Windows 7 RTM won't go back to sleep after one wake event - Network Driver Issue?
I have a licensed MSDN Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit RTM build 7600 installed to test out some media center software. It will go to S3 sleep and wake once successfully with powercfg -lastwake showing the correct wake event. Having woken once, then subsequent attempts to sleep result in the PC resuming instantly with powercfg -lastwake not showing any reason for the wake event. powercfg -devicequery wake_armed was showing only the network card being armed, as we want to use network events to wake the PC. The network chipset is Realtek RTL8111C Lan running the WHQL driver installed by Win7 RTM. This is an Asus P4-P5N9300 Barebone PC with 4GB RAM and E7400 CPU. It has an external USB Hauppauge dual tuner DVB-T tuner; PS2 keyboard and mouse; an X10 interface connected to the Com port. It has the BIOS set to S3 sleep; plug&play OS; all wake events disabled in the BIOS. When it wakes the network shows incorrectly as no internet connectivity, but it does work when you use IE. I saw a suggestion of only using magic packets to wake the PC, so set the pattern match to disabled and made sure magic packets were enabled and selected the checkbox in the power management tab to require magic packets. Same problem - once it wakes after the first magic packet it won't go back to sleep. The only way I can get the system to sleep more than once is to stop the network card waking the PC, which won't work in our desired use case of using WOL. Having established that it was a network card, I tried the latest Realtek drivers for Windows 7 - newer than then ones installed by RTM build, but this driver still prevents sleep after the first wake event. I know NDIS 6.2 was introduced in Win7, so it looks like the WHQL testing needs to cover S3 sleep tests, as the Realtek RTL8111C driver is clearly broken ! Does anyone know if it's possible to install a Vista network driver under Win7, as this doesn't add the new packet matching support, or alternatively are there any registry overrides for the network wake events?
September 26th, 2009 11:39am

Yes, you can install the Vista driver in compatible mode. Follow the steps as below: Right-click on the driver executable/installer file -> Properties and select the Compatibility tab; click the checkbox before Run this program in Compatibility mode for option and select Windows Vista in the list-down box; then try installing the device driver via Run as administrator. It is true that Windows 7 supports NDIS 6.2. However, thenetwork card driver may not support the features of NDIS 6.2. You should also check the latest version of the driver on Realteks website. If there is a latest driver, you can try to install it. Here Software: Drivers & Utilities You can try to install the Win7 Driver which is punished on 2009/9/22. Or you can try to install the drievr for Windows Vista in compatible mode. Regards. Cecilia Zhou
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 29th, 2009 11:07am

Hi Cecilia, I guess you didn't spot the line were I said I had already tried the latest drivers from Realtek. I got a blue screen just after installing them and the driver still didn't fix the problem about going to sleep, so I reverted to the RTM version. I'll try installing the Asus Vista driver that they list on the P4-P5N9300 web page in case that has some specific fix for the Barebone system, but I'm not holding my breath... looks like S3 sleep gets neglected in the WHQL testing :-(
October 1st, 2009 10:42am

Yes, ... You can try to install the Win7 Driver which is punished on 2009/9/22. Or you can try to install the drievr for Windows Vista in compatible mode. Regards. Cecilia Zhou It looks like it is going to be the Win7 Users who will be punished on 2009/9/22!
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 1st, 2009 3:02pm

Well it's taken a lot of trial and error, but I think I have finally got a stable system which will reliably go in and out of S3 sleep. I am using the Windows7 RTM network driver with it set to wake on magic packet. The system is set to S3 sleep. The critical last step, which made all the difference, is I enabled "Away Mode" in the BIOS. I'm not using Away Mode in Windows 7, but this showed up a new entry in Device Manager. Since enabling it in the BIOS it has reliably gone in and out of S3 sleep without loosing the TV tuner card or refusing to go back to sleep whether it was woken via network or timer. There also appears to be more information in the last wake event in powercfg -lastwake. So if you are having these sort of problems in Win7, try enabling Away Mode in the BIOS, even if you don't intend to use it in Win7 :-) Of course it could be famous last words, but it is so much more reliable now...
November 3rd, 2009 2:48am

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics