NO SLEEP MODE - Windows 11 "Settings" is Missing many Features

Brian and all those who are still here/there-

Maybe a little early to declare victory (resolution or whatever), but this is a Tuesday morning (the morning of the typically dead PC) and everything is working fine.

After a small amount of mouse movement, my system came back up with the locked screen, looking for my PIN. Everything was normal, working as it should be working. I intentionally left a few things running overnight (a couple of Edge browsers, OneNote, File Explorer, Quicken and my Password APP) - and everything was still there and running this morning.

So, I guess I am in good shape - and still at a loss as to what was going on. BUT I will have to give credit to the Firmware update that took place a couple of weeks ago. After the update, the Sleep mode problem was fixed (the MISSING Sleep mode timer reappeared) AND for 2 weeks now, the Tuesday morning dead machine phenomena has not resurfaced (the problem of EVERY Tuesday having to Power Off/On my PC to get it back functioning).

I still do not understand the Tuesday morning phenomena of my machine essentially being dead, so-to-speak. Tuesday doesn't seem to line up with anything. Anyway, it is time to let it go and be happy that my system is running fine, running like it should be.

I guess I will go back (if I can do that) and mark the note with the unsolicited automatic(?) Firmware update as the resolution of my problem - as I did nothing else to fix the problem - no in-place upgrade or anything else.

So, thanks for the interest, for those left reading this thread and as always, appreciate the help.

ron in shawnee

IMPORTANT FOLLOWUP - SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENED - SAT MORNING

Without doing anything special Friday night, this morning (4/20) at 7:00 am, my main monitor had a MS Compatibility Exception Error window popup on it - with advice to close APPs and Restart my computer - with options to Continue or Restart.

Also, a checked checkbox of Send error stuff to MS - so I chose Continue instead of Restart thinking you had to do that to get the error log sent (don't know if the error log was actually sent - no ack) - and the system pretty much returned to normal. But I didn't do anything at this point - I just closed all programs running - and did a Restart (AND THEN THE STRANGER PART).

Dell immediately took over with a Firmware update - and the warning to not Power Off my Desktop.

Anyway, long story (took several minutes for the Intel-related Firmware update), but it did come back to life with an automatic Restart - and it came up with the home screen asking for my PIN. Can't remember if I supplied the PIN (think I did) and checked if the SLEEP Option was there (and it was), but immediately did another Restart to see if that was still OK.

I did the Restart from the Windows Startup screen (the little Power icon in bottom right corner) - and ONLY THEN did I notice a change (hadn't noticed it before, but I do remember there only being 3 things in the popup list). When I was having all of the SLEEP missing problems and occasionally trying Restarts to fix it, whenever I clicked on the Power icon, there were only 3 things in the list - Sleep was missing from the options - and it is now back in the Power icon list.

So the whole thing is scary to me. Not just the SLEEP missing issue, but even more scary might be the fact that a Dell initiated Firmware update fixed my Windows software SLEEP missing problem. So was there a general Firmware update on all Intel-Windows systems, or all Intel-Dell systems or was my system singled out by Dell as needing a Firmware update.

[Anyone know more about this - probably the 1st spontaneous Firmware Update I have ever had.]

Everything seems to be running fine right now. I reset a Sleep Timer - and will see how that goes. BUT the real test may be to wait until Tuesday morning and see if my machine goes essentially DEAD overnight - the REAL original problem, every Tuesday morning - of having to do a Power Off to get my system back up and running.

Sorry for the long note, but this is just in case anyone else is experiencing this strange phenomenon with their system (Dell Inspiron 3020 Desktop, Windows 11 Home, purchased at end of January 2024) - and the possibility that this might help.

And thanks for listening if you made it this far - but I intend to continue with a couple of more updates, at least until Tuesday, to see if the original problem of a Dead computer on Tuesday morning is still there.

ron in shawnee

PS - Apparently this forum will not let my REPLY to my own post with an Update, so this response will be copied (Thank you MS for not deleting it) - and I will Reply to Brian's post above - so I am just not sure about the order of the posts in this thread.

