Hi, Running into a issue here with my Realtec NIC. It turns completely off when the PC goes into sleep mode, which results in Wake on Lan not working (NIC cannot be found). I checked all mentioned tutorials here, checked and re-checked all power management settings, and advanced settings for the NIC, but anything I set there isn’t working. The power management settings will also not ‘stick’ anymore either, any changes I made will revert back to the previous ones. So I turn off the ‘turn this off to save power’ option and keep the wake on lan/magic packet turned on. After confirming and re-opening the properties, the old settings are there again, with the ‘turn this off’ option turned on again. I re-installed the driver to see if that would help, after some Windows updates. But that didn’t help either. Also, any driver from the Realtec website results in lower network speeds, so that’s not an option either. It has worked before, so I know it’s not hardware related, Somehow there’s something conflicting, Getting a bit frustrated now…..

RobWu Hi there, please go to device manager, uninstall the ethernet driver. Then, update the driver again https://url.bee-link.cn/99x0

Hi, Thanks for the link, but this is the same driver(pack) I already have for the Mini S13. As I said, I reinstalled the driver from this pack twice times now, but it doesn’t solve my problem. The NIC is only available when the PC is on, and the NIC ‘power management’ settings don’t accept any changes anymore. I also triple checked all ‘Advanced’ settings regarding WOL with various searches on the web, but those are all set properly as far as I can tell. It’s so weird, as it worked very well before. Edit 16:40: And now it won’t stay in sleep mode anymore. powercfg states Button as the cause of the wake. Just… How. This thing is out of reach of everybody. I really getting annoyed now, as it seems every ‘tweak’ will make things worse…… :(

RobWu Let’s break this down systematically. The fact that it worked before is a key clue—it means this is almost certainly a software or configuration issue, not hardware failure. Step 1: Address the Immediate “Button” Wake Issue First Since the PC is now waking up unexpectedly, we need to identify and disable the culprit before we can even test the WOL functionality. Identify the Wake Source: Open an Command Prompt (Admin) and run: bash powercfg -lastwake This will tell you what device last woke the computer. You mentioned it said “Button,” which could be the physical power button, a keyboard key, or a mouse. See All Devices Capable of Waking the PC: Run this command to list all devices that have permission to wake the system: bash powercfg -devicequery wake_armed You will likely see your keyboard, mouse, and possibly the Ethernet card listed. Disable Wake Permissions for Unwanted Devices: Go to Device Manager. Expand Keyboards. Right-click on your keyboard, select Properties > Power Management tab. Uncheck Allow this device to wake the computer. Click OK. Do the same for your mouse under Mice and other pointing devices. Important: Leave the setting for your Ethernet card (Network adapters > Your Realtek NIC) ENABLED. This is crucial for WOL. This should stop the unintended wakes and allow the system to stay asleep so we can test WOL later. Step 2: Force the Power Management Settings to “Stick” The fact that your settings revert is the core problem. This is often caused by a Windows power plan overriding your specific device settings or a corrupted driver configuration. Check Group Policy (If You’re on Windows Pro/Enterprise): Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Sleep Settings. Look for policies on the right named like “Specify the device wake-up settings…” or “Allow applications to prevent automatic sleep…”. Ensure these policies are set to Not Configured. If they are enabled, they could be forcibly overriding your local settings. Registry Modification (Advanced - Backup First): Sometimes the power management flags get stuck. This can force a reset. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter. Navigate to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} You will see many sub-keys like 0000, 0001, etc. Click on each one and look at the DriverDesc value in the right pane until you find the one that says Realtek PCIe FE / GBE / 2.5G / Family Controller or similar. In that same key, look for these values in the right pane and delete them: PnPCapabilities EnablePME *WakeOnMagicPacket *WakeOnPattern Close the registry editor and restart your PC. Windows and the driver will recreate these values with defaults. After the reboot, go back to the Device Manager power management settings and try configuring them again. This often “unsticks” the configuration.

