Not a problem at all. Thank you.
Allow device to wake computer option in Power Management/Device Manager is greyed out
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anne hayden
20
Reputation points
I want to use my keyboard and mouse to wake the computer from sleep. That option is greyed out in Device Manager, Power Management in every instance whether I run Device Manager as Administrator or not.
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers
Answer accepted by question author
Answer accepted by question author
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IGYQ 18,445 Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-09-02T14:12:31.1166667+00:00
2 additional answers
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IGYQ 18,445 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-08-31T17:43:21.08+00:00 Yes, you need to check in BIOS settings. Here's how to:
- Reboot your device → tap F2 multiple times until you enter BIOS.
- Look under Power Management or Sleep States.
- Some Dell firmwares allow you to enable/disable S3 Sleep.
- If it’s there, enabling S3 restores the old device wake options.
- If not, Dell has locked the machine into Modern Standby(greyed out options)
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anne hayden 20 Reputation points
2025-09-01T10:41:21.25+00:00 Based on your post, I did a little more digging about "Modern Standby" and found a way to check what is installed without actually going into BIOS. I'll attach a picture, but essentially, run Command Prompt as Administrator and type "powercfg /a" and the registry will return the available and unavailable power schemes. It appears that Dell decided that no user may use anything other than the Power button to wake the computer. I will be complaining to them. Power configuration.jpg
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anne hayden 20 Reputation points
2025-09-01T13:01:37.99+00:00 One more thing! Just got off the phone with Dell and turns out that the usb ports designated for the mouse and keyboard permit them to be used to wake the computer as long as Deep Sleep is disabled in the BIOS power settings. Of course, the default is enabled. Disabled the Deep Sleep feature and can now wake the computer using the mouse or keyboard! PS I appreciate your help -- it pointed me in the right direction even though not solving my problem.
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IGYQ 18,445 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-08-31T16:43:44.0333333+00:00 Hi!
Can you give me a bit more information like, It this the first time that you noticed this options to be greyed out? Can I also get what device are you using now, is is a laptop(include model) or a desktop(include motherboard model).
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anne hayden 20 Reputation points
2025-08-31T16:58:35.2766667+00:00 It is an brand new Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 with Windows11. The only options in Settings is to use the Power button to wake or put to sleep. According to the User's Guide for the system, Wake From Sleep is enabled in the BIOS (I have not checked that). I'm in the process of migrating my files, etc. from my prior Dell XPS 8630. I don't find the motherboard model, but it is a Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 265K processor.
And, yes, the option has been greyed out since the beginning. In all instances where there is a Power Management tab for the device, the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." is available and I have unchecked it and the "Allow this device to wake computer" is greyed out.
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