Close lid option "Do nothing" absent

I just talked with Sony support and was told this for my particular model SVF14A15CXB. The air vent is situated such that closing the lid will interfere with the air flow. For that reason the option of closing the lid and doing nothing (leaving the machine on) is not an option. It was not left out by mistake. It was deliberate to avoid the machine overheating.

I used MDT 2012 U1 to install Win8-ENT on my lappie, and that seems to work just fine, so I know that option should be there, but then again, I didn't build SONY's image, god only knows what they've done to it.

THREE IDEAS:

1. Try to Reset and restore the power plans to default:

   a. Click “Start”, type “cmd” in the “Start” search boxand hit ENTER.

   b. In the command prompt, type powercfg –restoredefaultschemes and hit Enter.

   c. Exit command prompt.

2. Try editing the registry:

   HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Power\User\PowerSchemes

3. As I noted earlier, I suspect this is something does on their models, if its fresh outa the box, just reinstall Windows, I'm sure this is something they did, if its a brand new computer, this helps get all that sony bloatware off.

I had the same problem with my new Vaio on Windows 8. The Vaio helpdesk confirmed indeed that this a Sony 'feature' but could not clarify why. They suggested to update to Windows 8.1; the problem should then be fixed.

Because downloading the 8.1 update from the Sony site failed I installed it directly from Microsoft. After the update the option 'no action' was available again.

However after an update from Vaio Update the 'no action' option was removed again! So the helpdesk was wrong by saying the issue was solved in Windows 8.1.

Inspired by the output of Powercfg /q I did some investigation in the relevant registry keys.

By adding the registry keys:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Power\PowerSettings\4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347\5ca83367-6e45-459f-a27b-476b1d01c936\3] "Description"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,\ 00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,\ 5c,00,70,00,6f,00,77,00,72,00,70,00,72,00,6f,00,66,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\ 00,2c,00,2d,00,35,00,30,00,2c,00,54,00,61,00,6b,00,65,00,20,00,6e,00,6f,00,\ 20,00,61,00,63,00,74,00,69,00,6f,00,6e,00,00,00 "FriendlyName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,\ 00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,\ 5c,00,70,00,6f,00,77,00,72,00,70,00,72,00,6f,00,66,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\ 00,2c,00,2d,00,35,00,31,00,2c,00,54,00,61,00,6b,00,65,00,20,00,6e,00,6f,00,\ 20,00,61,00,63,00,74,00,69,00,6f,00,6e,00,00,00

"SettingValue"=dword:00000000

the missing 'no action' option was available again (no reboot required)!

The value for 'Description' is: @%SystemRoot%\system32\powrprof.dll,-50,Take no action

The value for 'FriendlyName' is: @%SystemRoot%\system32\powrprof.dll,-51,Take no action

Source: Windows 8: How to Lock (not sleep) laptop on lid close?.

There is no built in way to do this, but you could use LidLock for this purpose. It is a GUI tool which can help you what you want to achieve. You can also set it to start automatically with Windows start-up.

You can also set the timer for sleep/hibernate after locking the laptop.

You can read more about this on this article.