USB Devices Wake PC from Sleep

C

CircuitsMan

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 8, 2009
Messages
74
I didn't know exactly where to post this, but this place looked as good as any considering the PC I built functions as a HTPC.

A few months ago I built my first computer (see sig for details) and so far I'm happy with how things turned out. :D There's just one problem that is rather annoying that I can't seem to figure out. If I put my computer to sleep before I go to bed, it will be fully up and running when I wake up in the morning. I've found out that it has something to do with having USB devices plugged in. I have three devices that are plugged in: my keyboard & mouse's USB dongle, my printer, and my MagicJack. If I unplug the printer and MagicJack before going to bed, the computer stays asleep all night long. But if either of them are plugged in, the computer wakes up overnight. I've swapped the MagicJack to different USB ports and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Device Manager did have a setting for not letting the keyboard and mouse wake the computer from sleep which is probbaly why that is okay to leave plugged in, but the same setting doesn't exist for the printer or the MagicJack.

I've done some research on the internet which led me to three things, none of which work. In the OS, there are two settings called Wake On Pattern Match and Wake on Magic Packet, and in the BIOS there is setting for USB Wake from S3. I've deactived all three and none of them work. I have no idea what the problem could be. Is this an OS problem? A BIOS problem? Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

FYI, I believe all drivers are up to date and I recently updated the BIOS to no avail. OS is Windows 7.
 
Last edited:
look into using the command line function powercfg. It should not only tell you what woke it last (C:\.....\powercfg -lastwake), but you can tell it what can and cannot wake your computer (C:\....\powercfg -devicedisable wake {device name}). It isn't too hard to figure out, but let me know if you have questions
 
mattgr said:
you have a magicjack?
Click to expand...

Yes I have a MagicJack. I got rid of my phone and TV service and now use MagicJack and watch TV over the internet.

hiodie said:
look into using the command line function powercfg. It should not only tell you what woke it last (C:\.....\powercfg -lastwake), but you can tell it what can and cannot wake your computer (C:\....\powercfg -devicedisable wake {device name}). It isn't too hard to figure out, but let me know if you have questions
Click to expand...

I had read about that to determine what was waking my computer from sleep, but I did not know it could prevent items from waking a computer from sleep. Is there user friendly/dummies guide to using PowerCFG that you would recommend? I'll start searching later tonight for more information.
 
mattgr said:
you have a magicjack?
Click to expand...

It's only $19.95 a year.

That's $19.95 A YEAR!!!

lol

I use voip too, but a real provider with customer service and like 35 features and a separate box so I don't have to leave my computer on and can power all the phones in the house through the wiring already there. It's way more economical. The best is the free long distance I can access with my cell phone.
 
CircuitsMan said:
I had read about that to determine what was waking my computer from sleep, but I did not know it could prevent items from waking a computer from sleep. Is there user friendly/dummies guide to using PowerCFG that you would recommend? I'll start searching later tonight for more information.
Click to expand...

You could try this site and scroll down to step 4 or 5 and go from there. If you have specific questions, I can try to field them.
 
I made sure to test it twice and I get the same message from "powercfg lastwake".

Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
Wake Source Count - 0

So what does this mean? That my computer remembers waking up, but not what caused it? I know it is USB related, but I don't know why.
 
I'm not entirely sure...have you tried to use \powercfg -devicequery wake_armed to see if there are devices there you are unsure of or don't want to wake the pc? I would try to disable them using the names it returns (i.e. \powercfg -devicedisablewake USBHUB001, or whatever the name is). I'm no expert on the subject, I've just used it a couple times to try to troubleshoot my problems, so hopefully someone else can help on the topic.
 
Would it make a difference if I said the printer connected to the computer is turned off? I've tried it with just the printer connected and even that wakes up the computer. I suppose I could try it with just a USB cable and nothing connected to the other end.

I just tried "powercfg -devicequery wake_armed" and it returned nothing!
 
