High Definition Audio Device -- Audio Stream is currently in use preventing Sleep

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

What is the make and model of your computer?

I suggest you to follow the below steps and check if it helps:

1. Press Windows Key and type CMD.

2. Right click on the CMD and run as administrator.

3. Type this command:   powercfg -requests

What this will do is tell you any programs or devices that are currently preventing the system from entering sleep mode. In my case, it reported that my audio device was causing the issue. The message was "An audio stream is currently in use."  This could be caused by something as simple as a web browse that has some Flash content in it.  See screenshot below:

Thanks for the response. I was already aware of your suggested course of action. 

The he audio stream is present at startup. 

if I override the device does that mean if I listen to pandora or mix radio or Xbox music or iheart radio that my computer will go to sleep?

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the info. I still have your DxDiag from before showing that you're using the inbox HdAudio.sys driver... Is that still valid information?

Thanks!

Wow, what a pleasant surprise -- hearing from you:)

I think the problem started after the latest install all of the update rollup last week.

I was originally getting the error with the HdAudio.sys driver, so I thought I would hunt down the Realtek driver and give that a go.  The Realtek driver manifests the same.

I am getting the stream message at startup.  And I am loading nothing at startup except OneDrive, and an elan touchpad something or other.

I have hardly installed any software on w 10tp, and no multimedia programs of any kind except a couple of modern apps -- Roku and Spotlite (a Spotify app of some kind which I haven't even ran).  I will uninstall them and post back if that changes anything.

Kind of strange....

I will email you the Dxdiag text file.

I must say, that my experience so far with w 10tp is that it plays much nicer with bluetooth speakers and wireless displays than windows 8.1, thank goodness! 

I recently had the same problem with my Win10 (14393) system. I found I had to do something slightly different in order to get powercfg /requestsoverride to work. Instead of using the friendly name of the driver, e.g. "High Definition Audio Device", I needed to use the full device identifier that is returned by powercfg /requests. In my case (Surface Pro 1), this was "HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0280&SUBSYS_14141E20&REV_1000\4&ec27c28&0&0001"

Therefore, the complete command was:

powercfg /requestsoverride DRIVER "HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0280&SUBSYS_14141E20&REV_1000\4&ec27c28&0&0001" SYSTEM

Thank you simontao - this had been driving me completely crazy but your suggestion worked.

It would be great if 'powercfg /requests' gave you an indication that the override was effective or something.

The recommended solution is a band-aid and does not solve the root cause that is instantiating the audio stream to the audio device. I found the culprit on my machine by shutting down, and of course the machine bounced right back on. Now with no programs running, check if the audio stream is still there. It it is, the solution for me was to open the device manager and look for anything unusual. I found an "unknown USB device" in the table. One by one I started unplugging USB devices looking for the stream to go away. I hit pay dirt when I unplugged my Microsoft wireless game controller transceiver. It appears it has died a no uncertain death. Now I have to get Oculus support to to replace it, wish me luck.

Windows 10 Dell Inspiron. Finally tried disabling "Line In" from sound screen. Right click on speaker symbol, go to recording devices and disable LINE IN.  Line in jacks are for auxiliary audio input devices.  The powercfg notation disappears after you close a video.

This helped me greatly and I appreciated the advice.   Now I have to undo this step and I can't find direction anywhere!  Are you aware of the command to reverse this?

My trouble started when I allowed my PC to respond to "Hey Cortana".

Solution: Open Cortana, open settings and toggle off that option. Hey presto problem solved.