Windows 10 won't shut down/go into sleep mode

Question

Ever since the most recent Windows 10 update (1909) whenever I try to either shut down or put my PC into sleep mode, there's a rough 50/50 chance it'll actually do it. If it doesn't then it will lock my PC, show the login screen and just... sit there. Now since this update changed a few of my settings without my consent (apparently, my way of alphabetically looking at files and folders in the Windows Explorer needed reevaluating, as did my choice in image viewer; thanks, buddies at Redmond!) I immediately checked my Power Settings. However these have remained unchanged.

Turning to the internet for a solution isn't really helping either; there's a lot of dodgy websites offering, uhh, 'advice' (and dubious software to install), answers.microsoft.com seems full of 'independent experts' who just want people to reinstall all the stuff that wasn't touched in the update (or just Windows in general) and any answers here on stackexchange (sub)sites are all older then the most recent Windows 10 update which introduced the problem.

So fingers crossed someone over here knows the solution or at least shares in my pain. (Well, annoyance, mild discomfort and slightly higher electrical bill, really.)

Answer 1

Problem: When waking computer from sleep in Windows 1903, 1909, 2004 builds, the computer will wake but nothing will happen.

I fixed the problem on my computer. It was a driver problem I believe. I opened up the computer and disconnected both DVD drives, my second hard drive, unplugged the sound cord, and disconnected the ethernet cable. None of this solved the problem. Hooked everything back up. I then disconnected the wires from the motherboard coming from the front of the case (2 sound jacks and 2 usb ports.) That also did nothing.

Hooked those back up. I then disconnected the wires from the motherboard coming from the multifunction card reader which has 2 sound jacks, 3 usb connectors, 1 eSATA and 1 1394 connectors as well as all the different card slots. Booted it, put it to sleep, woke it up and IT WORKED. I reconnected the 1394 jack knowing this was the problem. Windows took an extra long time to start. Must have gotten a new driver is my thought. Everything worked. Hooked the rest of it up. Still working.

I can now put my computer to sleep as I did with all the builds prior to 1903 and it will wake up and run when I wiggle the mouse or hit a key on the keyboard. I really do believe it was the 1394 port that was causing the problem. I never used it ever anyway so I disconnected it from the motherboard.

Maybe this will help others with this problem. Just disconnect the 1394 plug from the motherboard leading to the external 1394 jack first and try it.

Answer 2

A rather unsatisfactory 'answer' is that this problem has been resolved, seemingly by itself.

Now for a bit more details;

In an attempt to fix this I did uninstall build 1909. However the problem persisted. I did not reinstall and told Windows to forget about the update. Last week or so I was asked to install it again (that or a newer build, I didn't check) and so I did. Frankly, I had forgotten all about the bug because all this time I've been using my own workaround; two batch scripts. Those workarounds did work.

I went on here two days ago for a work related matter only to see a new post, so I figured I would not only update but also try if the bug has been fixed.

In the last two days I've used the Windows standby and shutdown buttons and they seem to be working again after having used them a few times. So in all, not a very satisfactory resolution but at least the bug's gone.

For future reference, if anyone reads this and would like to know the batch scripts I used, here they are:

Standby script

rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0

Shutdown script

@echo off
set /p decision="Are you sure you wish to shutdown? (1 = yes)"

if %decision%==1 (
    shutdown.exe -s -t 00
)