Why doesn't windows sleep?

[alizee]

I have two Windows 7 boxes that are dedicated Media Centers. They both suffer from the same affliction: when Media Center is open, they won't go to sleep! Also, if I manually put them to sleep, they'll wake up for whatever reason (guide/Windows updates, backups, maybe ghosts) and then will stay awake. A restart will resolve the problem for about a day, but they will revert again on the second day.

I recently performed an erase and reinstall without recovering from either backup, but that also did not resolve the problem. My workaround has been to close MC and then manually put the computer to sleep. They will be asleep whenever I see them next, whether they stayed asleep or not.

Any ideas where to look for a resolution? Thanks in advance!

 

[C1]

A guess is that some automated process/action request is doing the wake up. For openers, in any new installation (or new packaged computer), ensure that task manager and auto updates for any software/bloatware (including windows) is disabled. Also inspect the BIOS power management section to ensure any auto-wake up or wake up inputs (such wake on LAN, KB action, etc.) are disabled.

In general, my approach is to turn off/disable/uninstall as much as possible and only add back in those things which are determined or found to be needed/necessary/wanted.

 

[alizee]

A guess is that some automated process/action request is doing the wake up. For openers, in any new installation (or new packaged computer), ensure that task manager and auto updates for any software/bloatware (including windows) is disabled. Also inspect the BIOS power management section to ensure any auto-wake up or wake up inputs (such wake on LAN, KB action, etc.) are disabled.

In general, my approach is to turn off/disable/uninstall as much as possible and only add back in those things which are determined or found to be needed/necessary/wanted.

Those are some good ideas, and I'll definitely give it a try. The one thing that doesn't make much sense to me, though, is that it only happens when Media Center is open, meaning that if the autoupdates are running in the background, I would expect them to cause issues at the desktop, too. Any thoughts on that?