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Windows 11 PC occasionally not going to sleep while left on during the night

Marek Mickal 20 Reputation points
2026-04-26T06:44:26.82+00:00

below are points I took to remediate this situation ...
the description was writen utilizing some AI capabilities so I hope it will help someone else as well ...

Fix: HP Print Scan Doctor Preventing PC from Sleeping

If your Windows PC keeps waking up at night or won't stay asleep, an HP background task might be the culprit. Here's exactly how I diagnosed and fixed it.

Step 1 — Identify what's waking your PC

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

powercfg /waketimers

In my case, this returned:

Timer set by [SERVICE] \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\svchost.exe (SystemEventsBroker)
Reason: Windows will execute 'NT TASK\HP\HP Print Scan Doctor\Printer Health Monitor'
scheduled task that requested waking the computer.

The HP Print Scan Doctor Printer Health Monitor scheduled task had permission to wake the PC from sleep to run its printer health checks.

Step 2 — Confirm with the Sleep Study report

For a more detailed look at what's been happening overnight, run:

powercfg /sleepstudy
start sleepstudy-report.html

This opens an HTML report in your browser. The Top Offenders section clearly shows which processes or tasks interrupted sleep the most.

Step 3 — Fix it in Task Scheduler

  1. Press Win + R, type taskschd.msc, and hit Enter
  2. In the left panel, navigate to: Task Scheduler Library → HP → HP Print Scan Doctor
  3. Double-click Printer Health Monitor
  4. Go to the Conditions tab
  5. Uncheck the option: "Wake the computer to run this task"
  6. Click OK

That's it. The task will continue running normally while your PC is awake during the day — it just no longer has permission to wake it from sleep.

Step 4 — Verify the fix

Run this again to confirm the timer is gone:

powercfg /waketimers

If the HP entry no longer appears, you're done. Your PC should now sleep through the night undisturbed.

Why this happens

HP Print Scan Doctor installs a background scheduled task called Printer Health Monitor that periodically checks the status of your HP printer. By default, this task is configured with the "Wake the computer to run this task" option enabled — meaning Windows will pull your PC out of sleep just to run a printer check. Unchecking this option is safe and has no impact on printer functionality.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Sleep and Power on, off
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Answer accepted by question author

  1. Q&A Assist
    2026-04-26T06:44:42.2933333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    The described steps are a valid way to diagnose and stop a scheduled task from waking a Windows 11 PC, and they align with how Windows sleep and wake sources work.

    Key points that match Windows behavior:

    1. powercfg /waketimers is the correct tool to see which scheduled tasks have active wake timers. If it reports a task such as NT TASK\HP\HP Print Scan Doctor\Printer Health Monitor, that task is allowed to wake the PC.
    2. powercfg /sleepstudy is a supported way to generate a SleepStudy report on Modern Standby–capable systems. The report shows sleep sessions and wake reasons, including tasks and processes that frequently bring the system out of low-power states. This matches the documented use of SleepStudy to analyze wake behavior and “exit reasons.”
    3. Scheduled tasks can be configured to wake the computer. Clearing the “Wake the computer to run this task” option in Task Scheduler removes that wake capability while still allowing the task to run whenever the PC is already awake. This is a standard and safe way to prevent a specific task from waking the device.
    4. After changing the task’s conditions, running powercfg /waketimers again is the correct way to verify that no wake timer for that task remains.

    If the PC still wakes unexpectedly after this change, other wake sources (for example, network activity or maintenance tasks) can be analyzed using the SleepStudy report and wake source documentation for Modern Standby systems.

    References:

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