Q: In the last few days, no more than a couple of weeks, this problem has appeared: When I put the computer to sleep using commands from Start — Power, the computer starts up on its own after a period of time. Last time today, I placed the computer in Sleep at about 10:10 a.m. When I returned to the computer at 1:50 p.m., the computer was running, waiting for my log-on. No screen messages appear. Why is this happening, and how can I correct it?
— Harvey F.,
Shalimar
A: I understand that your computer is demonstrating some rather anomalous behavior, Harvey. But, let’s talk about Sleep mode for a moment, shall we?
Sleep mode is a power-saving state in which your computer terminates all functions and goes into a low-power mode. This is useful when you’re on a battery-powered device, such as a laptop or tablet, but, in my opinion, it’s of limited value for a desktop machine that’s plugged into a constant supply of power. If you are putting your system to sleep just because you’re walking away from it for a few hours, I would suggest that perhaps you needn’t bother, as I don’t think you’re really saving much by doing so.
If you’re leaving the system for any significant length of time, you might want to consider using hibernate instead. Where sleep is a low-power mode, hibernate is a zero-power mode. It saves the state of your computer, to include all applications in memory, open documents, window positions — basically everything — then powers your computer completely off. When you’re ready to use your machine again, it takes a moment to restore it, but it will return to the exact state it was in when hibernated.
All that said, I can give you advice all day long, but it’s not really my place to tell you how to use specific features of your computer, and if you want it to sleep, I’ll do my best to help you do just that. I’ve actually handled the topic of a computer refusing to stay in sleep mode before, including one about 720 issues ago, way back in 2010. (Geek Note: I.G.T.M. No. 140, March 28, 2010.) Despite all of the new versions of Windows since then, and all of the changes in the operating system, some things remain unchanged, and this happens to be one of them, so the advice I gave back then is just as relevant to you.
The first things I would look at are environmental factors, which include anything going on in the vicinity of your computer that might fool it into thinking you are trying to wake it up. Your mouse is incredibly sensitive, and can be triggered by such things as air currents, vibration from people walking around or, in our area, bombs going off on the ranges, or fighter jets or other aircraft flying by. If the computer senses mouse movement, even fake movement, it’s going to wake up.