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?!

[StatiC]

To be clear, it isn't the disable ability to wake the system that I had to be unchecked for me. It is the unchecking of 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' that solved it for me for the 'Microsoft Hardware USB Mouse'.

Does the powercfg /lastwake command show anything after the monitor wakes up? It showed just some generic PCI thing for me but I think it is a misbehaving Sculpt driver or hardware that is actually causing it and maybe the PCI bus just can't identify the specific device because of that.

[Quitch]

I unchecked that option for every single item that showed as armed, to no effect.

[fl0wf1r3]

nothing works for me, as long as I don't start steam windows goes into sleep after 1 min. when I start steam it does not work any longer, the monitor goes black and a second later its on again. Crazy Windows 10, looks like a know bug from MS for years now

[Siimes]

Only thing that fixed this for me was disabling NVIDIA High Definition Audio on device manager. I disabled it from "Audio inputs and outputs" and "Sound, video and game controllers".

Of course closing steam fixes the problem also, but you aren't gonna remember to do it always.

[NYüSTi]

Początkowo opublikowane przez StatiC:

To be clear, it isn't the disable ability to wake the system that I had to be unchecked for me. It is the unchecking of 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' that solved it for me for the 'Microsoft Hardware USB Mouse'.

Does the powercfg /lastwake command show anything after the monitor wakes up? It showed just some generic PCI thing for me but I think it is a misbehaving Sculpt driver or hardware that is actually causing it and maybe the PCI bus just can't identify the specific device because of that.

Nice find! It solved the issue for me. At least I don't have to disable Nvidia Sound device every time after a driver update!

[Pablo Kickasso]

Just chiming in. I'd already tried every fix mentioned in this thread, including

POWERetcetc steam.exe

, disabling the Nvidia audio device driver, disabling "Allow the computer to turn off this device..." on every peripheral I could find. Nothing helped.

Eventually what did fix it was one of these two below, sorry but I can't say which one:

- Removing the leftover audio device for my Bluetooth headset
- Disabling "Allow the computer to turn off this device..." on my Bluetooth adapter in Device Manager.

It appears that as far as I don't have Steam open, the monitors now go to sleep, as well as the PC. Stay tuned for more information.

[Quitch]

Like others, I have found disabling "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" on the Microsoft Hardware USB Mouse under Human Interface Devices in Device Manager resolves the problem. Unclear whether this is specific to that mouse not being present (I have the Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard, but the mouse is long gone).

[AtmaDarkwolf]

yay on windows 11 this bug still exists :/

At least micro$oft is consistent :P

[The Bestagon]

I was able to locate the exact device for me that caused the screen wakeup. Yes, closing steam or disabling "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" fixed the issue, but it incurred a loss of functionality which is not acceptable to me (not getting updates in the background, and not having audio over HDMI to my TV). So I began looking for a workaround that didn't involve loss of functionality. The hints at the Microsoft keyboard/mouse here and in other threads seemed relevant to me since I have those devices, but I couldn't get it to work as the devices mentioned didn't have the correct power options. So I delved deeper into device manager.

This is how I got my screen to sleep properly and keep both Steam and NVIDIA Audio enabled (I'm on Windows 11 22H2):

1. Open Device Manager (press Start then type Device Manager and click it).
   
2. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers node at the very bottom
   
3. Single-click on Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Detection Driver (USB)
   
4. Click the View menu at the top and select Devices by connection
   
5. The tree will rearrange. Find the device you previously selected at step 3 (it should be selected in blue). You might need to scroll a little.
   
6. You should see three devices named USB Input Device under it. Choose the first, right click it and select Properties.
   
7. Click the Power Management tab and untick the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power checkbox.
   
8. Press OK.
   
9. Repeat steps 6-8 for the other two USB Input Devices.
   
10. Your screen should now turn off after the monitor sleep period (I temporarily set it to 1 minute while testing to confirm it works).

Image showing what to do can be found here[postimg.cc].

Even though there are three "USB Input Device" under the detection driver, disabling that setting for any one of them seems to do the trick, no need to disable all three. EDIT: I did need to disable all three in the end, updated the steps.

If you don't own a Microsoft keyboard and mouse, I suggest you too try combing through the entirety of the device manager, disable the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" for all of them, and then slowly turn them back on until the monitor stops sleeping properly.

[Lord.Frosty]

Początkowo opublikowane przez The Bestagon:

I was able to locate the exact device for me that caused the screen wakeup. Yes, closing steam or disabling "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" fixed the issue, but it incurred a loss of functionality which is not acceptable to me (not getting updates in the background, and not having audio over HDMI to my TV). So I began looking for a workaround that didn't involve loss of functionality. The hints at the Microsoft keyboard/mouse here and in other threads seemed relevant to me since I have those devices, but I couldn't get it to work as the devices mentioned didn't have the correct power options. So I delved deeper into device manager.

