As it turns out, when you are playing sound, it is called streaming by Windows. Therefore, whenever an application on your system is playing sound or listening for that matter, it is referred to as streaming. This is what the “An audio stream is currently in use” message refers to. Now, as we have mentioned, this is not really an error message because this isn’t a problem. Rather, this can be referred to as additional information that lets you in on why your computer is not able to sleep. In some cases, it may even be that the system does not hibernate so it doesn’t have to be the sleep feature all the time. There’s a difference between sleep and hibernate, however, both are power-saving modes. If an application on your system is playing sound, or listening, your power management settings won’t let you put your computer to sleep. In such a scenario, you will have to allow the device that is playing sound and then you will have to override so that the computer is put to sleep even if that device is playing sound after a certain period. Now that we have mentioned what the message mentioned above means, and why the problem in question is caused, we can get started with showing you how to resolve the issue so that your computer goes to sleep without any problems. So, without further ado, let us get right into it.
Disable Cortana
As it turns out, the first thing that you should do when you face the problem in question is to make sure that Cortana is disabled on your system. More often than not, Cortana listens to your voice due to the Hey Cortana feature so that it can respond to your voice promptly. This can sometimes cause the problem that you are facing which is why you will have to disable Cortana. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:
Disable Line In from Sound Settings
Another reason that you might be facing the issue in question is due to the Line In jack. Located on the sound card, this can be used to connect various audio devices to your computer. They are mainly used to record incoming audio or to manipulate it by modifying the signal. Follow the instructions given down below to disable this:
Override Power Management Settings
As it turns out, the primary reason that your computer won’t go to sleep is because of the Windows power management settings. As it happens, if a device on your system is streaming audio i.e. playing audio or listening for audio, your computer will not be allowed to go to sleep as it is sort of in an active state. In such a scenario, you will have to override the power management settings by allowing the device that is streaming audio when this happens. Once you do this, this will enable Windows to sleep even if that audio is streaming audio. To do this, follow the instructions given down below carefully:
Reinstall Audio Drivers
Finally, if none of the above solutions have fixed the error for you, it is possible that the issue is being caused by your audio drivers. In such a scenario, you will have to reinstall them on your system and then see if the error persists. You have two choices here. First, you can have Windows install the drivers for you or you can manually look for drivers for your sound card on your manufacturer’s website and then download them from there. To uninstall the audio driver, follow the instructions given down below: Additionally, you can also download your audio drivers manually from the manufacturer’s website. Once you have done that, you will have to install them manually. Go ahead and do that via the downloaded file. After you have installed the latest driver, see if the problem still persists.
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