System hibernates despite "hibernate after" set to "never"

1. Power options set to hibernate never.
2. Machine is hibernated manually.
3. Machine returns from hibernation due to wake timer.
4. Stuff runs in background, but no user input.
5. After a few minutes, machine hibernates itself.

The event log shows "The system is entering sleep. Sleep reason: System idle"

If I wake the machine from sleep manually (power button), it does not re-hibernate itself.

What I am trying to do is run a backup that wakes the machine to do the backup. Machine hibernates during the backup.

I seem to recall that when a win 7 machine returns from sleep, if there is no user input, it will go back to sleep regardless of anything else. Maybe this is similar.

The backup program I am using (Macrium Reflect) claims it prevents sleep while it is running, but that is not working. HOWEVER, in the past it did used to work. In the meantime there have been Windows updates and BIOS updates.

This is on a Dell XPS15 9500, win 10 ver 20h2 19042.1237. This machine only has s0 for sleep ("modern" sleep) and hibernation.

My current workaround is to use a bat file to run the backup, with powercfg -h off at the beginning, and powercfg -h on at the end. That mainly works, although sometimes turning the hibernation back on seems to fail, but that's a whole 'nother issue.

Any idea how to track this down?

Maybe I should add that the desired behavior is that upon return from hibernation due to wake timer, machine should obey power option setting for hibernation. Normally, I have that set to like an hour; it's set to "never" for the purpose of isolating the problem.

Thanks.

Maybe laptops go into hibernate mode to protect the battery if not plugged into the mains power supply. Does it still happen if plugged-in?

While the backup is running (without your .bat file), what is the output of "powercfg /requests"?

I would expect it to show that the backup app is running and will prevent sleep/hibernation. Are you saying the backup never completes if you don't run your .bat file? Or is it possible the backup does complete, then the PC sleeps/hibernates afterwards?

I think I have found the culprit: the "System unattended sleep timeout" parameter.

However, that does not explain why when the backup program issues system and away overrides, the machine still goes back to sleep? Especially since that was not the behavior in the past.

I do recall a posting here about how to disable all power requests that might cause insomnia. I don't think I have done that, but can someone remind me what the powercfg command / registry setting / group policy setting is to do or undo that?

Thanks.

Code:

powercfg /requestsoverride

will show if you have any overrides currently

wiganken said:

Maybe laptops go into hibernate mode to protect the battery if not plugged into the mains power supply. Does it still happen if plugged-in?

This is always when plugged in. The cause turns out to be the unattended sleep timeout feature.

- - - Updated - - -

steve108 said:

While the backup is running (without your .bat file), what is the output of "powercfg /requests"?

I would expect it to show that the backup app is running and will prevent sleep/hibernation. Are you saying the backup never completes if you don't run your .bat file? Or is it possible the backup does complete, then the PC sleeps/hibernates afterwards?

I will check that, but I did run powercfg /systemsleepdiagnostics and it showed that the backup process had submitted a 'system' request and a 'away mode' request. However, that log did not seem to log every event.

- - - Updated - - -

steve108 said:

Code:

powercfg /requestsoverride

will show if you have any overrides currently

Yeah, I had checked that previously. No requests shown AFTER going back to hibernation. I will check and see what's there during the backup running.

apb said:

This is always when plugged in. The cause turns out to be the unattended sleep timeout feature.

- - - Updated - - -



I will check that, but I did run powercfg /systemsleepdiagnostics and it showed that the backup process had submitted a 'system' request and a 'away mode' request. However, that log did not seem to log every event.

- - - Updated - - -


Yeah, I had checked that previously. No requests shown AFTER going back to hibernation. I will check and see what's there during the backup running.

You want to run "powercfg /requests" while backup is running.

"powercfg /requestsoverride" output should not change between now and then unless you add/remove an override.

steve108 said:

While the backup is running (without your .bat file), what is the output of "powercfg /requests"?

I would expect it to show that the backup app is running and will prevent sleep/hibernation. Are you saying the backup never completes if you don't run your .bat file? Or is it possible the backup does complete, then the PC sleeps/hibernates afterwards?

Ok, I did the test. There are 4 requests, two each from the backup's service and from the worker process: SYSTEM and AWAYMODE. That's consistent with what I saw with powercfg /systemsleepdiagnostics.

To answer your questions that I neglected before, yes the backup never completes, and the machine is found to be hibernated. If it's manually returned from hibernation, the backup continues.

Post your output of "powercfg /requestsoverride" please.