I'm posting it here as I'm not sure how to categorize this issue, but of course feel free to move it if another section would be more appropriate.I'm posting about an "odd" behavior in Windows 7 boxes when it comes to sleep/hibernation while other Windows 7 boxes are joined to the same homegroup. The short of it: Two Windows 7 boxes act like a tween slumber party keeping eachother up indefineatly and never allowing sleep despite sharing/hibernation settings.To be clear:Windows 7 box #1 is my "main horsepower, and a beast on resources and power" ... so I'm a big fan of P-State reduced cycles, sleep, and hibernation modes to save power when noone is around. To take it a step further, I checked the BIOS to ensure Away Mode was not enabled as well as the Device Manager to ensure no Awaymode drivers were loaded (for those not aware, its a "feature" that allows a box to turn off non-essential items like video cards so it apears shutdown while drives and core services continue to run so it can share media).Now this box _is_ a part of a Homegroup, however it doesn't share _any_ files, folders, printers, media, or antyhign else. Device streaming is disabled, and the homegroup is used SOLEY for retrieving off of remote shares as needed. So there should be no reason the box doesn't shutdown after a given amount of inactivity. Which, under normal circumstances, is exactlywhat happens.Unless my Windows 7 laptop is there. Then "slumber party mode" begins.By that I mean: the moment my Windows 7laptop comes out of hibernation (I open the lid and turn it on) my main Win7 box boots along with it. My Beast of a Win 7 box that shares nothing wakes it right up. The paculiar thing is that my Vista box won'twake it... though admitedly I've nto tried pinging the unit to see if it can force it up. But Windows 7.... well it wakes its homegroup buddy right up every time.Further, once the two machines are up and running, neihter of them will ever go to sleep. Ever. No amount of inactivity will do this. If I force one to go to sleep it goes through the cycle complete with the spinning down of disks then fires right back up the moment the cycle is done, it's chatty partner having something juicy to share I'm sure. I call this the "Zach Effron Effect" ... as any parent with a girl of the rght age knows exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you may prefer the "Twilight" effect .... but you get my point.Now, I have discovered that by default Windows 7 sets "allow this device to wake the computer" on the network card, and clearing this check box will let the computer go to sleep... but only if i manually tell it to. No amount of waiting will allow either box ever sleep/hibernate with the two are running together. I'm guessing it has somethign to do with the homegroup (as no other device will wake the machine) but honestly itneeds further testing.Next I'm going to set magic packet only and see how insistent these machines are about chatting it up.Anyway: something to report, as I'm certain the homegroup feature will be quickly embrassed for easy file/printer shareing but if no box will ever go to sleep once joined it could be annoying and easier to just use the old workgroup model.EDIT: I type really poorly ... needed to fix some major typos.

I should updaet that I confiremd that I _can_ infact wake it with Vista as well, so the "allow this device to wake my computer" check is infact the culprit of waking the computer. However VIsta will not prevent Win7 from going into sleep mode, where as two Win7 boxes in the same homegroup will keep eachother up indefinately. Again this is regardless of share settings.

Justin,Several questions come to mind that I don't see listed in that...Doyou have a mapped drive to the 'hosting' machine?Do you have folders from one machine in the 'Library' of the other?Does the WMP network service run the whole time?

Thats for the followup:1. No there are no mapped drives. I simply UNC as needed to grab files.2. No, there are no cross library references. Again, the only reason I'm even in a homegroup is to test it. Typically I simply connect to a UNC share as needed on the rare event I want to move files around. 99% of the time I have a seperate NAS and thats the neutral file share.3. Yes on _one_ of the two Windows 7 machines. But I did turn it off on both to test things and it didn't effect anything.To be clear, if I break the homegroup both Windows 7 machines behave exactly as you'd expect even though they are still in the same workgroup. There is somethign specifically happening in the background that keeps all homegroup participants awake so that they will never sleep. I dont know if maybe that homegroup account that gets created needs to have it's password synchronized or if they constantly scan each other for services or what .... but the net effect is boxes once in a homegroup ignore ANY power conservation settings.