Laptop ignores power settings, closing lid always sleeps/hibernates, why?

Basically the question says it all. I have an Asus N55SF laptop with a fresh install of Windows 7 ultimate (with all the updates) and no Asus pre-installed software (eg: Asus Power management tools... all drivers and chipset updates are installed) nor other power management tools installed, nor other software that can potentially override the settings. Also, have an external monitor plugged via the lateral HDMI port.

Power settings, for both battery and plugged-in, are set so that the laptop will never power off disks/monitor, sleep nor hibernate. That is both for idle time and laptop lid's closing.

I'd like to use the external monitor only, with the laptop always closed but apparently it's not possible. Whenever I close the lid, I get maybe up to 15-20 minutes worth of usage then it hibernates (or sleeps). If I then try to re-awake it, that doesn't work, and I have to press the power button until the laptop reboots.

What is going on? What should I change/check to have this setup working as I want it to?

Solution 1:

Laptop ignores power settings, closing lid always sleeps/hibernates, why?

powercfg might give you some hints.

Open a command window and run:

powercfg -getactivescheme

The GUID of the active scheme will be returned:

Power Scheme GUID: a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a  (Power saver)

Now query the default scheme:

powercfg -q a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

This will return the contents of the active scheme. Look for the section containing Power buttons and lid:

  Subgroup GUID: 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347  (Power buttons and lid)
    Power Setting GUID: 5ca83367-6e45-459f-a27b-476b1d01c936  (Lid close action)
      Possible Setting Index: 000
      Possible Setting Friendly Name: Do nothing
      Possible Setting Index: 001
      Possible Setting Friendly Name: Sleep
      Possible Setting Index: 002
      Possible Setting Friendly Name: Hibernate
      Possible Setting Index: 003
      Possible Setting Friendly Name: Shut down
    Current AC Power Setting Index: 0x00000000
    Current DC Power Setting Index: 0x00000000

The above is part of my default scheme. You can see that the value for this entry is 0x00000000 which corresponds to index: 000 (do nothing).

Check your value is set to what you think it should be (and check the remaining entries as well)

How do I change my power settings?

powercfg can be used to change some settings from the command line:

• Switch power scheme
• Change timeout values for disk, display, sleep and hibernate.

To change other values:

• "Start" > "Run" > "Control Panel" > "Hardware and Sound" > "Power Options" > "Change Plan Settings" > "Change Advanced Power Settings" as mentioned in the answer by Tyler B. Long.

Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line - An excellent reference for all things Windows cmd line related.
• powercfg - Control power settings, configure Hibernate/Standby modes.

Solution 2:

I had the same problem with my ASUS laptop. Even though I had "Do Nothing" in the "When I close the lid" setting, but the laptop would still go to sleep when I closed the lid. All I did to correct this was that I just changed that setting to something else and then changed it back to "Do Nothing" and then started working like it was supposed to.