Power options in both Windows-7 and 8.1 seem to confuse "turn the display off" with "put the computer to sleep."  I want to set my devices to turn the display off after a set time regardless of if they are plugged in or on battery power.  But I want to configure them to NEVER sleep when plugged in, and sleep after a selected period only when running on battery power. 

The above holds true for a tablet running Win-8.1 as well as for a desktop running Win-7, and for a laptop running Win-7. 

It seems that Windows confuses the Display-off and Sleep settings.  Windows (7/8) NEVER consistently turns the display off on ANY device.  It will work one time, then never again.  And it sleeps the device when it has been asked to turn off the display regardless of if it's plugged-in or running on battery.  If I change it to never sleep, then it correctly never sleeps, but then it also never turns the display off too.  What's up with that?

Please don't waste my time with suggestions such as "be sure you are using the latest drivers" and "use the Power Options control panel app to configure these options."  I've been working this problem for several months.  I've reloaded ALL of these devices (tablet, desktop, laptop) from scratch. And I've allowed Windows Update to bring them all up to date.  I've tried everything else I've found on the web.  Nothing works.  There's enough stuff on the web to show me that (a) I'm not alone and (b) this has been going on FAR too long for Microsoft to not be aware of the problem.

Is there really not an honest solution to this issue?

I only have one device that confuses sleep and monitor off, an ASUS T100ta tablet.  It turns out the hardware actually forces the sleep when the monitor is off, so there was no way for Windows to override that.  I suspect there are other tablets with the same "problem".

Thanks Bob,

I can't argue with that.  I'm sure that specific devices behave differently.

But the issue I'm experiencing - across all of my devices - is that Windows seems to consistently confuse sleep with display-off.  When I set a device to turn the display off, it sleeps after the same period.  When I reconfigure it to never sleep, then it also changes to never "Turn the display off."   Changing one option seems to change the other similarly.  I'm stumped.

I really don't know, the ASUS is the only device I have that does it.

I just set it to a blank screen screensaver when it's plugged in, but I know that's not a good workaround for a general purpose PC.  Maybe you can ask the manufacturer for your devices...

... but it's not device-specific.  The issue affects ALL of my devices.  And when I change one option it actually changes the other option!  All looks good when I make a change.  But subsequently - not sure if it requires a reboot, a sign-out/sign-in, or what - I'll think I have things all set, and find later on that they are NOT they way I configured them.  I've taken to physically powering down the display on my desktop system when I walk away.  But my laptop and tablet continue to "surprise" me by going to sleep when I don't expect it, or by failing to sleep when I do expect it.  It's terribly frustrating ... the kind of "little" thing that annoys people enough to make them want to abandon Windows entirely.

Hi Charlie,

Please open an administrator command line and run "Powercfg /energy" to check the result. If you have any troubles in analyzing the result, please upload the result to OneDrive and paste the link here.

Best r

That's not the norm, so something must be different with your systems.   Could you be running any kind of screensaver utility or power utility that might be getting things confused?

I turned off my (Windows-provided) screen saver.  And I don't have any power-related utilities installed.  I think I've muddied the water by trying to lump all my devices into a single issue, when it's likely some different, device-unique issue on each one.  So I'm going to focus on the Win-7 Premium, 32-bit desktop for now and see if I can resolve that one.  I've run the energy report before, as recommended by MeipoXu above, without finding any obvious (to me) solution. But I'll go produce and post the report as he asks.  So, standby for a while as I do that.

I turned off my (Windows-provided) screen saver.  And I don't have any power-related utilities installed.  I think I've muddied the water by trying to lump all my devices into a single issue, when it's likely some different, device-unique issue on each one.  So I'm going to focus on the Win-7 Premium, 32-bit desktop for now and see if I can resolve that one.  I've run the energy report before, as recommended by MeipoXu above, without finding any obvious (to me) solution. But I'll go produce and post the report as he asks.  So, standby for a while as I do that.

• Marked as answer by Bruce WoodingModerator Friday, July 24, 2015 6:04 PM

Hi Charlie,

We wonder if there is any luck your issue has been resolved, if you've found solution by yourself. We would appreciate it if you could share with us and we will mark it as answer.

If the issue persists, please post the energy report here.

Best regards

Sorry.  Got way busy with real-life issues.  Decided to abandon this thread in favor of upgrading to Windows-10 and waiting to see if the issue is sustained thru the upgrade.  So ... thanks for everyone's help and wish me luck thru the upgrade.

cw

• Marked as answer by CharlieWright 11 hours 31 minutes ago

Sorry.  Got way busy with real-life issues.  Decided to abandon this thread in favor of upgrading to Windows-10 and waiting to see if the issue is sustained thru the upgrade.  So ... thanks for everyone's help and wish me luck thru the upgrade.

cw

• Marked as answer by CharlieWright Monday, August 03, 2015 7:51 PM