I had previously troubleshooted what is waking my windows 11 laptop, but it still continues. Please advise

Question

I had previously troubleshooted what is waking my windows 11 laptop, but it still continues. Please advise

Joshua 41

Hello, I previously was troubleshooting what was waking my laptop screen randomly, and was advised to use various command prompts under the administrator setting, and that resolved one aspect, but it still continues. I have ran the same commands, but those commands do not seem to find what is waking my laptop.

(these were commands such as "powercfg -devicequery wake_armed")

I also tried power troubleshooter in the event viewer filter, and did not find it. I would like to ask if somebody has further advice. thank you.

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3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Since powercfg -devicequery wake_armed is no longer identifying the cause, the next useful checks are the wake source history and battery/power behavior.

In an elevated Command Prompt, run:
- powercfg /lastwake
- powercfg /waketimers
- powercfg /requests
What these do:
- /lastwake shows what woke the system from the last sleep transition.
- /waketimers lists active wake timers that can wake the PC from sleep or hibernate.
- /requests shows apps or drivers currently preventing normal display sleep or low-power sleep.
If the screen is waking but the system is not fully resuming as expected, try the built-in display recovery shortcuts:
- Windows logo key + P
- Ctrl + Alt + Del
- For a black screen: Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + B
If the laptop is on Windows 11 version 24H2, check whether Modern Standby wake behavior is being changed by the new battery-drain protection. In that state, most wake sources are disabled, and the device can wake from Modern Standby only by pressing the power button or opening the lid. If wake behavior is inconsistent, review the device’s power behavior first.
Run an energy analysis from an elevated Command Prompt:
- powercfg /energy
This generates an HTML report in the current path and is intended to analyze common energy-efficiency and battery-life problems. Run it while the computer is idle with no open programs or documents.
If the issue is specifically that only the display wakes unexpectedly, not the whole system, connected input devices are still a common trigger. In that case, review mouse, keyboard, USB, and network adapter wake settings in Device Manager and remove wake permission where not needed.

If the laptop is entering Modern Standby, random display wake can also be tied to supported wake sources such as keyboard, mouse, touchpad, fingerprint reader, touch screen, lid activity, or voice input depending on hardware and power state.

Answer 2

EmilyS726 270.5K Independent Advisor

"powercfg -devicequery wake_armed" only tells you which devices are allowed to wake the computer. It does not necessarily tell you what actually caused the most recent wake.

I would try these next, preferably immediately after the screen wakes unexpectedly. Please type cmd in the search on the taskbar. Don't press enter key yet. Instead, choose "run as administrator" to launch Command Prompt. Then run them one at a time, and share the results.

powercfg /lastwake
powercfg /waketimers
powercfg /requests
powercfg /a

Joshua 41 Reputation points

2026-09-26T00:03:09.0866667+00:00
what does this mean: The following sleep states are available on this system:

Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Connected Hibernate

I have disabled the HP print thing, but I did see it wake briefly. Probably less since disabling it.
EmilyS726 270.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-26T15:30:56.88+00:00

This means your computer is on Modern Standby. The computer can look asleep, but Windows stays in a very low-power state and can remain connected to the network for things like notifications, updates and syncing.

So, that means the computer is not using the traditional/older S3 traditional sleep mode. This is very common for newer computers these days.

With Modern Standby, Windows can bring the computer out of its low-power state for certain scheduled tasks, maintenance, and network events.. it is actually considered normal.

Answer 3

Joshua 41

It appears that I still have one of the previous things waking the system, but also another:

Timer set by [SERVICE] \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\svchost.exe (SystemEventsBroker) expires at 1:59:12 PM on 9/23/2026.

Reason: Windows will execute 'NT TASK\HP\HP Print Scan Doctor\Printer Health Monitor' scheduled task that requested waking the computer.

I had turned off some processes regarding HP Print Scan Doctor, and may have taken other steps, but I do not remember all that I had done. I am not sure what System Events broker is specifically doing.

EmilyS726 270.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-23T02:57:16.7933333+00:00

Based on the result you posted, it looks like the wake source is this task:

NT TASK\HP\HP Print Scan Doctor\Printer Health Monitor

SystemEventsBroker is normal. It is basically the Windows component handling the scheduled wake request. I would not disable that.

You can leave this as it is if you don't mind this waking the computer now that you know what it was.

But if you want to prevent it from waking the computer, hold down Win+R keys, type in taskschd.msc and press Enter

Go to Task Scheduler Library > HP > HP Print Scan Doctor

Open Printer Health Monitor

Go to the Conditions tab

Uncheck Wake the computer to run this task

Click OK

(See screenshot. I don't have HP on my computer, so I used a different scheduled task as reference).

Test and see if this is still happening.
Joshua 41 Reputation points

2026-09-23T20:57:09.5366667+00:00

All the options under conditions that are enabled are grayed out. What about simply disabling it? Note: It is referencing a directory that I renamed previously.
EmilyS726 270.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-23T21:03:19.0633333+00:00

Yes. If that scheduled task is pointing to a folder/directory that you renamed and no longer exists under that old name, disabling the task is a reasonable test and is safer than deleting it.