This is how I got my screen to sleep properly and keep both Steam and NVIDIA Audio enabled (I'm on Windows 11 22H2):

1. Open Device Manager (press Start then type Device Manager and click it).
   
2. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers node at the very bottom
   
3. Single-click on Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Detection Driver (USB)
   
4. Click the View menu at the top and select Devices by connection
   
5. The tree will rearrange. Find the device you previously selected at step 3 (it should be selected in blue). You might need to scroll a little.
   
6. You should see three devices named USB Input Device under it. Choose any of them (doesn't matter which), right click it and select Properties.
   
7. Click the Power Management tab and untick the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power checkbox.
   
8. Press OK. You screen should now turn off after the monitor sleep period (I temporarily set it to 1 minute while testing to confirm it works).

Image showing what to do can be found here[postimg.cc].

Even though there are three "USB Input Device" under the detection driver, disabling that setting for any one of them seems to do the trick, no need to disable all three. If you don't own a Microsoft keyboard and mouse, I suggest you too try combing through the entirety of the device manager, disable the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" for all of them, and then slowly turn them back on until the monitor stops sleeping properly.

Finally a solution that helped me! Thank you very much sir!

[Daveed]

Początkowo opublikowane przez The Bestagon:

I was able to locate the exact device for me that caused the screen wakeup. Yes, closing steam or disabling "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" fixed the issue, but it incurred a loss of functionality which is not acceptable to me (not getting updates in the background, and not having audio over HDMI to my TV). So I began looking for a workaround that didn't involve loss of functionality. The hints at the Microsoft keyboard/mouse here and in other threads seemed relevant to me since I have those devices, but I couldn't get it to work as the devices mentioned didn't have the correct power options. So I delved deeper into device manager.

This is how I got my screen to sleep properly and keep both Steam and NVIDIA Audio enabled (I'm on Windows 11 22H2):

1. Open Device Manager (press Start then type Device Manager and click it).
   
2. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers node at the very bottom
   
3. Single-click on Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Detection Driver (USB)
   
4. Click the View menu at the top and select Devices by connection
   
5. The tree will rearrange. Find the device you previously selected at step 3 (it should be selected in blue). You might need to scroll a little.
   
6. You should see three devices named USB Input Device under it. Choose any of them (doesn't matter which), right click it and select Properties.
   
7. Click the Power Management tab and untick the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power checkbox.
   
8. Press OK. You screen should now turn off after the monitor sleep period (I temporarily set it to 1 minute while testing to confirm it works).

Image showing what to do can be found here[postimg.cc].

Even though there are three "USB Input Device" under the detection driver, disabling that setting for any one of them seems to do the trick, no need to disable all three. If you don't own a Microsoft keyboard and mouse, I suggest you too try combing through the entirety of the device manager, disable the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" for all of them, and then slowly turn them back on until the monitor stops sleeping properly.

This fixed the issue for me as well. Thanks very much!

[privatemachine]

Finally, this also is the only thing that worked for me other than disabling NVIDIA High Definition Audio, which I need to keep enabled for my 7.1 system. This post should be added to the OP before it gets lost.

[Khaddar]

Początkowo opublikowane przez NYüSTi:

If I disable the NVIDIA High Definition Audio device in the device manager, the issue goes away

This is both the fix and an acceptable solution for me, as I don't use monitor output for sound at all. This has annoyed me probably since you wrote your solution post, I just hadn't found the answer anywhere. Thanks, and take my points

Also grateful for other people's suggestions about Microsoft USB power options, as I'm also a Sculpt keyboard user - going to make a note of those to try if I ever need to enable Nvidia HDA.

[whatsupgold]

I know this is old but I have found a workaround that doesn't involve disabling anything. The store page is what keeps the computer from sleeping or turning the screen off. In the settings page of Steam go to the interface tab, select start-up location to Library. That way when you first load it up you will be on the library page. The moving background keeps your computer from sleeping right. At least this has worked for me.

[mcdoubill]

Początkowo opublikowane przez whatsupgold:

I know this is old but I have found a workaround that doesn't involve disabling anything. The store page is what keeps the computer from sleeping or turning the screen off. In the settings page of Steam go to the interface tab, select start-up location to Library. That way when you first load it up you will be on the library page. The moving background keeps your computer from sleeping right. At least this has worked for me.

This worked for me. Thank you!!