PC no longer sleeps - freezes part way through instead.

Hi All,

My desktop pc (specs and OS info as per 'My Computers' System One) is not going to sleep when button pressed. It was doing so until the last couple of days which prompted me to run sfc/ scannow. Sfc found some file corruptions and repaired them. This didn't fix the issue however. Same if 'sleep' is selected from Start Button > Power.

It briefly worked this afternoon (once) now it is back to freezing (no drive activity but the fan and power light are on, the monitor is turned off).

I have a DVD with 20H2 on it so can do a repair if necessary.

First I thought I'd ask the community to see if there was a less aggressive solution.

Thanks in advance,

Art

I would also check your scan settings on Kaspersky Internet Security
If that is not the cause and the recommendations in my colleagues post do not help I would clean boot it and see if then goes to sleep
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...a-a97a1807f3dd

please follow procedure carefully - hiding all microsoft services before disabling others
If it works in clean boot use clean boot troubleshooting to establish cause

Art,

1 Event viewer
Find out what is happening when you tell it to sleep. You can use Event viewer for this

1.1 Here are two 'Custom view' definitions. Unzip this file then import them into Event viewer by using the Import Custom view item on its right-hand side - EventViewer.zip Do this for each of them - you can call them whatever you want when you are prompted during the importation but the filenames are what I call mine.

1.2 Have a look at these records to see if Windows is crashing instead of sleeping. If there are simply no events after you tell it to sleep then I would agree that it is freezing instead. Look at the wakes ups as well in case they differ. Don't just look at the event lists, look at the details of each event in the 'General' pane underneath.

Note that if you decide to do a comparative trial of hibernation that the wake events 'General' tab do not show any difference between resuming from Sleep or Hibernate. Look in the Details tab to see the difference - when resuming from Hibernate, EventID 1 has 3 entries called Hiber* and their values are greater than 0 [they are all 0 when resuming from Sleep].

1.3 If you find sequences that seem worth delving deeper into then download & run NirSoft's FullEventLogView so you can see everything in chronologic order easily. Look either side of items you think are significant [from considering the Custom view results] to see if there is anything else noteworthy.

1.4 The problems with any investigation using Event logs are assessing what is significant or not and then interpreting the evidence. All I can suggest is that you compare good Sleeps with bad Sleeps/crashes.

2 Display driver
Misbehaving display drivers can cause baffling sleep problems. I suggest you go to your computer maker [assuming the display adapter was fitted when you bought the computer, otherwise go to the display adapter maker] then download & reinstall the display driver [even if it is exactly the same version as the one you have now]. This might or might not fix the problem but there is no diagnostic test to identify a misbehaving display driver so re-installing it is the only way to eliminate it as the cause.

While you're there, you can check for any updated Bios.

3 Who crashed
If the computer is crashing when you tell it to sleep then try Who crashed. One user in another thread was able to identify the misbehaving, crash-inducing hardware using it.
Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyser

Best of luck,
Denis

Megahertz said:

Hi Arthur,
Lets do the basic.
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
chkdsk c: /f
It will say your disk is in use and if you want to schedule to next start = yes
Restart

Back to windows, run
sfc /scannow

If it finds any corrupted files, restart and run again.


Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

and

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Thanks Megahertz,

Here are the results of your suggestions (the pc was restarted between the chkdsk and sfc commands)



Nothing untoward there. I'll now to try to sleep the pc and see what happens.

Art

UPDATE: Tried sleeping the pc 5 times and each time it worked as expected and the pc went to sleep. I'll have a dig through the Event logs to see if anything stands out.

Art

@Denis

Re: sections 1.1 & 1.2 of your post

I've had a look at the event logs and after the pc has 'initiated the power off of the computer for the following reason: Other (unplanned)' there are no further entries in Event Viewer until the syetem is turned on - Event Viewer says 'initiated the restart of the computer or the follwing reason: Other (unplanned)'.

Section 2

Graphics card was a 3rd party card and not original to the pc build. Card is a Sapphire Radeon R7 250X with 1Gb RAM.



This website (linked from the Sapphire site) suggests the latest driver is 21.5.1 and says the Windows Driver Store Version is 27.20.21003.1028

AMD Radeon™ R7 250X Drivers

I ran the 'Auto-Detect and Install Updates' software from AMD and accepted the recommended 21.4.1 driver suite:



I have also manually downloaded 21-4-1 and 21-5-1 just in case they are needed in the future.



Thanks for your help and advice.

Art

ArthurDent said:

Re: sections 1.1 & 1.2 of your post
I've had a look at the event logs and after the pc has 'initiated the power off of the computer for the following reason: Other (unplanned)' there are no further entries in Event Viewer until the syetem is turned on - Event Viewer says 'initiated the restart of the computer or the follwing reason: Other (unplanned)'.

Art,

That comment makes me think there might be some useful results in Who crashed [my para 3].
- I have only known of the existence of this utility for a few days and have had no faults so all I have been able to learn is its procedure.
- The user who told me about it had also been having crashes when he told the computer to sleep. Quite unexpectedly, the utility told him they were caused by a Dell utility that had been sitting there unused for years. He removed that Dell thing and the fault disappeared.

Denis

Try3 said:

Art,

That comment makes me think there might be some useful results in Who crashed [my para 3].
- I have only known of the existence of this utility for a few days and have had no faults so all I have been able to learn is its procedure.
- The user who told me about it had also been having crashes when he told the computer to sleep. Quite unexpectedly, the utility told him they were caused by a Dell utility that had been sitting there unused for years. He removed that Dell thing and the fault disappeared.

Denis

Thanks Denis, I think I’ll give that a try as although when tested five times earlier today (and the pc went to sleep just fine every time) when I pressed the sleep button at 16:03 (bath time for the grandchildren) it froze again.

I’ll download and run Who Crashed and see what that says and report back later.

Right now it is bath time/ tea time/ stories and bed for the grandchildren.

Cheers

Art

Art,

So you're going to frighten them with
The boy who did not make system images at least every month
and
The girl who didn't back up her own files at least once a day

Denis