PC Keeps Turning On From Sleep—5 Ways to Fix It

You may prefer to put your PC to sleep instead of turning it off. However, when you check later, your computer automatically restarts. This can happen occasionally if your computer tries to perform some important task like update or backup.

However, if this happens too often or for no reason, you may be in trouble. This issue can be caused by things like scheduled tasks, incorrect input from the device, and the Wake on LAN feature. However, these software problems are quite common and easy to fix.

Troubleshoot with Event Viewer

You can first diagnose this issue from Event Viewer to see what is causing your PC to automatically wake from sleep. So here’s how to do it.

Open the Run dialog box. Type eventvwr and press Enter to open Event Viewer. Open Windows Logs > System. Right click Systemand select Current Log Filter. Beside Event sourcechoose Power Troubleshooter from drop down menu and press enter. Click OK. View recent logs of when your Computer woke from sleep mode and what caused it.

Now, usually you will get three types of sources why your PC wakes up from sleep mode. It may represent the power button, in this case, you manually wake up your PC from sleep mode.

It can also show devices that wake up your PC or scheduled tasks. Read further below to see how you can fix this.

Disable Device From Waking Your PC

If you see a peripheral device such as a mouse or controller appear in Event Viewer, it may be a faulty input that is causing your PC to automatically wake up. Some faulty input devices can cause this kind of problem. So you can simply unplug it to stop it from waking up your computer.

If it’s inconvenient to unplug your peripheral device or if it’s an internal device like a network adapter card, I’ll show you how you can disable it from waking your PC.

Press Windows + R to open the Run box. Type devmgmt.msc to open Device Manager. Find the device that appears on Event Viewer. (If you can’t find the device in Device Manager, you can search for it online to see its category.) Right-click the device and select Property. Open tabs Power Management. Deselect options Allow this device to wake the computer. Click OK.

Disable Wake Timer

Wake timer is basically a scheduled task which is allowed to wake up your PC from sleep mode to perform a preconfigured action. These wake-up timers range from software updates to backups made during your downtime.

Anyway, let’s first take a look at all the wake timers currently active on your computer.

Press Windows + R shortcut to open Run Utility. Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Elevated Command Prompt. Enter the powercfg-waketimers command. This will list all active scheduled tasks that are allowed to wake up your computer. It will also show you the location of the wake timer, so be sure to note it down.

Now, you can open Task Scheduler to manage this wake-up timer so that your PC doesn’t wake up automatically during sleep mode.

Open RunUtility. Type taskchd.msc and press it enter to open Task Scheduler. Click Task Scheduler Library in the left sidebar. Now, find one of the tasks that appears on the wake timer. In my case it was a task UpdateOrchestrator Scheduled Wake to Work which woke up my computer. So, I’ll open up Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > UpdateOrchestrator. Right click the task and click Property. Open tabs Conditionand deselect the options Wake the computer to run this task. Click Okay. Do the same for any other wake-up timers that you don’t want to be able to wake up your PC. If the wake timer is performing an important task, you can open the tab Trigger and change their schedule so they don’t conflict with your rest hours.

If you don’t want to disable individual wake-up timers in Task Scheduler, you can disable the setting immediately Allow Wake Timer. This will stop all scheduled tasks to wake up your PC.

Launch Run Utility. Type control and press enter to open Control Panel. Beside View bybe sure Big icon chosen. Open Power Options. Click Change plan settings next to your active power plan. Choose Change advanced power settings. Double click on the tab Sleep and expand Allow wake timers option. Be sure to set all parameters on Allow wake timers For deactivate use drop down menu. Click apply And OK.

Disable Automatic Maintenance

Automatic maintenance is a scheduled task for your Windows computer that does various things. It will perform software updates, security scans, and system diagnostics. Although this task doesn’t have permission to wake up your PC by default, you can grant it this permission.

So if it was enabled accidentally or by other software on your computer, you should check to make sure it is disabled.

Launch Run Utility. Type control and press enter to open Control Panel. In the search bar, type automatic maintenance. Click Change Automatic Maintenance settings from search results. Confirm option Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time not selected. Click OK.

Disable Wake on LAN

Wake on LAN is a feature on computers that allows them to automatically wake from sleep mode from other devices on the network. If you have enabled this feature, your computer may wake up automatically from sleep mode whenever a device joins your network. So, let’s see how you can disable it.

Open the Run using Windows + R box. Type devmgmt.msc and press it enter to open Device Manager. Double click on Network adapter. Right click your network adapter driver and select it Property. (If you are connected via Ethernetright click your ethernet driver.) Go to the Advanced tab and select Wake on Magic Packet. Under Markchoose Non-active from drop down menu. Click OK.