How to prevent Google Chrome from keeping computer awake?

Solution 1:

This solved the problem for me:

hunterdg said:
see http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=3b1d41b0663a4d40&hl=en

in a command window:
powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS chrome.exe awaymode display system

to remove the override:
powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS chrome.exe

source: http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/E/7/7E7662CF-CBEA-470B-A97E-CE7CE0D98DC2/AvailabilityRequests.docx.

https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/chrome/vE7o1k0txtU/0ES4nTp01JsJ

Solution 2:

This also drove me crazy. After trying many things, this one worked:

In short, (A)create a scheduled task to kill chrome if you computer has been idle for [IdleTime]. [IdleTime] has to be the same as your (B) "PC goes to sleep after" time you enter in Settings.

A: Create a scheduled task to kill chrome.exe

1. Open Task Scheduler (hit windows key and enter "Task Scheduler")
2. Click "Create Task ..." on the right side menu.
3. On the General tab: enter "Close Chrome after [IdleTime] of inactivity". Do not enter the double quotes I typed on this step or any subsequent step.
4. On the Triggers tab: hit "New...", then select Begin the task: "On Idle", hit OK
5. On the Actions tab: hit "New...", then enter Program/script "taskkill", Add arguments "/F /IM chrome.exe /T"
6. On the Conditions tab: Check "start the task only if the computer is idle for" and [enter your preferred IdleTime]
7. Remember that even when you kill Chrome, your tabs are remembered. You just need to say "Restore" on the "Chrome didn't shut down correctly" prompt next time you open Chrome.

B: Set the official "PC goes to sleep after" setting

1. Open "Power & Sleep Settings" (hit windows key and enter "Power settings")
2. Set When plugged in, PC goes to sleep after [enter the SAME IdleTime you used on step A]

Solution 3:

I've had the same problem and am still looking for a "perfect" solution. For a long time I kept Chrome in the requestsoverride list, which in my case successfully prevented Chrome from blocking idle timeout.

The downside is that my displays would time out and shut off after the configured idle time--even when I'm watching Netflix or Youtube--because the Chrome process had lost the ability to send "still active" requests to the power subsystem. Sometimes I would work around this by opening a video in VLC and leaving it paused and minimised.

For now I'll await a solution that lets Chrome operate normally and doesn't require me to forcibly kill it, remember to shut it down manually every time I leave the PC, etc.

Solution 4:

After trying all of the above solutions, the thing that worked best for me is a Chrome extension called Mutetab. It will by default mute all background tabs, and the open tab if you open a different program on your computer. Of course, it also has an exclusion list for favorite sites, and you can always manually unmute when you want to listen to something. This disables the audio driver request, and lets the computer sleep. Hope that's helpful to someone. Facebook was especially egregious. Even with an autoplay blocker, it opens an audio channel for beeps and junk like that. So if you have facebook open, it's as if the computer is playing constant audio even if you can't hear anything.