Windows 11 Screensaver / Display Sleep functions not working

Anonymous
2021-12-31T21:32:41+00:00

A few weeks ago, I can't remember exactly when it occurred (May have been after installing W11) my screensaver and display sleep functions just completely stopped working. I have tried every trick in the book. I have updated my BIOS and chipset drivers. Powercfg -requests shows an audio stream running from realtek, I tried overriding it but didn't solve anything. I confirmed every power option setting is correctly enabled. Basically I've spent extensive time googling and troubleshooting this to no avail.

The one thing that did fix it was running the DISM restore commands in CMD Prompt, however, it only works temporarily for the initial reboot after running that command, and then it stops working again if I reboot a 2nd time.

What can I do to fix this problem?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Display and graphics

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-20T04:43:31+00:00

    I finally fixed my issue and now both the screensaver and sleep functions are working again. I was scouring the web and the solution that worked for me was to:

    1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
    2. Type cmd in the box and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch Command Prompt with admin rights.
    3. Input the following command and press Enter. powercfg -lastwake.

    Then I looked at the list of devices and went into DEVICE MANAGER (type Device Manager into the command prompt) and went to each item on the -lastwake list. I then right clicked on each thing, clicked PROPERTIES then clicked on the right tab POWER MANAGEMENT and unticked ALLOW THIS DEVICE TO WAKE THE COMPUTER. I had about 15 things on the list. I did the above for everything but the keyboard. So to wake the computer I just whack the space bar.

    I'm not sure which item was causing the problem as I turned them all off at the same time but it had got to a point where I'd activate SLEEP and the PC would wake itself up again in seconds.

    I did the above in June and now at the very end of August I'm still all good so for me this was a permanent fix.

    I hope it helps someone else.

    My wake history count is 0, so this isn't the source of the problem for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-20T04:41:27+00:00

    I don't know why it worked that one time...It hasn't worked ever since.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-19T01:08:57+00:00

    So read through the 12 pages of comments.

    What I found that works is running a window (cmd) as admin and screensaver works. If I run it as user it doesn't work.

    So I tested this theory with Chrome and same thing. Look like it is a permission issue.

    Windows 11 Home

    10.0.22621 Build 22621

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-08-31T20:17:43+00:00

    Some great suggestions on here.

    One that I picked up on involved unplugging USB devices. Since I didn't have many plugged in, it was fairly easy! I ignored the mouse and keyboard since they are connected by Bluetooth. I only had three USB devices plugged in. An external disk drive, a USB hub so that I could add and remove devices easily, and my Wacom tablet, which seemed the obvious place to start. And it worked. As soon as I removed the device, everything worked normally. And no deep down commands to run, thankfully.

    Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-08-13T20:27:21+00:00

    What works for one evidently has no effect on another. I wish that MS would address the issue rather than post page after page of instructions on how to set up a screen saver and ignore the fact that there is a deeper problem because it doesn't work.

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