Hi George, Here are my latest findings on the issue… So as I stated before, I cleanly restored Windows to get rid of anything. First, the ‘power button’ issue seems to pop up very often with Windows updates - after - 24H2. Also, it seems it was not the ‘power button’ at all as a wake device, but the NIC mis-identified as the power button. According to various posts I could find that is. So I tried this after the Windows restore: For the ‘wake up devices’ I only set the NIC. I can also verify this via powercfg with various commands. Checked policies, but all relevant settings via the Group Policy Editor were set to Not configured . For the WOL, it still didn’t work, and waking on a magic packet also refuses to work. Even when trying this with a diagnostic tool from Realtec. The mini keeps refusing to wake after entering sleep mode. I removed the mentioned entries from the registry, and rebooted the machine. This mini still refuses to wake up. I also removed the entire NIC entry in the registry completely and rebooted the pc. (Also re-installed the driver v.10.73.815.2024 again from the mini-s13 driver pack.) Didn’t make a difference either. For the NIC power management the first two options are checked, and in the Advanced options all is set to default values. - Also, the mini goes into sleep mode -while- streaming video, despite having it set to NOT do this in the ‘Advanced Settings/Multimedia Settings/When Sharing Media’ option on a Balanced power plan. I didn’t notice this before, as the sleep timer was to to a much longer time period. Fixed after setting the ’monitor turn off after… ’setting to Never. Man, Windows Power management is confusing and finnicky. So the mini is still refusing to wake up after going into sleep mode and being accessed from the network, I’m out of ideas here……

Mini S13 - NIC turn off when PC is in sleep mode

RobWu

Hi,

Thanks for the elaborate answer. I think it’s good to see something like this on the forum.
I found and already tried a lot of your current suggestions, but yesterday I decide to do a full Windows restore as I wasn’t sure all my fiddling did more bad than good. Better start with a clean slate and be sure it’s the default one.

I will use this weekend to set things up on the new install, and have a run through to see if I can get it working now.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress, :)

Beelink CS-George

RobWu OK, keep in touch

RobWu

Hi George,

Here are my latest findings on the issue…
So as I stated before, I cleanly restored Windows to get rid of anything.

First, the ‘power button’ issue seems to pop up very often with Windows updates -after- 24H2.
Also, it seems it was not the ‘power button’ at all as a wake device, but the NIC mis-identified as the power button.
According to various posts I could find that is.

So I tried this after the Windows restore:

For the ‘wake up devices’ I only set the NIC. I can also verify this via powercfg with various commands.
Checked policies, but all relevant settings via the Group Policy Editor were set to Not configured.
For the WOL, it still didn’t work, and waking on a magic packet also refuses to work.
Even when trying this with a diagnostic tool from Realtec. The mini keeps refusing to wake after entering sleep mode.
I removed the mentioned entries from the registry, and rebooted the machine. This mini still refuses to wake up.
I also removed the entire NIC entry in the registry completely and rebooted the pc.
(Also re-installed the driver v.10.73.815.2024 again from the mini-s13 driver pack.) Didn’t make a difference either.
For the NIC power management the first two options are checked, and in the Advanced options all is set to default values.

- Also, the mini goes into sleep mode -while- streaming video, despite having it set to NOT do this in the ‘Advanced Settings/Multimedia Settings/When Sharing Media’ option on a Balanced power plan.
I didn’t notice this before, as the sleep timer was to to a much longer time period.
Fixed after setting the ’monitor turn off after… ’setting to Never. Man, Windows Power management is confusing and finnicky.

So the mini is still refusing to wake up after going into sleep mode and being accessed from the network,
I’m out of ideas here……

Beelink CS-George

RobWu

1.Configure the Correct Realtek Setting Address the “settings not sticking” issue. The “Wake on Magic Packet” setting might be ignored; instead, focus on “Shutdown Wake on LAN” or a similar-named option in the Advanced tab of the NIC properties.
2.Perform a Clean Driver Reinstallation Eliminate corrupted driver files. Use Device Manager to uninstall the Realtek NIC, and during uninstallation, check the box to “Delete the driver software for this device” before rebooting.
3.Troubleshoot Unexpected Wakes Identify and stop the system from waking prematurely. Use powercfg -lastwake in an admin Command Prompt to identify the wake source, then use powercfg -devicequery wake_armed to see all authorized devices and disable wake permissions for unnecessary ones (like mice/keyboards) in Device Manager > Power Management.
4.Detailed Wake Source Check: Run the following command in Command Prompt (Admin) to get a more detailed log of the system’s sleep and wake history:

bash
powercfg -systemsleepdiagnostics
This will generate an HTML report file that can provide crucial clues.

Check for Power Configuration Conflicts: Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc (if you are using Windows Pro/Enterprise), and navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Sleep Settings. Ensure that any relevant policies are set to “Not Configured” to prevent Group Policy from overriding your local settings.

WJL

I hope you find the solution!
Similar problem with my SER8 and Dell S2725QC monitor.
When I turn the monitor off, I lose internet connectivity (using wireless).
Have to restart to get it back.

RobWu

And found out that setting the monitor to never turn off, the mini won’t go into sleep mode.
Sigh….

RobWu

Hi George,

As I said, after the complete Windows re-install, I tried all that (again), and it is still not working for me.
The main problem here is/and still is the fact that the NIC turns off when the mini goes into sleep mode.
And I (re)checked settings and (re)installed the driver/rebooted in various ways. No difference.

