Power options not enforcing 60 second limit in Windows 7

This article details a known power options issue with Windows 7 where the kernel does not adhere to the minimum allowed time that is set by the user in the Group Policy Management Console for hibernation and sleep timeouts.

When a user creates a power policy setting by using the Group Policy Management Console (gpedit.msc), which establishes a sleep or hibernation timeout of less than 60 seconds, the kernel does not accept this change, and it sets the timeout to 60 seconds.

This is a known issue that exists, which allows the power policy settings to be changed by the user to values below the 60-second threshold even though these settings will not be used by the kernel. The kernel has a fixed minimum value of 60 seconds for sleep and hibernation timeouts.

To resolve this known issue, ensure that sleep and hibernation timeouts are set at a minimum of 60 seconds.

Source: Technet.