Wi-Fi Network Card Power Management

[rjbinney]

Dear Internet:

I have a new PC, and it seems to drop its Wi-Fi connection when left unattended. My Power Settings are "Always On" when plugged in.

I found several sources online that suggested to turn off "Allow the computer to turn off this device" in "Power Management" on my network adapter's "Power Management" tab in Properties.

Trouble is, I CANT FIND THAT TAB (see picture).

Need some help!

Thanks,

[patio]

Advanced

[rjbinney]

Advanced:

[patio]

I dont understand why Power Management isn't listed...what Win ver. ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

Try viewing the properties of your wireless adapter from Device Manager. There should be a Power Management tab. it's possible it does not show if you are using some other method to view the properties.

I've found references claiming the Power Management is, for some reason, tied to a registry key setting:

Open RegEdit and move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power

If it's not created yet, you have to create a new DWORD key named CsEnabled and set the value to 0.

I find I have that value, however it is set to 1 and I can see the power management tab on my laptop's Wifi adapter. It may depend on driver support as well.

[rjbinney]

I don't understand either!  Why I'm postin'!

It's Win 10 Pro V1903 OS Build 18362.418

[rjbinney]

Try viewing the properties of your wireless adapter from Device Manager.

That was my first move.

I went to that reg key, it was set to 1, as well. Just set to 0. Will let you know after reboot.

Thanks

[rjbinney]

That did it, BC_Programmer. Thanks.

Now, though - and I don't know if this is connected, but this is the first I'm noticing it - my "Edit Plan Settings" screen in Control Panel ONLY allows me to change when my display turns off, NOT when my machine goes to sleep (or whatever the second set of drop downs is).

Hm.

[patio]

Leave Win power settings alone and manage it yerself...they are worthless.

[rjbinney]

OK, tell me more - how do I do that? (Is that the "advanced power options"?)

[rjbinney]

OK, today I realized when I closed my laptop lid on battery, it didn't go to sleep.

So I Googled all the solutions, and found if I set
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power , CsEnabled to 0, it would allow me to Sleep.

And, viola, it did.

Then I noticed that my PC was dropping its network connection whilst I was away.

So I came back to this thread.

Which... Wait for it....

Well, you know what it says. It says to go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power and set CsEnabled to 1.

Surely there's a way for my new PC to do what every other PC I've ever had did... Be able to go to Sleep when on Battery, but stay connected to the Interwebs when on AC Power....

Argh.

[rjbinney]

I may be learning something!

I found this page, which shows how to edit the registry to force "Allow the computer to turn off this device" to be unchecked, even if it doesn't appear on the card's Properties.

The post says that my Network Card should be Device Number 0001, and there should be a PnPCapabilities value of "24".

Turns out, my Network Card is Device Number 0002, and it does have a PnPCapabilities value of "24".

BUT.

But, my VPN shows as Device Number 0001, and does NOT have any "PnPCapabilities" listed.

And, turns out, the last two times my network's dropped, I've been tunneling through my VPN.

So.

SO.

So, I am creating the value, and keeping my CsEnabled at 0, so I have "Sleep" options in Power Settings, and we'll see what happens.

(The network card is a Marvell AVASTAR, and some Googling shows a recent update fudged everything up. As this is a new machine, I don't have previous drivers to roll to, but if this solves my problem, awesome. Besides, I'm more of a DC guy.)

[rjbinney]

OK, feeling a little bipolar on this subject.

I have my 0001 and 0002 (What appears to be my VPN and network card, respectively) both set to PNPCapabilities, Value Data = 18. So it reads 0x00000018 (24) for REG_DWORD.

This is at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

I noticed last night that, when connected to the VPN, the signal drops. (I don't know how long after leaving unattended; i just know overnight downloads and emails didn't go out when connected; and when i came back to my laptop, the VPN was disconnected and my network indicator in system tray showed no connections).

Just to confirm my thinking, I want to set this so that "will prevent Windows 7 from turning off the network adapter or let the network adapter wake the computer from standby", yes?

And to recap, the dilemma appears to be: My network card does NOT have any "power management" options listed on its driver. If I override the settings in the Power section of the registry, I lose the ability to Sleep. And vice versa - if I fix the Sleep, my network drops when my machine is unattended.

Any thoughts?

(BTW, the page I learnt this from: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2740020/information-about-power-management-setting-on-a-network-adapter)

[BC_Programmer]

Disregarding driver options for a moment, have you checked the power plan settings? (Power and Sleep Settings->Additional Power Settings-> select one of the plans and choose "Change Plan settings" (this is where the drop down you mentioned- and a second set you don't see for some reason- appear). From there "Change advanced Power settings" should give you something like this (Apologies about the ridiculous proportions- my laptop has a rather ridiculously high 2880x1620 screen resolution):



"Wireless Adapter Settings" is probably the one worth investigating. My laptop doesn't drop the wireless connection while plugged in. (it does when on battery but only because it goes to sleep)

[Lisa_maree]

Hi
Seems you have isolated the problem to only when you are working thru a VPN. Which suggests it is a VPN timing out problem, not a wireless power setting.
To confirm can you plug your laptop in with a network cable instead of wireless. Or set your email client to check your email every 5 minutes to keep internet traffic regular and see if the wireless stays connected.
You don't say how the laptop is connecting to the internet like is it 4g thru a cellphone hot spot maybe.