So I ended up reinstalling my windows 8.1 partition (for unrelated reasons... it was an upgrade install and I got a new key and wanted windows 7 on another machine, but anyway) and powersaves works 100% every time now. I am absolutely baffled as to why I was having such a ridiculously lousy time getting it to work before. Yes, I did reinstall the software including the drivers numerous times and it didn't help.
very, VERY strange.
very, VERY strange.