LIMEHAWK - Managed IT
Always-On Power Profile — automation
dateNov 15, 2024
statusRESOLVED
Incident

Retail client's digital signage kiosks kept "going dark" during business hours. Staff had to wiggle the mouse to wake them up multiple times per day. IT had set power profiles to "Never sleep" but settings kept reverting after Windows updates. Three kiosks, same problem, costing visible downtime in customer-facing displays.

Root Cause
power plan"Balanced" active (not High Performance)
sleep timeout30 minutes (default)
hibernateenabled, triggering after 180 min
GPO conflictdomain policy resetting local changes

Windows Update was resetting the power plan to Balanced. Domain GPO was also pushing power settings that overrode local changes. Manual fixes via Control Panel lasted until the next policy refresh or reboot.

Solution

Deploy via RMM to create a custom power plan that persists across reboots and policy refreshes. Script creates "Always On" profile and sets it active.

What It Configures
display timeoutconfigurable (default: never)
disk timeoutnever
sleep timeoutnever
hibernatedisabled completely

Creates a duplicate of High Performance plan, applies custom timeouts, disables hibernate at system level, and sets as active plan. Survives reboots and Windows Updates.

Outcome
kiosks fixed3 of 3
sleep incidentszero since deploy
time to fix8 minutes

Deployed script via RMM to all three kiosks. Verified power plan active after reboot. No more dark screens during business hours. Later deployed to 12 additional conference room PCs that had similar issues.

Control Panel changes don't persist through updates
powercfg.exe with custom GUID creates durable plans
must disable hibernate separately (powercfg /h off)
RMM deployment ensures consistency across fleet
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Kiosks, servers, or conference room PCs going to sleep? We automate power management across your entire fleet.