Laptop wakes from sleep, once, due to audio controller (Windows 7)

The laptop is a recent Dell XPS 15z and the problem is as follows (reproducible about 90% of tries):

put laptop to sleep using either Start->Sleep or closing the lid
laptop goes to sleep after about 5 seconds, but instantly wakes again showing a black screen (touching the keyboard or moving the mouse shows the login screen one normally gets after wake)
login again, put laptop to sleep
latop stays in sleep mode

output of powercfg -lastwake after the first instant wake shows the audio controller is responsible. Why would that be, why only the first try, and how to fix this?

Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
  Wake Source Count - 1
  Wake Source [0]
    Type: Device
    Instance Path: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C20&SUBSYS_04461028&REV_05\3&11583659&0&D8
    Friendly Name:
    Description: High Definition Audio Controller
    Manufacturer: Microsoft

stijn

Posted 2012-06-02T07:53:41.283

Reputation: 1 977

2Nobody is going to answer you because you have 666 points... – Freesnöw – 2012-06-02T13:30:56.893

1See if there is a power management tab for that audio device in Device Manager, uncheck the box "allow this device to wake computer" – Moab – 2012-06-02T14:42:10.613

@XanderLamkins nice one – stijn – 2012-06-02T17:57:09.963

@Moab checked that already, no power management tab.. – stijn – 2012-06-02T17:57:35.923

1Since you're using PowerCfg.exe already, did you try the - DEVICEDISABLEWAKE switch? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-06-02T20:11:12.283

@techie007 devicedisablewake is only for devices listed by wake_armed and the controller is not one of them (only mouse/keyboard are) – stijn – 2012-06-02T20:37:09.570

Answers

You may want to consider updating your BIOS; I've seen other issues around the web where people have had similar "wake-once" issues like yours, and some of the posts indicated a BIOS update fixed it.

Dell has a BIOS update for your laptop that was released on March 27, so unless you got your computer less than two months ago it's quite likely you'll need this (and even if you did get it more recently, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try it).

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=7TT65&FileId=2910945453&productCode=xps-15z&urlProductCode=False

An audio driver update might not be a bad idea either; however, it seems Dell has only released one, so you may already be running this version.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=0T0GT&FileId=2731103525&productCode=xps-15z&urlProductCode=False

Doktor J

Posted 2012-06-02T07:53:41.283

Reputation: 2 083

1I think he's currently using the (generic) Microsoft Audio driver. Using the actual Realtek driver is highly recommended (at least by me :P). – Der Hochstapler – 2012-06-08T13:34:58.800

good catch, I got the laptop a week before that update so never installed it. Now I did, and out of 3 tries sleep attempts none failed. Promising. – stijn – 2012-06-08T15:54:21.150

@OliverSalzburg what exactly would be better about the Realtek driver (apart from the software)? Would there be any noticable difference in raw quality? – stijn – 2012-06-08T15:55:21.680

@stijn: I just had a few experiences where the Generic Microsoft driver was causing me trouble and it was fixed by installing the driver issued by the manufacturer. So, I would just recommend it from experience without any real reason. – Der Hochstapler – 2012-06-08T15:58:14.457

1MS drivers are meant to provide basic compatibility/functionality with the widest range of devices and variants; manufacturer-specific drivers are going to be more fine-tuned to the device. Especially in the case of laptops, the OEM (Dell, here) may have a slightly tweaked version of the hardware, and the OEM-issued drivers will most likely (but not always!) work the best and have fewest glitches. – Doktor J – 2012-06-08T16:42:42.770

after the bios update I still got some problems' also installed the Realtek drivers and everything is ok now! – stijn – 2012-06-12T13:15:40.703

This is not a direct answer but a temporary workaround while you figure out a permanent solution:

Write a batch file to disable/enable(toggle) audio driver.
Using task scheduler, schedule this batch to run on computer sleep and wakeup events(get exact event IDs from event viewer).

tumchaaditya

Posted 2012-06-02T07:53:41.283

Reputation: 3 624

+1 seems pretty clever; not sure if disabling the driver, which was part of the problem, would do any good though – stijn – 2012-06-12T13:16:25.947