Last edited:
It could also be your network card. check out your BIOS and see if it has enable wake via pci or pci express devices. sometimes your sleeping computer gets some little hits from the other network devices and wakes up, you can also change the network device's power settings in the properties to not allow it to wake up the computer.
 
cbutters said:
It could also be your network card. check out your BIOS and see if it has enable wake via pci or pci express devices. sometimes your sleeping computer gets some little hits from the other network devices and wakes up, you can also change the network device's power settings in the properties to not allow it to wake up the computer.
Click to expand...

I tried disabling PME Wake event as well as HPET in my BIOS and my PC still wakes up. It looks like I've tried disabling every wake setting on my computer, in the BIOS as well as the OS, and nothing works. Looks like I'll have to shutdown my PC every night instead of putting it to sleep.
 
Last edited:
I have the same mobo as you and mine used to go to sleep and stay asleep.

After I upgraded the BIOS to the newest version it now wakes up.

I am looking into it myself and if I find anything I'll let you know.
 
The Gonz said:
I have the same mobo as you and mine used to go to sleep and stay asleep.

After I upgraded the BIOS to the newest version it now wakes up.

I am looking into it myself and if I find anything I'll let you know.
Click to expand...

You mentioned a BIOS update caused you to see the same problem. Well I decided to update my BIOS again and I think the problem is gone. Before I had version F7 and before that I'm not sure what I had, but now I have version F8. I still want to test it one more night to see if it happens, before I say for certain the problem is completely gone

Now I just have to deal with USB devices not working/being recognize on wake-up.
 
CircuitsMan said:
You mentioned a BIOS update caused you to see the same problem. Well I decided to update my BIOS again and I think the problem is gone. Before I had version F7 and before that I'm not sure what I had, but now I have version F8. I still want to test it one more night to see if it happens, before I say for certain the problem is completely gone

Now I just have to deal with USB devices not working/being recognize on wake-up.
Click to expand...

Problem still exists.
 
For me it was a software issue. I had not activated my copy of Win7 and it was waking up the PC. After activation my PC stays asleep.

I would lean towards your Magic Jack as the culprit.

My Printer is networked so it isn't directly connected to any PC.

I would try connecting the Magic Jack to a different PC if possible. Otherwise check out their support forums if they have them.
 
The Gonz said:
For me it was a software issue. I had not activated my copy of Win7 and it was waking up the PC. After activation my PC stays asleep.

I would lean towards your Magic Jack as the culprit.

My Printer is networked so it isn't directly connected to any PC.

I would try connecting the Magic Jack to a different PC if possible. Otherwise check out their support forums if they have them.
Click to expand...

It's not the magicJack. I just double-check again with the MagicJack disconnected and just the printer onnected via USB and it woke up. Also, maybe it's just my imagination, but I think it takes longer to wake up when there's just one USB device connected instead of two.

I have a few other USB devices I can test, but I don't see how they would make a difference. Should I try un-installing and re-installing USB drivers for everything? Maybe wait for another BIOS update?
 
I've tried plugging in my memory card reader and my thumb drive seperately and neither seem to wake my computer from sleep. I don't see how this tells me anything, though. I have a few silly ideas to test, but I'm at a complete loss to figure this out.
 
The problem has gone away, and I think I know the culprit. Some of you may not be surprised by this, but I think it was my anti-virus (Norton Security Suite). It had been prompting me to create a backup on CD/DVD, but I had been ignoring it because I didn't feel like it or think it was necessary. Well, last week I decided to grab a few old CD-Rs laying around the apartment and take care of that, just to get rid of the annoying message and now my computer no longer wakes up from sleep mode. Go figure!
 
CircuitsMan said:
The problem has gone away, and I think I know the culprit. Some of you may not be surprised by this, but I think it was my anti-virus (Norton Security Suite). It had been prompting me to create a backup on CD/DVD, but I had been ignoring it because I didn't feel like it or think it was necessary. Well, last week I decided to grab a few old CD-Rs laying around the apartment and take care of that, just to get rid of the annoying message and now my computer no longer wakes up from sleep mode. Go figure!
Click to expand...

Just another reason Norton sucks.

Glad you figured it out. I was reading through and I was thoroughly stumped.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top