Power Management on Windows 7

[enjay]

I've created some GPOs which set customised power management settings, but I can't get them to work. Two problems - one is that the Power Plan won't become the default even when I tell it to, and the other is that the PCs don't hibernate. They did under XP (sometimes), so it isn't a hardware or BIOS problem. The monitors turn off as scheduled, so I don't think there is some other process stopping the PC from idling long enough for the Power Plan to kick in.

 

Suggestions?

[SYNACK]

Machine or user config, works alright for me under machine policies here so don't have any experience troublshooting it. Run a gpupdate /force and then check the event logs thoroughly. Maybe look in the mmc.exe > Resultant Set of Policy snapin.

[Michael]

If you've used Power Options under GPP, make sure 'Set as the active power plan' is ticked on your power plan.

[enjay]

These are machine policies - gpresult/r says they've applied, and monitor time-outs happen, but the sleep/hibernate does not. I'll have a look in Event Viewer to see if there's anything helpful in there.

 

I have tried that Michael, but for some reason it doesn't work - the policy gets added just fine, but "Balanced (recommended)" is still enabled. I also tried changing the "Balanced" one, but my changes didn't get applied.

[Michael]

Try this:

 

Computer Config > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Power Management

 

In the root here, you should see: Select an Active Power Plan. You could try enabling this.

[dobrien]

Can't tell from your description of the problem, but you might want to check to see if your NIC is set to "Allow this device to wake the computer." I created a new image for our Optiplex 755's and I forgot to uncheck this box. As a result no matter how much I fiddled with the Power Management GPO, they wouldn't stay asleep until I cleared that checkbox on each machine.

[enjay]

@dobrien - how would disabling the wake-on-LAN setting affect whether or not a PC enters hibernate?

[enjay]

@Michael - I've changed that setting, but it is hard to say if it has taken effect or not, since I know can't see the Power Settings within Control Panel. I'll leave the computers a little while and hopefully that will tell me if it has worked.

 

Whilst in that bit of Group Policy, I noticed that I can actually use it to govern most of the power settings which I've been trying to apply via a Power Plan. Would that be a better way of doing it, or is it just a different way to set the same thing?

[SYNACK]

Whilst in that bit of Group Policy, I noticed that I can actually use it to govern most of the power settings which I've been trying to apply via a Power Plan. Would that be a better way of doing it, or is it just a different way to set the same thing?

 

I thought that was the bit that you were using, that is how we configured it and it worked first time.

[enjay]

No, I was using Computer Config > Preferences > Control Panel Settings > Power Options to add a new Power Plan. I'll give your method a whirl instead...

[enjay]

@synack - thanks, that is working a treat - the PC now hibernates exactly how I want it to.

 

Next one is how (if?) I can assign different Policies to different PCs within the same OU container, e.g. we have a container called "IT Suite 1", and I want most of the PCs to have the default power settings, but the PC on the projector to have longer time-outs. Is that achievable, or should I just set everything on the longer time-outs?

[SYNACK]

@synack - thanks, that is working a treat - the PC now hibernates exactly how I want it to.

 

Next one is how (if?) I can assign different Policies to different PCs within the same OU container, e.g. we have a container called "IT Suite 1", and I want most of the PCs to have the default power settings, but the PC on the projector to have longer time-outs. Is that achievable, or should I just set everything on the longer time-outs?

 

you could use wmi filtering on the gpo with the computer name to not apply the policy to certain machines and the inverse filter to aply a longer timeout. You can also use gpo level security to deny acces to the policy to certain machines.