Windows 8.1 Fails to Sleep - with solution

[Lao Pan]

After installing Windows 8.1 my HTPC has been refusing to sleep on its own - It would from the remote.

Finally discovered that during the update Windows had set up and joined a Homegroup and was busy broadcasting to the Lan (Lan is set up as a Workgroup). This was enough to stop timed sleep from starting.

Went to Homegroup settings and left the homegroup then disabled the 2 Homegroup services (and also the Windows Media Network sharing service while I was about it). Finally Computer now does to sleep after 30 mins as set.

Also had to reinstall the unattended sleep timeout reg key again.

[pcostanza]

I've not seen this same problem with 8.1. My systems are set to sleep after 30 minutes and seem to work well. I have Homegroup enabled too.
Just curious if this was an upgrade from 8 to 8.1 (and did it work in 8) or a fresh install of 8.1.

[Lao Pan]

Just curious if this was an upgrade from 8 to 8.1 (and did it work in 8) or a fresh install of 8.1.

This was an upgrade from 8 to 8.1

On 8 sleep worked as expected - Homegroup had [Join a Homegroup], after the upgrade (this was the first computer to be upgraded) Homegroup had [Homegroup - Joined], the second computer to be upgraded had [Join a Homegroup] It looks as though the 8.1 upgrade checks the lan and if no Homegroup exists it sets one up - then gets very lonely