123

I've got a Dell XPS 13 (9360) with Windows 10 Home.

Steps to reproduce:

  • Open power options (Win-X, O)
  • Click change plan settings next to the current plan ("Dell" in my case)
  • Set both "on battery" and "plugged in" change "Put the computer to sleep" to something high or "Never" (I have 15 mins for battery, 1 hour for plugged in, tried "Never" for both too)
  • Click save changes
  • Open screen saver settings (Win-S, Change screen saver)
  • Ensure screen saver is off (None)
  • Ensure "On resume, display logon screen" is off
  • Click OK
  • Lock computer with Win-L
  • Wait...

Expected behaviour:

  • Screen switches off after a short delay (~30 secs).
  • Computer stays on, crunching whatever data you've left it to do.

Actual behaviour:

  • Screen switches off after a short delay (~30 secs).
  • Computer goes to sleep after a further ~15 seconds.

I would've thought this was a simple problem, but I've spent over two hours Googling etc for a solution. The closest I could find to my problem was this, which is similar but not the same, and the solution doesn't work for me:

Community
  • 1
Dave E
  • 1,331

7 Answers7

176

After running PowerCfg /q and reviewing this page, I believe I have determined the solution to this problem.

There appear to be many power settings that just don't show up in my advanced power options window. One is Sleep → System unattended sleep timeout. To make it visible, I opened regedit.exe and found this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0

Set its Attributes DWORD value to 2. This will make it show up in your advanced settings. Go there and configure it to be zero minutes if you don't want it to sleep when you lock your screen.

Rob M
  • 1,941
13

Thanks, very helpful.

I found this official link about this on Microsoft Docs which I thought might be helpful:

Sleep unattended idle timeout, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server 2008 R2, and later versions of Windows.

Specifies the duration of inactivity before the system automatically enters sleep after waking from sleep in an unattended state.

For example, if the system wakes from sleep because of a timed event or a wake on LAN (WoL) event, the sleep unattended idle timeout value will be used instead of the sleep idle timeout value.

Aliases and setting visibility Windows Provisioning: UnattendTimeout

PowerCfg: UnattendTimeout

GUID: 7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0

Hidden setting: Yes <-- Unhidden with: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0\Attributes = 2

Values The value denotes the number of seconds.

Minimum value: 0 (Never idle to sleep) Maximum value: Maximum integer

stevem26
  • 131
6

I also found this about letting Console Lock been seen - and changed. This allowed my power options to change it to 0 minutes, and then allowed screensaver to actually start.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7

Change Attributes DWORD to:

  • 1 = Hide "Console lock display off timeout"
  • 2 = Show "Console lock display off timeout"

Source: https://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8267-power-options-add-console-lock-display-off-timeout.html

ckuenzle
  • 3
TrayS
  • 79
1

We had the same issue with a bunch of XPS 9370s, the laptop went into standby after the screen was locked. We have one laptop where the issue did not occure and exportet it's power scheme. By importing it to the other XPSes were able to make them have as expected - but by now we have no clue why.

You can findn the exported power scheme here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mvajdkh14358471/dell.pwr?dl=0

Import it with an elevated prompt: powercfg /import 'fullpathtofile'

Bernhard Hahn
  • 11
1

Control Panel => Hardware and Sound => Power Options has these settings:

HDD
    Turn off hard disk after:
Wireless Adapter Settings
    Power Saving Mode:
Sleep
    Sleep after:
    System unattended sleep timeout:
    Hibernate after:

It seems like "System unattended sleep timeout" can be changed from GUI too in Windows 10.

Nishant
  • 773
0

Make sure your mouse and keyboard are not connected to the USB ports of your monitor. If your monitor goes to sleep, your mouse and keyboard will not function and make it seem like your computer went to sleep.

JAKS
  • 1
0

can also try powercfg /a in cmd, if it's in s0 profile, then the computer is 'connected standby' enabled, disable it to switch back to tranditional standby mode

i have a lot dell new laptops (7410) with hardware firmware enables 'connected standby', after i disabled it, they run as per the power option config

Charlie Zheng
  • 1