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Can't put your laptop in sleep mode when closed? This is how!

Stefan
Stefan
8 August 2022
Can't put your laptop in sleep mode when closed? This is how!

Windows 10 or Windows 11 normally places your laptop in the sleep mode when you close the lid. This can be a problem when connecting your laptop to an external display.

If you are not going to put the laptop into sleep mode when closing the lid, be careful. Closing the lid of your laptop and placing the laptop in your bag while it is still on can lead to serious problems due to poor air circulation or blocking the ventilation in your laptop.

Your laptop will continue to run, the wasting battery and possibly even overheating in your bag. So pay attention and make your choice whether you want to make this change or not.

If you are looking for settings for Mac, read the following article: Change Mac sleep and hibernation settings.

Do not put the laptop in sleep mode when closing it

The change below works on a Windows 10 as well as a Windows 11 PC. I have modified the instruction so that it works for both operating systems.

To prevent your laptop from going into sleep mode when you close the lid, first open the control panel. Right-click on the Start button. In the menu, click Run. In the run window type: control.

Open control panel

In the control panel, change “View by” at the top right to “Small icons”. Then click on “Power Management”.

Open power management

Click on “Determine the behavior of closing the lid” at the top left.

Determine the behavior of the lid closing

Changing the laptop lid action requires administrator rights. First, click on the link “Change settings that are currently unavailable”. You can now change the “Action when I close the lid”.

Read also
Open XPS files in Windows 11? This is how!

Change settings that are currently unavailable

You can now control what happens when you close the lid of your laptop by adjusting the “Action when I close the lid” to your liking. You can choose from “Take no action”, “Sleep”, “Hibernate” or “Shut down”.

You can adjust the close lid action for when the computer is running on battery power or on mains power. Once you have made the changes, click on “Save changes” at the bottom. The adjustment is immediately active.

Change action when I close lid

I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!


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22 comments

  1. When I close my laptop it remains on, but the settings are in sleep mode. My laptop was recently repaired, so perhaps something was forgotten or is there another solution?

    To answer

    1. Hello, you can check the following:

      1. Open the control panel.
      2. Click on “system and security”.
      3. Click on “energy management”.
      4. Make sure you select the “balanced” energy screen, at least not “high performance”.

      Another way is to reset the power plan settings. Then return to sleep mode.

      1. Open a Command Prompt as administrator. (search cmd.exe right click “run as administrator).
      2. Copy and paste the following command into the Command Prompt: powercfg -restoredefaultschemes
      3. Restart your computer.
      4. Reset the desired sleep mode setting.

      Success!

      To answer

  2. I am using Windows 10 and when my HP laptop goes into sleep mode it shuts down instead of going into sleep mode.
    This has only been going on for a week or two.
    I find this quite annoying.
    Can someone help me with this please
    Regards,
    Marc.

    To answer

      1. Thanks for the quick response.
        I had Restoro scanned and resolved the issues with the free version.
        Problem has not been resolved yet.
        I'm just a novice at this and don't really understand what else I can do.
        can you help me further?
        Thank you in advance.
        Marc.

        To answer

        1. Hello, Restoro is not going to solve it. I would say immediately uninstall this useless software. The tips in the article I posted in my previous response are. I recommend looking for the problem in an energy diagram. Selecting a different power plan may be the solution or resetting the power plan.

          Also, settings do not change “just like that”. Something must have changed why the PC now shuts down instead of going into sleep mode. What this is? Good luck!

          To answer

  3. I have an Asus laptop with Windows 11 and an external monitor IIyama XUB2 796QSU.
    I have set the screen not to turn off when I close the lid. But on the monitor, the icons on the desktop then resize (become smaller).
    How do I keep the same font size on the monitor after closing the laptop?
    Thank you in advance for your answer.

    To answer

  4. I use Windows 11, since today with a second screen. The laptop switches to sleep mode when closed. I followed your tips but I don't see an option 'action when I close the lid'.

    Sincerely,
    Jo

    To answer

    1. Hello, that's strange. You can try to restore this action in the following way. Hopefully this action will then be visible in the Energy options via the Control Panel.

      Click on the magnifying glass in the taskbar. Then search for “cmd.exe”. Right-click on the Command Prompt result and click “Run as administrator”.

      Copy the following line:

      REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347\5ca83367-6e45-459f-a27b-476b1d01c936 /v Attributes /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

      And paste this line into the Command Prompt window with a right mouse click, confirm with the ENTER key. Now restart the computer and check whether the action is now available.

      Greetings, Stefan

      To answer

  7. thanks for the information so far, but I want to connect a 2nd screen to my laptop via HDMI and when I close my laptop the 2nd screen also turns off. what settings do I need?

    To answer

  8. Hi Stefan, I have been looking for a way to do this for a long time, but it doesn't work. I just don't have that attitude I guess.
    can you help me with that?

    Thank you for replying 😉

    To answer

    1. Hello, you can try the following to see if the “Action when I close the lid” setting comes back.

      via the taskbar or via the magnifying glass in the taskbar, search for “cmd.exe”. Right-click on the “Command Prompt” result and choose “Run as Administrator”. In the Command Prompt window copy and paste:

      REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347\5ca83367-6e45-459f-a27b-476b1d01c936 /v Attributes /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

      Confirm with ENTER and restart your computer. Then check if you can adjust the “Action when I close the lid” setting using the instructions in this article. Good luck! Greetings, Stefan

      To answer

  10. My laptop can no longer start after I closed the screen/lid. I normally do this this way or if I don't use it for a longer period of time, I put it in sleep mode. Now a blue screen appears asking for my 4-digit code (administrator) and then my email address appears and the password is asked. I don't know that anymore. I also cannot start the recovery procedure. Do you know a solution? Thank you. Kurt De Groof.

    To answer

    1. Hello Kurt,
      If I understand correctly, you are shown a PIN code when you log in that you no longer remember, and you cannot reset the password of the Microsoft account that you are trying to log in to in Windows? What error message do you get when resetting the password? If you log in with a Microsoft account and cannot reset that password, unfortunately I cannot help you further. If problems such as an error message arise, I would like to hear which error message. Greetings Stefan

      To answer
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