XPS 13-9365, overnight battery drain, Modern Standby, due to audio driver?

First, do you have the version using the 7th or 8th generation processor?

I cannot not yet see your attachments so can't comment.

The system is supposed to go into hibernation to stop the battery drain, the sleep timer has very little effect.  The display turning off and hibernation are important with the option to shutdown a possibility.

As far as the sound, you might try disabling the microphone for testing.  It may be related to Cortana.

2% per hour is about standard.  A sleep study report may give additional info.

Some of the other situations you mention do not seem to happen to mine but it might be due to a different processor.

It's a core i7 8500Y processor. Your suggestion on Cortana is a good one, thanks for trying to help, but I still have absolutely zero options to configure hibernation and the machine certainly doesn't shut down gracefully when it drains the battery - it just runs into the ground and loses all open windows/programs. I just tried to turn off Cortana and can't, I'm told 'oops something went wrong' same as when I try and install a language pack...

I find it really hard to believe this is Modern Standby 'by design'. Take today's example, I spent 7 hours on a plane. so from unplugging from a charger overnight I've got to 90% just getting to a plane, then a bit of work gets me down to say 35% battery, at which point I get to a hotel and if I don't plug in, by the morning I will have lost everything I left open....it drains at about 800mW during sleep according to sleep study, on a battery with 13,550 mWh capacity.

I'm wondering if it's a Windows installation issue with my config, I've got next to no configuration ability on power options (even in advanced settings, it's just 'how many minutes until standby'). I also have a fingerprint sensor I can't configure...supposedly due to power options preventing me enabling Windows Hello.

We need to clear up some things.  I was on a prior thread where the OP did not have some of the options I had on my system.  So, the first question is, have you made any configuration changes to your system regarding the registry?

Secondly, if you look at Settings-System-Power&sleep, do you have a Network connections option near the middle of the page?

Third, have you deselected the Fast Startup option or turned off the hibernation function?

And lastly, if you go to the Advanced Power settings, in the sleep sections, you do not have a Hibernate after setting?

There is a possibility the 8th generation processor has abilities which have allowed for changes in the operation from my 9365 version.  But there was a situation with my system where it would not hibernate.  We had to clear out the Bios for it to function again.

The attachment is from my system showing the hibernation operation.

Sorry for the very delayed response, I've been travelling extensively and as such having to ensure I was never far from a power outlet :)

Really appreciate your attempts to help, I think this may be a lost cause as there are just too many other infuriating aspects to my Windows installation or this hardware...a shame, because the form factor is quite fine. I've added some answers in below.

@Saltgrass wrote:

We need to clear up some things.  I was on a prior thread where the OP did not have some of the options I had on my system.  So, the first question is, have you made any configuration changes to your system regarding the registry?

No, have not made any registry changes at all

Secondly, if you look at Settings-System-Power&sleep, do you have a Network connections option near the middle of the page?

No, I have nothing other than 2 drop down boxes to select time for each of "Screen" and "Sleep" which correspond to "On battery power" and "When Plugged In" for each of the screen and the sleep timers. Nothing else. If I click Additional Power Settings I go to the classic control panel, and have nothing other than the 'balanced' power plan. Trying to customize this just gives me a less elegant version of the options in the 'new' control panel.

Third, have you deselected the Fast Startup option or turned off the hibernation function?

I wouldn't even know how to, it doesn't appear as an option and a quick google suggesting it's an option when I look at "choose what the power buttons do" there are just no options related to fast startup. I suspect all this disappeared with Modern Standby

And lastly, if you go to the Advanced Power settings, in the sleep sections, you do not have a Hibernate after setting?

Oh how I wish I did....

There is a possibility the 8th generation processor has abilities which have allowed for changes in the operation from my 9365 version.  But there was a situation with my system where it would not hibernate.  We had to clear out the Bios for it to function again.

The attachment is from my system showing the hibernation operation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is exactly what I want my system to do, when the battery level gets critically low instead of just dying at least try to save the current state. As it is, I lose all open windows and when I get plugged in and turn on it's like a clean boot. I just can't believe this is by design...

If the system drains 2% of battery per hour, which I'm grudgingly prepared to accept because it's so much worse than my wife's ageing MacBook, then what this means is that if (hypothetical!) I finish a work day at 5.30 pm with less than 35% battery charge, by the time I plug in at 8.30am following day I've lost everything I left open - leaving me no option but to save everything and shutdown, which kind of defeats the purpose of mobility and Modern Standby.

