
I am no expert, but these have worked for me. Move the mouse, or hit a key, to exit from the screen saver before closing the lid (assuming that is set to "sleep").

In that case the screen saver will run forever. Some laptops have - when plugged in - a Wyse file transfer program (Pocket Cloud) that prevents sleep. Is this a laptop or a desktop? They offer slightly different options. Multimedia settings: when sharing media: allow computer to sleep.

So best set those to "never" for the sleep condition. No need to turn off display or shut down HDDs if you are going to sleep.
