Larkbox on Win 11 constantly going to sleep

My Larbox running Windows 11 keeps going to sleep. The unit boots normally, but immediately goes to sleep mode. If I hit a key or move the mouse, the Larkbox wakes up. Sometimes the login screen appears, but often not long enough to type in my login pin. It goes right back to sleep. Trying a bunch of times, it might run for a few minutes, rarely longer. I set the power and screen settings in Windows so that it should never go to sleep. It took a good dozen wakeups to manage to switch those settings but to no avail. The screen still goes black and the fan of the Larkbox powers off. Any ideas what that could be?

I bought the unit through the Indiegogo campaign and it would be nice to keep using this tiny PC.

I have the Chuwi Larkbox from their Indiegogo campaign too and mine is still going strong. Mine came with Windows 10 and I upgraded to Windows 11 when Microsoft released it. I currently use it connected to my big screen tv.
When Windows 11 was released I let it do the automatic upgrade first, then after running it for a few days and having no problems I went to Microsoft.com and downloaded the Windows 11 install and went thru that process to make sure it worked that way too. I had to keep a copy of all the drivers (c:\windows\system32\driverstore) to use because there were a bunch that don’t come with Windows 10 or 11.
On my setup I got the extra 240GB M.2 drive with it and I always install Windows there. I use the built in 128GB drive to keep the drivers for when I decide to reload Windows. As for why yours would go to sleep all the time I would try reloading a fresh copy of Windows 11 downloaded from Microsoft and reinstall and see if the problem goes away.
If it goes to sleep during a fresh install there is something wrong in the bios or yours is just dying.

I reinstalled Win 11 once already. What baffles me is that the Larkbox runs just fine for the whole installation process and even after that I was able to set everything up by reinstalling apps and so on. But the next day I turned it on it displayed that behavior. I’ll see if it runs long enough to backup the drivers and try a fresh install. While I primarily use another computer, there are a few things I still like the Larkbox for.

When you do the fresh install, there will be one place in the install where it gives the option for an advanced installation as for where to put windows. I would be sure to delete all partitions on the drive where you intend to install it. then after Windows is installed, all the drivers and other updates installed, dont install any of your apps for a day or so. maybe one of them is doing something weird and causing it to go to sleep.

p.s. the only apps i run on my larkbox are coretemp, vlc media player and 4k downloader. coretemp monitors the cpu temps and if i see it in the 80/90’s for more than a second or 2 i know something is overheating, which could cause it to shut down.

Thanks. I’ll give that a try when I get to it. I’ll install coretemp to keep an eye on CPU temperatures, too.

So, I gave it another go trying to reinstall Win 11 but I think my unit is toast. The installation process didn’t get all that far and the Larkbox felt pretty hot after that. I ordered a ZX01 mini PC on AliExpress. It has a N5105 processor, which is a far newer generation than the J4115 in the Larkbox. The ZX01 is slightly larger but also has more ports. It’s a bit of a risk getting such an unknown unit. Other than AliExpress, there’s hardly anything information about it on the web. I also considered buying a Larkbox again. It served me well during the time I had it.

I’ve contemplated trying the Pico Pantera. It’s small like the Larkbox with a few extra perks, like USB 3.x ports in the front and back, an LED light right around the top when it’s on. MicroSD card reader and a slightly faster processor, J4125. I seem to be collecting mini PC’s. My first was the NUC6 a few years ago, then the Chuwi Larkbox, MinisForum DMAF5, NUC11, plus my own custom builds using the smallest cases I can find and a mini-itx board. A fun hobby in my retirement years.

Haha, nice. The Larkbox was my second mini PC. In the past, I always inherited my wife’s MacBook Pro whenever she bought a newer one. In the fall of 2019, we were moving and mine died shortly before the move. I bought a Raspberry Pi just to have a small computer to go online and when the Larkbox was announced I joined the Indiegogo campaign. This year my wife finally bought a new MacBook Pro, so I have her old one again. Since it’s nice to have a small dedicated Windows PC, I ordered a ZX01. The Raspberry Pi is still in use as a small media server.