I also rechecked the BIOS (v5 after a flash update last week) but the S3 sleep settings are there so the hardware supports the S3 state. Right?
Again, also made sure I run only the drivers from the mini S13 driver pack, so it’s not a driver incompatibility with a basic driver from the Windows install. I also made sure there’s no updates after that regarding the mini delivered drivers from Windows, Realtek and/or Intel.

After the Windows reinstall, using powercfg and setting up the NIC as the only device that can wake the mini, this all works as expected.
So no unwanted wakes from any other device.
Even my wake up events set in the task manager work without issues. Mini wakes up at the designated time period, does a backup, goes to sleep again after X minutes as set in the power settings.
But the moment the mini goes to sleep, the NIC is turned off and the device is ‘dead’ for the rest of the network devices.

So..
I’m giving up on this for now, as all this have costed me way too much time already on something apparently simple.
And not sure how to change my plans for this little device. It works fine for what it has to do, but this WOL issue is infuriating……

Beelink CS-George

RobWu Thank you for sharing such detailed feedback on the troubleshooting steps you’ve taken—it’s clear you’ve put significant time and effort into resolving this issue, and we truly appreciate your thoroughness.
Regarding the problem you’re facing—where the NIC turns off when the mini PC enters sleep mode, and the device becomes unresponsive to the network (including WOL)—we’d like to share a key hardware specification that likely explains this behavior: the mini PC (S13 model) does not support the traditional S3 sleep state; it only supports Modern Standby (also known as S0 Low Power Idle).
This distinction is critical because:
Traditional S3 sleep (often called “Deep Sleep”) keeps essential components like the NIC partially active to maintain network connectivity and respond to WOL signals, which aligns with the functionality you’re expecting.
Modern Standby, by design, optimizes for faster wake times and power efficiency. In this mode, the system transitions to a low-power state where most hardware (including the NIC) is fully powered down to conserve energy—rather than remaining partially active. This is why the NIC turns off during sleep, and the device becomes “dead” to the network, even if WOL and wake settings are correctly configured.
Your earlier check of the BIOS showing “S3 sleep settings” may reflect legacy menu labeling or compatibility options, but the hardware itself is engineered to only operate in Modern Standby. This also explains why your meticulous steps (reinstalling Windows, using official drivers, configuring power settings) haven’t resolved the issue—they’re correct, but they’re working within the constraints of the mini PC’s sleep mode design.

RobWu

Hi George,

Again, thanks for the reply.
But…. your answer is very confusing to say the least.

With a ‘powercfg /a’ command, the result clearly states S3, hibernate and fast startup.
S0 - S2 according to the list given, are not available for the mini S13.
Thus the S3 state then matches the BIOS settings I can find, and Modern Standby aka S0 isn’t supported on the mini S13.

With that said…
OR the S13 supports the S3 state, and something is wrong when dealing with the Windows power management/hardware combo
OR whatever is set in the BIOS and given back with the powercfg command is utterly rubbish.
OR something in the BIOS is conflicting with whatever Windows is trying to do with it’s power management.
In all cases WOL still doesn’t work for me.

Also, every website who sells the mini S13, states it supports Wake On LAN, PXE Boot, RTC Wake & Auto Power On.
Heck, even the S12 (which has a N95 CPU but still) has “AUTO POWER ON WOL” stated on your own website!

Edit:
For the NIC i’m running driver v.10.73.815.2024 from the driver pack, as stated before.
If there are any newer drivers for the NIC on the mini S13, please let me know.

Beelink CS-George

Hi there，

The PC supports WOL. How about you try another wake up software https://url.bee-link.cn/pxhB

RobWu

Hi George,

A bit of a late reply, but I got things working with your lastest suggestion and some more digging in the network and the used apps.

What kept me more or less digging around, is the dumb fact that the Realtec NIC diagnostic tool just doesn’t work for WOL testing, despite it having a option for that. At least for me it doesn’t work, but the Nirsoft WOL tool just did the first time I tested.
Also, the botched re-install probably threw me off why it did work before.

For what I could find out, not all my media apps have a WOL ‘ping’ when connecting to the media server. I should have tested all of them, but again the Realtec tool threw me off the right path.

So for the Android devices I have to use an app called Wake on Lan, that ‘fixes’ the issue in a workaround way.

With this app I can wake the mini from sleep mode first, and then start one of the media apps so they can connect to a server that is online in the network. It’s a two step process for the Android devices, but if it works I’m happy enough.

Signing this off as “Solved”, and hope it will help someone else on the forum.

cheers!

Rob