How To Fix ‘Driver Power State Failure’ in Windows 10

Users will need to click on the ‘Settings’ cog on the Windows 10 start menu then click ‘Recovery on the right-hand side of the Settings window. Under the ‘Advanced Start-Up’ heading, click the restart button.

After restarting Windows 10, users will be greeted with a friendly blue screen with a few options. Click the following: Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Start-Up Settings > Restart. This will start Windows 10 in ‘Safe Mode’.

We know Safe Mode can look a little daunting, but it’s just a ‘no frills’ Windows 10’ with all the same programs and tools you’re used to. Next, we need to navigate over to ‘Device Manager’. Type ‘devmgmt.msc’ into the Run window (Windows key + r) to bring it up.

Finally, find the hardware linked to the updated driver, right-click it and select ‘Uninstall’. If this solves your issue, check the manufacturers’ website for an updated driver which will most likely have this issue resolved. Alternatively, you can double click your chosen hardware, go to the ‘Driver’ tab and click ‘Roll Back Driver’ to see if a previous driver version does the trick.

Instead of selecting ‘Uninstall Driver’ when right-clicking, select ‘Update Driver’ followed by ‘Search Automatically’. If you’re already up-to-date but are experiencing the driver power state failure Windows 10 error, it may be worth checking on the manufacturers’ website for up-to-date drivers. Hardware such as graphics cards normally has its own dedicated software for updates and more.

When double-clicking into the hardware in question, selecting the ‘Power Management’ tab will allow you to uncheck ‘Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power’. This can resolve the diver power state failure Windows 10 issue, but this process needs to be followed for all affected hardware to work properly. Don’t forget to save!

Type CMD into the Windows 10 Search bar and select ‘Run As Administrator’, or into the Run window by pressing the Windows key + R and pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter instead of OK to open up as an administrator. Type ‘sfc /scannow’ onto the command line and press enter. This will identify any corrupt files and fix them, the whole process normally takes around ten minutes or so.

The ‘Run Deployment Image Servicing And Management’ tool can come in handy when a System File Check doesn’t return any issues or fails. Using the same method above, run ‘DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth’ to establish any issues. Follow this up with ‘DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth’ to fix any established issues.

To start, search ‘Control Panel’ in the Windows 10 search bar, then click ‘Power Options’ or type ‘powercfg.cpl’ in the Run window.

Next, click the following: ‘Choose what the power buttons do’ (Right-hand side) > ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable’. Uncheck ‘Turn off fast startup’, ‘Sleep’, and ‘Hibernate’. Don’t forget to save those changes too!

Whilst in the ‘Power Options’ window, click the ‘Change Plan Settings’ link next to your chosen plan. Next, click on ‘Change Advanced Power Settings’ to open up the ‘Advanced Settings’ window.

These are the two settings you’ll need to keep in mind when looking at the Sleep, Sleep and Hibernation and Power Buttons and Lid dropdowns. If these options aren’t available, just set the time limit to 99999.