Steam preventing sleep (not store page videos)

[Mark]

I've just figured out that Steam is preventing my PC from going to sleep (Windows 10). It only started fairly recently but I can't figure out what has changed.

If I set the monitor to turn off after 1 minute and the PC to sleep after 1 minute, the monitor will just flick off and immediately back on again when Steam is running. If I close Steam, it turns off and stays off, and the computer goes to sleep and stays asleep just fine.

What is a bit odd is that `powercfg /requests` shows nothing as being open.

I've tried:

Starting with -no-browser so that steamwebhelper isn't running, and it still does it.

Fresh reinstall of Steam.

Overriding system, display and awaymode via powercfg for steam, web helper and client service.

All of the powercfg diagnostic options / logs, nothing shows as Steam doing anything out of the ordinary.

I can find plenty of stuff saying there was / is an issue with audio being held open by store videos, but it isn't that...

I can obviously work around this by just closing Steam when I'm done but it's a bit annoying.

Any ideas?!

[Cheezus Crisp]

Do you have any controllers connected? There's been reports of the Steam client keeping monitors from going to standby when an external controller is connected or paired.

[Crazy Tiger]

Controller issue is the first thing that comes to mind, yes.

[Mark]

That's interesting!

I do have two PS4 controllers paired via DS4Windows, but both are turned off and I only start DS4Windows on the rare occasion that I use them.

I've just now tried:

Disabling bluetooth
Unpairing / removing the controllers

And neither of those things seems to have made any difference.

What's the solution if it's controllers / what would I need to do to confirm?

[Mark]

To follow up on this, I have changed nothing and now my PC will go to sleep just fine with Steam running! I guess it must have been a bug in the client that they have fixed or... something.

[Joburgal]

I’m experiencing exactly the same issue as posted in the below thread. Do you happen to have an Alienware monitor? This is the only thing I can think of that’s changed on my system.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/3118149881099867764/

[NYüSTi]

I'm experiencing the same issue, and tiaged a few things. I'm using a monitor with speakers getting the sound through displayport audio (Samsung Odyssey G9) and using an RTX 2080 Ti. If Steam is running the monitor goes to sleep and inmediately turns back on.
If I disable the NVIDIA High Definition Audio device in the device manager, the issue goes away
Unfortunately this isn't an option for me because a TV is also connected to the graphic card using HDMI and I need the sound through that. Due to the limitation on the displayport, I can't even disable the sound throughput over displayport. So I'm a bit stuck. Tried lots of things but looks like this is a combintation of hardware and software issue.

[Joburgal]

You sir are a complete genius!!! This fixed the problem for me and fotunately i use USB speakers so i can leave Nvidia disabled.

[IndistinctBlur]

Can confirm that the NVIDIA High Definition Audio + Steam was causing this issue for me. Thanks for that! Unfortunately I need that for sound.

I tried assigning Steam to a different audio device with Windows' "App Volume and Device Preferences" settings screen but didn't have any effect; only way to fix it seems to be disabling the NVidia device.

I posted the issue in the Suggestions forum just in case someone from Valve ever reads that. https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/4652759797618836250/

For now I've just demoted Steam from "gets to run all the time" to "only gets to run when I need it" like all the other games stores.

[IndistinctBlur]

Found similar issue w/ fix reported in the Steam Beta forum:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/2985287984625022179/

The fix that worked for me: unchecking the "Allow this device to be turned off to save power" on the USB Input Devices of the Microsoft All-in-One Keyboard

I'm sure it all makes sense somehow. ;)

[fl0wf1r3]

2021 I have the same issue, after month I figured out that it's Steam that's prevents windows of going into sleep mode or turning off the monitor. I tried everything I could found in the web, but when closing the steam client windows goes in to sleep mode as it supposed to do

[nkr]

Originally posted by NYüSTi:

I'm experiencing the same issue, and tiaged a few things. I'm using a monitor with speakers getting the sound through displayport audio (Samsung Odyssey G9) and using an RTX 2080 Ti. If Steam is running the monitor goes to sleep and inmediately turns back on.
If I disable the NVIDIA High Definition Audio device in the device manager, the issue goes away
Unfortunately this isn't an option for me because a TV is also connected to the graphic card using HDMI and I need the sound through that. Due to the limitation on the displayport, I can't even disable the sound throughput over displayport. So I'm a bit stuck. Tried lots of things but looks like this is a combintation of hardware and software issue.

Wow what made you think it was the NVIDIA High Definition Audio device? Disabling it solved my PC not going to sleep but in the end I just used a different display port on my GPU.

[NYüSTi]

Originally posted by nkr:

Originally posted by NYüSTi:

I'm experiencing the same issue, and tiaged a few things. I'm using a monitor with speakers getting the sound through displayport audio (Samsung Odyssey G9) and using an RTX 2080 Ti. If Steam is running the monitor goes to sleep and inmediately turns back on.
If I disable the NVIDIA High Definition Audio device in the device manager, the issue goes away
Unfortunately this isn't an option for me because a TV is also connected to the graphic card using HDMI and I need the sound through that. Due to the limitation on the displayport, I can't even disable the sound throughput over displayport. So I'm a bit stuck. Tried lots of things but looks like this is a combintation of hardware and software issue.

Wow what made you think it was the NVIDIA High Definition Audio device? Disabling it solved my PC not going to sleep but in the end I just used a different display port on my GPU.

The monitor has a headphone output and both DP and HDMI will transmit sound to the monitor. When the monitor goes to sleep looks like Windows detects it as a hardware change and plays a sound (like disconnecting a USB device). Probably this sound gets transmitted to the monitor which wakes it up immediately after go to sleep. That's my theory based on my current knowledge. How Steam comes into the picture it's unclear for me.

[divxmaster]

I had exactly the same issue on a pc reinstall (even though it didnt do it before I reinstalled), and it turned out to be my microsoft mouse 3500. As above unchecking the "Allow this device to be turned off to save power" on the USB Input Devices worked for me. thanks guys, been trying to fix this for two days.

[Geo]

Wow - just found this thread. I was plagued by the same issue on my old PC and on my current PC - complete fresh Windows install on the newer PC etc. - the common denominator was Nvidia Video Card and my Alienware Monitor.
Disabling 'NVIDIA High Definition Audio' in Device Manager fixed the problem - since I only use my SPDIF out and not the Monitor Headphone Plug it doesn't break anything for me...

Thanks for the enlightenment...

[Light Wing]

Hey, I found a fix for me. Thought I'd add it to this thread.
Disabling the NVIDIA SOUND options didn't work.

I had to go into steam settings > Interface and disable
1. "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views"
2. "Enable hardware video decoding, if supported"

Restart steam and now my PC will keep its monitors off and let my pc hibernate.