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My Windows 8.1 computer wakes up immediately after being put to sleep (either of the sleep options in the start menu.) So I spent some time trying to understand the problem, read multiple posts here with similar issues, but got nowhere, so posting this.

The weirdest phenomenon is that when I click "turn off" from the start menu (loosely translated as the Windows language is not English), the computer shuts down, but then immediately turns itself back on! Likewise when I turn the PC off using the hardware power-button, it shuts downs (I get a normal blue screen saying "windows is powering off") but then immediately the PC powers back up.

I ran "powercfg -lastwake", and found no clues. When powering up from software or hardware power-down, its says:
Wake History Count - 0

When powering up from sleep it says:
Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
Wake Source Count - 0

What does that mean?

In device manager I unticked "allow this device to wakeup computer" for the mouse and keyboard (just to rule this out, as eventually I do want these to wake up the computer). I unticked wakeup option for the LAN card (unticked magic packet too).

I tried to look at Event Viewer, I found a Power-Troubleshooter event from the time I sent the computer to sleep, that says the system went to sleep for about 1 minute, wakeup source unknown. I'm sure I haven't exhausted Event Viewer possibilities, what should I filter for in Event Viewer?

I checked task manager, there are no tasks. I think task wakeup isn't likely since self- power-up happens immediately each time regardless If I do sleep or power-down.

BIOS of this PC is far from being the most updated version, do you recommend updating the BIOS? The computer is rather ancient, Intel DP35DP, the BIOS documentation recommends not to update unless your particular issue appears in their updates/fixes lists, to avoid new issues. So that made me a bit reluctant to update.

Another thing: in control panel, power options, advanced, under the options for "sleep", I set "wakeup timers" to "not available" (loosely translated).

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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  • Did you check wake-on-ring settings in your BIOS?
    – A. Loiseau
    Nov 19, 2016 at 20:51
  • In BIOS I have: after power failure - stay off wake on lan from s5 - stay off acpi suspend state - s3 state eist - enable c2 state - disable wake system from s5 - disable
    – avshae
    Nov 29, 2016 at 21:39
  • I have precisely the same problem, with brand-new, expensive, modern hardware and the latest version of Windows 10. What's so strange is that it's a transient condition; despite the fact that the machine wakes-up immediately if I try to put it to sleep (i.e., it probably never goes to sleep, technically), I come down in the morning to find it asleep! So, it seems, rather definitively, that something is preventing the computer from being put to sleep manually around the time that I normally go to bed. I do have a few Task Scheduler jobs, but none of them should (in theory) be causing this... Apr 5, 2019 at 2:10

3 Answers 3

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In my case I disabled Windows Media Player's DLNA server and that worked.

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  • Going to Explorer->computer tab->disable DLNA service-(-ish), I see it is not enabled. Likewise in "media sharing center" DLNA is not enabled. I disabled Windows DLNA Network Service in Services for good measure, but this didn't solve the problem. Actually this PC was not online at the time of the experiments, I connected it now just to make sure there was no other obscure cause, but the results are the same. Any other ideas?
    – avshae
    Nov 29, 2016 at 21:29
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Windows can't turn your PC back on after shutdown. My guess is:

  1. A virus, or a 3rd party software changed the behavior of Sleep and Shutdown software buttons to Restart your computer instead. (Unlikely condition)

To make sure if the problem resides in your OS, try to boot from a live CD like windows or linux. You can also accomplish this goal using a Windows Installation Disk (Windows 7 and above).

  • Boot from the installation disk
  • After seeing the "Choose Input Language" box, press Shift+F10 to open command line.
  • type wpeutil shutdown and press Enter

Now, your computer shutsdown. If it stays off, then there's a problem with your windows (software problem). A fresh installation of windows must do the job for you. But, if it turns back on, then:

  1. There's a hardware problem with your motherboard/Power module or the power button sends PowerOn signal to your motherboard continuously. (Most Likely)

In this case, you have to visit a hardware technician to repair your motherboard/power module, etc.

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Sometimes ACPI drivers won't work well on old machines running newer Windows versions. Try disable "Fast Startup" setting under "Power options", that solved problems on some of my clients.

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