 

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No plans other than BalancedNo hibernation optionNo options other than theseSST audio at 100% in standby

Rsp8,

Click my name and private message me the pc service tag number as well as your registered name, email address, and phone number.

The attachment you provide shows your system in Modern Standby while plugged in.  I am not sure what you are trying to show but Cortana being available during that period is reasonable.

If you want to check, try disabling Cortana's ability to respond to your voice.

If you want more relative data, do the sleep study during the time the system is not plugged in..

The "Sleep" timer on my system does very little.  The important one is when the display turns off which puts it into Modern Standby.  The system needs to go into hibernation after an hour or two if you want to save the battery.  If you have Fast Startup turned off it may not be able to do that.  Otherwise, and I know you say you don't have this setting, there should be a hibernation timer in the sleep timer section in the advanced power settings.  It is not in the "Power buttons and lid" section.

I really appreciate your tenacity on this one, but I think we're getting nowhere. I don't have ANY options for hibernation anywhere on my system. I'm getting out of my depth on this but from plenty of searching, this is because there is no support for S4 (hibernate) state, or fast startup, in a system which is Modern Standby (S0) enabled.

So I really have 2 issues; firstly, my battery drains at a fairly rapid rate. This seems to be due to constant activity related to something audio related. I've updated the screenshot to show Intel SST driver active 100% of the time even when unplugged. All Cortana speech related functions are disabled.

Secondly and much more frustratingly when the battery inevitably runs flat, which is much quicker than I would like, there is no graceful shutdown or hibernation. I want my laptop to wake up with all the windows open and all the programs running just like when it went to sleep, not to have closed them all and lost everything....which I don't think is unreasonable.

Updated to reflect same thing when unplugged

My powercfg /a listing looks just like yours if I turn off hibernation.  So you might try turning it on.

powercfg /h on

Also, try disabling your microphone to see if that stops.

If you can't enable the hibernation with the above command, then the last effort would be to reinstall the video driver since it normally contains the power option settings.

Rsp8,

Before I can proceed, click my DELL-username and send me via private message the PC service tag number.

Things I have learned:

1) Modern Standby in both Windows 10 and its implementation on Dell laptops is the work of **bleep** himself. It is simply useless, you can never be sure your system is truly sleeping and it may wake up randomly in a bag and heat up dramatically at any time. The web is littered with horror stories.

2) My issue is categorically due to the audio driver, Dell's latest supplied version just doesn't work, I can temporarily fix it and get around 0.5%/hr battery drain and actually enter DRIPS state by using the 'wrong' driver, ironically by going through Windows Defender and identifying a driver problem there. However at some stage it will revert back to "Smart Sound Technology (Intel (r) SST)" and then your laptop becomes a desktop again. The audio driver will prevent sleep state and be active 100% of the time, keeping the system more awake than it should be (no DRIPS). It shows up red on a powercfg /sleepstudy report and can easily be identified.

This might or might not be related to the 'crunchy' sound on most system audio events, but that's the least of my problems with this laptop. 

I haven't turned my system on for a few days so I will be checking it today.  I did find once that using Edge would cause extra power drains on my system.  Using the Task Manager to end that task may help some.

My audio notifications sounds are delayed and can be slightly distorted just if the system has to turn it on.  If I test the sound more that once, the next time it will be on time with no distortion.

I will get back after my system operates for a few hours but we still have your situation of no hibernation to deal with.  

I have checked my systems through several Modern Standby situations and nowhere are the Intel SST Audio mentioned.

I even enabled Cortana to hear me but my system will not turn on the Display using Cortana.  Yours may turn on since it is one of the activities Microsoft was saying worked.

There was just another poster asking about the Bios on the 9365 who seems to be getting several systems.  Maybe you could consult with that poster and compare capabilities.

Pretty much.

Modern Standby is a horror story.  Dell is even saying that "putting a laptop in your bag while it's in Modern Standby will void the warranty." which is absurd.

Best solution I've come up with after months of pain is to just disable the garbage in the registry and force S3 sleep.

Sometimes the graphics driver glitches after resume, but at least the machine sleeps properly now.