the screen do this lol?

 

[Ralston18]

Think of it this way:

When a computer and/or components are put into sleep they must be ready to wake and get to work instantly.

So they are still drawing power, generating heat, and running apps that will loop until there is a key press, a mouse movement, or some other event that truly wakes the computer.

Sleep is not a "no power draw" condition.

 

[Cowgoesmoo2]

I understand what you mean but I meant that there's a difference between one state and another for some reason. In one of them, even the fan is running, which is weird. In another, it takes a couple of seconds to wake up.