Solved WOL - Wake On LAN not working

I have encountered a weird issue where I can WOL a computer if it was shutdown but not from sleep. You would think it would work the other way around.

It's an old Dell Optiplex 780 with Windows 11. The issue happens with the Ethernet port (Intel 82567-LM3) on the motherboard. WOL from sleep works if I install and use a 4-port Broadcom PCI card with the built-in drivers.

I have tried everything that I've found on the Internet over the past two days. I'm stumped. I have tried different drivers and I've even forced drivers from similar Intel models that have more features. I have disabled/enabled Fast Startup, PCI Link power state, hibernate, hybrid sleep in Power Management, changed power and WOL settings in the BIOS etc.



Anyone have any ideas? I'm guessing this is a lost cause because I have tried every sensible suggestion I have found on the Internet.

Device Manager>expand network adapters>right click on your adapter>select properties>power management tab> check box next to allow magic packet to wake computer.

If there is a setting in bios, Wake on Lan does have to be enabled in bios.

glasskuter said:

Device Manager>expand network adapters>right click on your adapter>select properties>power management tab> check box next to allow magic packet to wake computer.

If there is a setting in bios, Wake on Lan does have to be enabled in bios.

Click to expand...

Yep... Already made sure those are enabled.

Sorry, I have nothing else. It would really help us help you if you would enter system specs so we would know what you're working with. Also give your windows version. That is such an old machine from like 2009. Are you running the last bios Dell issued for it?

I use WOL on every system I have that supports it. I have had really strange behaviors. For example, I had one system where it would work only when the computer was in sleep, but not after a full shutdown. After a BIOS update, that behavior changed so that the behavior reversed - it now works after a shutdown but not in sleep.

In my case, these systems are all desktop systems that I never allow to sleep, so the way it's working now is actually the preferred behavior for me.

So, it seems to me that the behavior can be dependant upon the particular system, even down to the point where it can vary with BIOS version.

Intel Core2 Quad Q9650 @ 3.00GHz
RAM 8.00 GB
Windows 11 Pro 22H2 22621.1413
Latest Dell BIOS A15

@hsehestedt would be the man in the know. It would seem that Windows 11 might not play nice with some older bios .

glasskuter said:

@hsehestedt would be the man in the know. It would seem that Windows 11 might not play nice with some older bios .

Click to expand...

Thanks, @glasskuter, I appreciate that. Unfortunately, there is still a great deal unknown to me. Yes, I have played with this pretty extensively, but it always seems to me to be a mystery how any one particular system will behave. I once spent about a day and half doing nothing but playing with WOL and the what I did learn was this:

There does not appear to a difference in the way Win 10 and Win 11 handle it. At least for all my systems, however they behaved on Win 10 was how they also behaved with Win 11.

Microsoft details how WOL should behave in the documentation linked to here:


Another important distinction to be aware of:

Performing a "shutdown" from within Windows MAY put the computer into a different state than physically powering off a system and then restoring power to that system.

As an example, compare the behavior of these two systems:

1) System using an (older) MSI motherboard:

If I perform a "shutdown" from within Windows, I can successfully perform a WOL on that system. However, if I then physically remove power from that machine and restore it, the system will not respond to a WOL.

2) System with a recent ASUS motherboard:

On this system, the system will also successfully respond to WOL if I perform a shutdown from within Windows. If I remove power and restore it to that system, it will still respond to a WOL, unlike the MSI.

Workaround for system 1: As a workaround, there is an option in the BIOS that allows the user to choose the behavior after a power loss and subsequent restoration of power. I set this so that the system will automatically power on after restoration of power. That way I can always remotely perform a shutdown again if I want, which maintains my ability to later perform a WOL. At least that way I guarantee that I can always do a WOL.

Another note: The conventional wisdom is to disable Fast Startup in Windows. However, from the above document, you may note that enabling Fast Startup may actually reverse the behavior, namely, that may cause WOL to NOT work after a shutdown, but WILL allow it to work when the system enters sleep state.

I realize that this is all very confusing. It certainly drove me nuts, anyway. All I can say is that you will need to test it on any given system to see how that particular system behaves.

Thanks so much to both of you! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond.

At least I got it to work partially. I can wake from powered off but not from sleep. I'll just disable sleep.

I could not get WOL to work (at all) with the built-in MS provided driver nor the Dell driver. I downloaded the Intel v23.4 driver (https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28415/eng/prowinx64.exe) and force updated the 82567LM‑3 adapter to use the 82579LM driver (\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\). I enabled PME and turned off all energy efficiency settings under the driver's Advanced tab and enabled everything under the Power Management tab of the driver settings.

jeffshead said:

Thanks so much to both of you! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond.

At least I got it to work partially. I can wake from powered off but not from sleep. I'll just disable sleep.

I could not get WOL to work (at all) with the built-in MS provided driver nor the Dell driver. I downloaded the Intel v23.4 driver (https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28415/eng/prowinx64.exe) and force updated the 82567LM‑3 adapter to use the 82579LM driver (\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\). I enabled PME and turned off all energy efficiency settings under the driver's Advanced tab and enabled everything under the Power Management tab of the driver settings.

Click to expand...

Ahh, yes! That was something that I forgot to mention. Using the built-in drivers from Microsoft will not always work. I too have found it absolutely necessary to have the manufacture's Ethernet drivers. But it is interesting that in your case even the drivers from Dell did not work.