Why Does My Laptop Turn Off and Not Go to Sleep?
One of the most frustrating problems you can run into with a device, usually your computer, is when it starts doing something it has never done before. Typically, this is what you didn’t want : it takes another 15 seconds to load, makes some strange noise, or fails to launch an app you’ve been using in the past three months. Such strange things.
In addition to this, Lifehacker reader Melissa emailed us this confusing issue:
I have a laptop for about 5 years. This is ASUS, running Windows 10, ESET’s antivirus using Chrome as its primary browser.
When I leave, I always had the settings to hibernate (or go to hibernation? It’s interchangeable). I don’t use my laptop in public, so no privacy settings are required other than my password. Driving to work, she sleeps. I come home and press the spacebar or the power button, browsing the Internet continues from where I left off.
This has changed in the last month or two. I’m wondering if there was a Windows update that flipped the setting somewhere, or if there was something wrong with my computer. Every time I leave for more than 30 minutes, the computer shuts down completely. I press the power button, it goes through the ASUS boot screen, and I have to wait for everything to reboot, including the ESET software. I need to reopen Chrome and restore my browsing session.
What’s happening?
It’s definitely a fancy problem, but your problem has a light silver lining. I don’t think you have done anything that could cause your laptop to shut down suddenly instead of sleeping; I think your laptop is entirely to blame.
However, I first want to send you to your laptop’s Power and Sleep Settings screen, which you can open by typing this phrase after clicking the Windows Start button. Once there, scroll down a bit until you see the Advanced Power Options link and click on it.
On the screen that appears – in the Power Options section of the control panel – click the Choose what the lid closes does link on the left side panel. Then you should see a screen that looks like this:
If pressing the power button and / or closing the lid of your laptop does not put it to sleep, make sure it does this whenever your laptop is plugged into an outlet or using a battery. This should fix your problem.
However, if all of these settings are already set to “sleep” mode, the schedule becomes tighter. In this case, I think the problem is even more bizarre.
You will want to open Device Manager by typing this phrase after clicking the Start button. Once there, expand your system devices and find “Intel Management Engine Interface”. If you find it, right-click it, select Properties, and then click the Power Management tab. Uncheck “Let the computer turn off this device to save power” and see if that solves the problem.
Otherwise, this computer may need an updated driver in the computer. Click the Driver tab and then Update Driver to see if you can get a newer version than what you are currently using (as shown in the Driver Version line). If your system doesn’t find anything, you may have to download an updated driver from Intel and install it manually.
And if none of this works, your last option is to either rollback to a driver earlier than version 11, if possible, or disable the Intel Management Engine interface entirely. These are both options on the same Driver tab.
I hope one of these answers solves your problem, but post if you still have problems with a laptop that prefers to shut down rather than sleep. We will find the right digital NyQuil for your device.