OK, 1st UPDATE.

Today is Sunday 4/21/24: This is my first update after the spontaneous Firmware update Saturday morning on my Dell Desktop. at which time my missing Sleep Timer option returned - and is once again apparently functioning correctly because my system was sleeping this morning (I guess). Not sure how you tell it is sleeping, but the normal Locked screen (asking for my PIN) came up when I moved the mouse.

[Under Accounts, I have the "require sign back in - when PC wakes up from sleep" option set.]

So now the 2nd test will be to see if the machine is essentially Dead Tuesday morning - not responding to anything (mouse movement, keyboard clicks, quick <1 sec Power Off depressions (if that still exists, as it did on my old Laptop)) - forcing me to do a full 5-second Power Off Restart - the Tuesday morning Phenomenon I have been experiencing for several weeks now.

I will mention that I still do not have a Power troubleshoot option under the "Other Troubleshooters" as has been suggested (to run) in one of the posts. But not particularly worried about that since most everything is running fine right now, with the possible exception in the above paragraph, which we will know about on Tuesday.

ron in shawnee

Brian-

Thanks for the response, but 1st, let me correct you - I DO NOT USE 3RD PARTY TROUBLESHOOTING SOFTWARE. So any funny things happening to my PC is due to troubleshooting with MS software.

I have no idea what is going on - just know my problem (of NO SLEEP MODE) started (I think) when I was trying to figure out why my Desktop was essentially DEAD every Tuesday morning (the coincidence of Tuesday found later when I reviewed my little scraps of paper noting the Signal Power missing).

[And to reiterate that problem, the Desktop power was on and USB power was there, but there were no HDMI signals to any of my 3 monitors and the PC would not respond to any mouse or keyboard clicks, or temporary Power off clicks - forcing me to do a 5-second Power OFF, then ON to get my PC back up - and it always came up acknowledging an abnormal shutdown, with troubleshoot or restart options.]

One of my complaints in the above note is that the Power Troubleshooting option is missing from the Settings>System>Troubleshoot>Other Troubleshooters list - and in fact, that "may" have been the one I used to troubleshoot the original problem (paragraph above) - I just don't really remember.

I should also mention that somewhere in the process, I lost several of my printer configurations.

Anyway, Windows 11 seems to be a mess. There are recommendations to go into the Registry and fool around, but I tend to avoid that advice - because much of it coming from 3rd parties.

I appreciate the advice to run an In-place Upgrade in Windows 11, but your warning to back up my data has me worried. [I might note here that whenever I run the "Check for updates", Windows always comes back with "You're up to date:".] I have everything (I think) backed up in OneDrive, so are you suggesting something beyond that - and if so, will a direct backup of the Documents Folder take care of that, or is there other stuff hidden in Windows 11 that I don't know about.

Still hoping for a MS solution, that works.

ron in shawnee

Hello roninrr2

Welcome to the Microsoft Community!

Thank you for your feedback, I have read your description of the problem in detail and understand how this issue has caused you trouble, I noticed that you have had many problems with your computer, you mentioned that your computer's sleep mode disappeared, and then you performed a series of troubleshooting and repairing operations using a third-party software, but these operations didn't solve the problem. In this case, I recommend you try the following methods to troubleshoot the problem.

1. You can try to update the driver of the power supply, and then check whether the power supply and battery appear in the device manager, and whether the sleep mode reappears. Please follow the guidelines at the link below.

Update drivers manually in Windows - Microsoft Support

2. If updating the drivers doesn't solve your problems, then I recommend that you perform an in-place upgrade to get rid of these problems. Please follow the instructions at the link below.

How to run In-place upgrade in Windows 11 - Microsoft Community

Disclaimer: Let's try to perform an in-place upgrade, which will refresh your Windows files and operating system without deleting files or applications.However, we still recommend backing up your computer ahead of time if it contains important data.

Best regards

Brian - MSFT |Microsoft Community Support Specialist