Supported Sleep States

AutoStandByPro can detect and help configure the sleep states your computer supports. Open the “Activity Monitor” window and from the “Tools” menu select “Sleep States” (or press Ctrl+T).

The “Supported Sleep States” window opens and shows one row for each sleep state your computer supports, so the number of rows depends on your computer.

The rows that can appear are:

• Sleep (S1, S2 or S3)
  Your computer supports the classic sleep states. In sleep the computer appears to be off and power consumption is reduced to one of several levels. The lower the power consumption, the longer the computer takes to return to work.


• Sleep (S0 Low Power Idle)
  Your computer uses Modern Standby, found on most laptops made in recent years. Instead of switching off, the computer turns the screen off and idles at very low power, like a phone. A computer with Modern Standby does not have the S1, S2 or S3 sleep states, so this row replaces the one above. When a rule puts such a computer to sleep, AutoStandByPro turns the display off, which is how Windows enters Modern Standby.


• Hibernation (S4)
  Your computer supports hibernation. In hibernation the computer appears to be off and power consumption is reduced to the lowest level. The contents of memory are saved to a hibernation file, preserving the state of Windows, applications and open documents.


• Hybrid Sleep (S3 + S4)
  Hybrid sleep combines sleep and hibernation: it keeps your open documents and programs in memory and also saves them to disk, then puts the computer into sleep, so you can resume quickly and still recover your work after a power failure. When hybrid sleep is on, putting the computer to sleep automatically uses hybrid sleep. It needs both S3 sleep and hibernation, so it is not shown on a computer with Modern Standby.

Is a Modern Standby computer really asleep? Yes, but it is a different kind of sleep. The old S3 sleep stops the processor completely. Modern Standby keeps the computer in a very low-power state in which it can still wake briefly for background work such as mail or updates, like a phone, and it wakes instantly. Windows has no command that means “enter Modern Standby now”; the normal way in is to turn the display off, which is what the power button and closing the lid do, and what AutoStandByPro does. Windows then decides when to enter the low-power state, and only if nothing is blocking it (a download, a USB device or a running program can). If you wake the computer very soon after it went to sleep, it may not have fully entered Modern Standby, and in that case Windows will not ask for your password either. Whether Windows asks for your password after waking is a Windows setting (Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options), not something AutoStandByPro controls. To see the real sleep sessions of your computer, run powercfg /sleepstudy in an administrator Command Prompt and open the report it creates. The first time you save a Sleep rule on a Modern Standby computer, AutoStandByPro shows a short, one-time message with this explanation.

Each row has a button to configure the state for use with AutoStandByPro:

• Sleep – “Configure” / “Restore”: “Configure” sets the Windows “Put the computer to sleep” timeout to Never, both on battery and plugged in, so that Windows does not put the computer to sleep on its own and your rules decide when it sleeps. Your previous timeouts are saved. “Restore” puts the saved timeouts back. If the button is disabled, the computer is already configured and there is nothing more to do.
• Hibernation – “Enable” / “Configure” / “Disable”: “Enable” appears when hibernation is turned off and turns it on. “Configure” appears when hibernation is on but Windows could still hibernate the computer on its own, and sets the Windows hibernate timeouts to Never. “Disable” appears when hibernation is on and configured, and turns it off.
• Hybrid Sleep – “Enable” / “Disable”: “Enable” turns hybrid sleep on. Hybrid sleep only works while hibernation is on, so if hibernation is turned off the row shows “Enable”, and clicking it asks whether to turn hibernation on as well. “Disable” turns hybrid sleep off. Turning hibernation off also turns hybrid sleep off.

For best results it is recommended to choose “Enable” and “Configure” where available.

My computer did not go to sleep

On a computer with Modern Standby, AutoStandByPro can only ask Windows to sleep, by turning the display off. Whether the computer then really sleeps is decided by Windows, and Windows will not sleep while a program or a driver is keeping the computer awake. AutoStandByPro checks this about 30 seconds after it asked: if Windows has not slept, and you have not used the computer in the meantime, it writes the reason to the log and tells you, naming what Windows says is keeping the computer awake. It does this only once for each time you leave the computer: if Windows refuses to sleep several times while you are away, you are told once, when you come back and use the keyboard or mouse. The first time ever this is a warning window titled “Windows Did Not Go To Sleep”; after that it is a notification near the system tray, and clicking it shows the same full explanation. Here is what you may see and what to do.

• The screen went off but the computer asked for my password and nothing was paused. That was only the display turning off, not a sleep. Windows locks the screen a short time after the display goes off, even when the computer never slept. Rules are paused after a wake only when the computer really slept.
• The same rule fires every few minutes and the computer never sleeps. Something is keeping the computer awake. Open an administrator Command Prompt and run powercfg /requests. Look under SYSTEM and EXECUTION: a program is shown by name (close or update it), a driver by its name, and a service by its name. The log also contains the line “Sleep blockers” with the same information each time a sleep is requested (it needs AutoStandByPro to run with administrator permission).
• The blocker is called “Legacy Kernel Caller”. Windows reports an unnamed driver or system component. It is typically a device driver (graphics, network, audio, a docking station or USB device, or a manufacturer utility) that asks Windows to stay awake. Update the drivers of the computer from the computer maker’s website, or unplug the docking station and USB devices to find which one it is.
• I want to see what Windows itself recorded. In an administrator Command Prompt run powercfg /sleepstudy and open the report it creates. It lists every period in which the display was off or the computer really slept. A period that ends with “No CS Phase” and a long duration is one in which the computer never reached standby. powercfg /a lists the sleep states the computer supports, and powercfg /lastwake shows what woke it last.

If you cannot fix it, use Hibernation instead. Hibernation saves your session to disk and switches the computer off, so it does not depend on Modern Standby and nothing running can prevent it. The wake-up is slower than from Sleep. There are two ways to use it: in your rule, choose the action Hibernate instead of Sleep (the notice names the rule that asked for Sleep, so you know which one to change, and suggests this as a way to stop seeing the notice until the problem is fixed); or keep Sleep and select If sleep does not happen, hibernate instead in the Power Settings (see Power Settings). With that option AutoStandByPro hibernates the computer by itself when Windows did not go to sleep, and turns Hibernation on first if it is off. The option is selected by default on computers with Modern Standby and is greyed out on computers that do not support Hibernation. When it is selected and the computer is hibernated, you are told when you come back to the computer, in the same way (a warning window the first time, a notification afterwards), with an extra line saying that AutoStandByPro hibernated the computer instead.

The log (Log.txt) also starts each session with one line naming the computer model, BIOS version and Windows version; if you ask us for support, sending the log helps us see what kind of computer it is. The log stays on your computer unless you send it.