Windows 8 system boots up every day at 3 am

[Mark R]

Most times when I hibernate my comp overnight, the next morning it will have woken up and it will be sitting at a black screen with just the mouse pointer visible (the monitor will not be powered down as configured when it is idle).

There is nothing in any diagnostic information:
e.g. powercfg -lastwake
just reads
Wake History Count - 0

In the event viewer, the only events logged are normal boot up events, and the "power truobleshooter" event which just states:

The system has returned from a low power state.

Sleep Time: ‎2013‎-‎02‎-‎17T01:34:18.121963900Z
Wake Time: ‎2013‎-‎02‎-‎17T02:59:50.070378800Z

Wake Source: Unknown

It's the exact same event every day, with the time within about 3 seconds of 2:59:53.

I've checked in Power options control panel, and everything that allows the computer to wake is switched off.

I've also disabled everything related to power management in the BIOS. WoL is disabled in the LAN controller driver (plus I don't have anything on the LAN to trigger it).

I've used Powercfg to check for wake timers, and none are configured, plus wake timers are disabled in power control panel.

Key system details:
Asus P87ZZ-M
i7-3770K
PNY 7850 2GB

Generic USB keyboard + Razer mouse
Intel G2 SSD

 

[Steltek]

Have you checked to see what hardware is allowed to restart your machine with the elevated command powercfg -devicequery wake_armed ? Also, if you have Windows 8 Media Center installed, see the following thread:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1116945-win8-pro-with-media-center-randomly-waking-up-from-sleep/

If that doesn't solve the problem, are you running the Intel Smart Connect Technology driver? If so, you can either uninstall it or reconfigure it so that it doesn't wake your system to download updates.

 

[nickbits]

Windows updates or windows media center is my guess.
Also check that "allow wake timers" is off in advanced power settings.
Could also be a wake timer in the bios.

 

[Mark R]

Windows updates or windows media center is my guess.
Also check that "allow wake timers" is off in advanced power settings.

Goddamit. I was absolutely sure I'd turned that off.
Guess not. It was switched on.

I've also looked through the media center thread, and there was something about scheduled tasks; sure enough there was a hidden task scheduled daily for 3am - routine maintenance or something.

So I've disabld that.

We'll see what happens. Thx guys.

 

[user25745]

Might check automatic maintenance in the Action Center also. By default that is set to wake at 3AM to run also.

 

[biostud]

It's media center and disabling wake timers wasn't enough for me. I had to use this guide:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...r-updates-enable-disable-waking-computer.html

 

[piasabird]

Maybe the Anti-virus is running???

 

[Mark R]

Well, I've fixed it. Unforunately, I think I've irreversibly hosed my "windows maintenance" facility.

I found that there were 2 tasks scheduled for 3am in the task scheduler, both set to wake the PC. One for automated maintenance, and one called maintenance scheduler. I initially tried to disable automated maintenance, but it kept coming back. So I deleted maintenance scheduler, and now automated maintenance stays off.

However, I've now found the "maintenance" control panel applet - sadly, it won't run because the maintenance scheduler is hosed. Also, the maintenance scheduler scheduled task uses some custom hook, so cannot be re-added via the task scheduler application.

Still, it could be worse.

 

[mfenn]

Somebody with a Windows 8 machine laying around could probably export the task to XML for you and post it. Then you could import it (maybe modifying the PC name to match yours first). Or, if you have another Windows 8 machine, you could do the same thing yourself.

 

[Mushkins]

PNY 7850 2GB

The black screen mouse cursor problem is right here. What drivers are you running?

From about 12.6/7 all the way to 13.1 there was a bug where the monitor wouldn't turn itself off properly and you'd just get a black screen with the mouse cursor on it like it was "pretending" to sleep/powersave the monitor.

It seems to be fixed in the latest betas. Not sure if it prevents proper sleep/hibernate because I keep those off but it definitely stops the monitor from turning itself off.

 

[Mark R]

From about 12.6/7 all the way to 13.1 there was a bug where the monitor wouldn't turn itself off properly and you'd just get a black screen with the mouse cursor on it like it was "pretending" to sleep/powersave the monitor.

Ah. That;s very, very helpful. Thx.

Anyway, I thought I'd fixed the hibernate prob. But, no, it's back. Except it's no longer 3am - it's random times.

Just disabled all powr saving in the BIOS and disabled waking with powercfg for everything.