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On my Windows 7 computer I have a partially working Wake-On-Lan.

Partially because it only works if I turn off the PC the "hard way" by holding the power button for a few seconds. It does not work when I turn the PC off normally through windows.

When windows turns off the PC, I can, for it to work, simply turn on the PC and immediately, even before anything loads, turn it off by pressing the power button for two seconds.

I want to make it work every time. I can not figure out what could cause this behavior.

In Device Manager for my network card I have on the Advanced tab enabled both "Wake on magic packed allowed" and "Shutdown Wake-On-Lan"; and on the Power Management tab I have "Allow this device to wake the computer" checked and "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" unchecked.

Any wrong BIOS setting would IMHO make it not work at all, not just partially.

System info:

  • Motherboard : Z97-G43 (MS-7816) / chipset Z97
  • LAN adapter : Realtek® 8111E Gigabit LAN controller.
  • LAN Driver : Realtek PCIe GBE Family controller 7.107.323.2017
  • Bios version H.10
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  • What is the result when you shutdown via shutdown /s /t 60 or /t 0? I ask due to this related comment: superuser.com/questions/1164646/…
    – Robbie
    Mar 27, 2017 at 11:02
  • Strange, since most people have exactly the opposite problem - WOL not working after a hard shutdown. What is your exact computer model and your BIOS version and network card and its driver? (A BIOS problem can cause WOL to work partially). Try booting in Safe mode and shutting down thru Windows then try WOL.
    – harrymc
    Mar 27, 2017 at 11:44
  • @Robyn shutdown /s /t 60 does not work either Mar 27, 2017 at 19:39
  • @harrymc safe mode did not help Mar 27, 2017 at 19:44
  • As said above, you need to give us more info.
    – harrymc
    Mar 27, 2017 at 19:49

1 Answer 1

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I would suggest to update your BIOS and drivers from the manufacturer.

BIOS : I believe that your version H.10 is actually version H.A from 2015-08-24. The latest BIOS version H.B from 2016-02-22 is available from here.

Other drivers : The System & Chipset Driver and the LAN Driver are available from here.

Before starting, I suggest to take precautions, especially with the BIOS. I would suggest taking a backup image of the system disk and creating a system restore point. Ensure you have the installation media for your current BIOS version.

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  • I am Sorry but H.10 is in fact H.10. It is detected as such by scan by MSI's update utility (MSI Live Update 6). Same utility also does not detect no new BIOS to update to, so I suppose H.10 is newer then H.B. I myself wondered about discrepancy between what update utility says is newest and what web does, and I triple check I have correct motherboard model. I believe web is more likely to be out of date. Anyway, it is highly unlikely to by caused by BIOS, as it works after hard shut down. Chip-set driver is already 10.1.1.38, as listed on web (and also by same update utility) Apr 2, 2017 at 18:37
  • Maybe your BIOS does not come from MSI. For full WOL support the driver from the network card manufacturer may be necessary rather than the bare driver by Microsoft. I found recent Realtek version 7.105 for Windows 7. Or try what happens after boot+shutdown from a live Linux CD.
    – harrymc
    Apr 2, 2017 at 19:01
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    Actually I looked at other MSI BIOS downloads (example), where version 2.A also follows 2.9. It seems that MSI may label version 10 as A, as in hexadecimal.
    – harrymc
    Apr 2, 2017 at 19:58

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