I recently upgraded to Windows 8.1. Unfortunately, my NIC prevents the system from automatically entering Hibernate (if I disable/unplug it the system sleeps properly). To work around this, I thought I would use a Scheduled Task to run shutdown /h after x minutes of inactivity (probably an hour).

I set my task's trigger to be an hourly check indefinitely.

I set the action to be shutdown /h

I set the conditions to be:

• Start the task only if the computer is idle for: 1 hour (checked)
• Wait for idle for: Do not wait

The problem I have found is that the task runs if the computer has been idle for only four minutes as per the Task Idle Conditions states (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa383561%28v=vs.85%29.aspx). In my mind I should leave the computer alone, the hour ticks over and the task is initiated. It should then check to see how long the system has been idle for:

• >= 1 hour? Run the task
• < 1 hour? Do nothing until the next hour

What seems to be happening is it is checking for an idle state and running the task, even if the computer has only been idle for the minimum four minutes.

Has anyone else found this issue? Are there any ideas on how I can fix this? My next idea is to write a batch file to sleep for an hour and then hibernate and to have the task cancel the batch process when the system is no longer idle. Seems like it could work.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Is it that your system won't go to hibernation or that it immediately wakes up?

If that is your problem than i would suggest to try the following:

Open Device Manager. 
Expand the list for Network adapters
Right-click the adapter to be configured and choose Properties. There may be several adapters, one for Ethernet, one for wireless, and others like Bluetooth
In the dialog that opens, click the tab Power Management
Remove the check by Allow this device to wake the computer
Click OK and close up Device Manager

Hi vdboots. The question is regarding Task Scheduling and the idle timer, not the issues my system has with hibernating automatically.

To answer your query, yes I have disabled all devices from waking the computer. The Microsoft drivers for my NIC for some reason keeps the machine awake. I installed the manufacturer's Windows 7 drivers (of course they didn't release any Windows 8 ones...) and the machine would sometimes enter hibernation, but mostly would just stay on. The only way I could get the computer to automatically hibernate was to disable the NIC altogether, but that is hardly a solution.

As I said, this question is about why Windows doesn't seem to be waiting for 1 hour idle time before initiating the task. The action of the task is fairly irrelevant, in fact for my testing I just launch cmd and run time /t.

Hi, You right about that but sometimes it is better to find out why your computer is responding to it then providing a workaround for it. But i believe you tried to find it already. I think your answer to start a batch file is a good and simple solution.