computer infrequently turns off while in sleep mode

[diaco]

so I finished building my computer about 5 months ago and everything in general is fine but about 4 times now I have come home and it has turned itself off. It usually enters sleep mode after half an hour and then when I come to use it again, i just give the mouse a little movement.

But I find it strange that once in a blue moon it decides to turn itself off, and temperatures are great 27-30C. any ideas?

 

[terry4536]

There may be a option selected in your power management to shut off after some number of hours.

 

[diaco]

oh really? hmm where would I access this power management option in windows 7?

 

[terry4536]

Go to "power options" in the control panel.

 

[Metallica93]

You're the first person to have an issue very similar to my own. The main difference is that I'll put the computer to sleep myself and not wait for it. Unfortunately, when I hit "Sleep", the tower stays on for another 5-10 minutes and then shuts down. When I turn it back on I get the "Start Windows normally" screen.

I made a thread about it here, but no luck, thus far. If anyone helps me there I'll be sure to post back and let you know if the same solution applies.

 

[2flips]

You're the first person to have an issue very similar to my own. The main difference is that I'll put the computer to sleep myself and not wait for it. Unfortunately, when I hit "Sleep", the tower stays on for another 5-10 minutes and then shuts down. When I turn it back on I get the "Start Windows normally" screen.

I made a thread about it here, but no luck, thus far. If anyone helps me there I'll be sure to post back and let you know if the same solution applies.

 

[2flips]

Shot in the dark here for you, however this fixed my kernal power 41 code. I built a very low power consuming system (for a media center) and when it entered sleep there wasn't enough load on the power supply to keep the power supply working and it would shut itself off. My power supply had pulled the plug on my sleeping computer. Think about that the next time you're in the hospital! LOL! Fortunately, there is a setting in BIOS for my gigabyte z87 wifi called "Power Loading". Enabling this setting puts a dummy load on the power supply. Now when it enters sleep the little extra load the dummy puts on the power supply keeps it working and no more code or event. So that was the cause of my BSOD and code 41. Listen, this will not fix a fully awake computer setting code 41, only a sleeping one with very low power consumption on a switching power supply. I found this chapter from a book on a website called: "Upgrading and Repairing PCs, Academic Edition, 14th Edition" that I also stumbled upon while trying to find my answer. It gave me a theory that made perfect sense. Only question was... how little load is not enough?
"One characteristic of all switching-type power supplies is that they do not run without a load. This means that you must have the supply plugged into something drawing power for the supply to work. If you simply have the power supply on a bench with nothing plugged into it, either the supply burns up or its protection circuitry shuts it down. Most power supplies are protected from no-load operation and shut down automatically. Some of the cheap clone supplies, however, lack the protection circuit and relay. They are destroyed after a few seconds of no-load operation. A few power supplies have their own built-in load resistors, so they can run even though no normal load is plugged in."
They went on to say that too big of a power supply may not be matched to the light loads of some sleeping computers due to not enough load and they just shut down. Well that's all I know, I'm not a geek so don't expect a reply from me. I know enough to be dangerous but I just wanted to share what I stumbled upon to fix my issue that I thought was quite bizarre for a fix. Apparently though, the folks at gigabyte knew all about it and provided a way to fix it in BIOS. Thank you Gigabyte! I found it while reading the manual trying to find load spec's. I hope my own head scratching can help someone else. Now if I can only get my cable company to stop marking "copy-once" to all my non-premium TV shows I'll have a whole house DVR! Have a great day folks.

Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI
Antec ISK 310-150
Intel Core i3-4130T
Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX DDR3-1600 MHz 8GB
120 gig samsung evo
1TB Spinpoint NAS HDD
WinTV-HVR-2250 HDTV TV Dual ATSC/QAM Tuner
Ceton Infinity USB Cablecard 4 Tuner
Windows 7 Pro 64bit Media Center

 

[terry4536]

I read somewhere about using a resistor to fool power supplies that they were attached to motherboard. But that was in the context of testing the output of the PSU.

 

[xaviermb]

2flip this saved me from insanity I searched the internet for days and found this. Thank you.

Shot in the dark here for you, however this fixed my kernal power 41 code. I built a very low power consuming system (for a media center) and when it entered sleep there wasn't enough load on the power supply to keep the power supply working and it would shut itself off. My power supply had pulled the plug on my sleeping computer. Think about that the next time you're in the hospital! LOL! Fortunately, there is a setting in BIOS for my gigabyte z87 wifi called "Power Loading". Enabling this setting puts a dummy load on the power supply. Now when it enters sleep the little extra load the dummy puts on the power supply keeps it working and no more code or event. So that was the cause of my BSOD and code 41. Listen, this will not fix a fully awake computer setting code 41, only a sleeping one with very low power consumption on a switching power supply. I found this chapter from a book on a website called: "Upgrading and Repairing PCs, Academic Edition, 14th Edition" that I also stumbled upon while trying to find my answer. It gave me a theory that made perfect sense. Only question was... how little load is not enough?
"One characteristic of all switching-type power supplies is that they do not run without a load. This means that you must have the supply plugged into something drawing power for the supply to work. If you simply have the power supply on a bench with nothing plugged into it, either the supply burns up or its protection circuitry shuts it down. Most power supplies are protected from no-load operation and shut down automatically. Some of the cheap clone supplies, however, lack the protection circuit and relay. They are destroyed after a few seconds of no-load operation. A few power supplies have their own built-in load resistors, so they can run even though no normal load is plugged in."
They went on to say that too big of a power supply may not be matched to the light loads of some sleeping computers due to not enough load and they just shut down. Well that's all I know, I'm not a geek so don't expect a reply from me. I know enough to be dangerous but I just wanted to share what I stumbled upon to fix my issue that I thought was quite bizarre for a fix. Apparently though, the folks at gigabyte knew all about it and provided a way to fix it in BIOS. Thank you Gigabyte! I found it while reading the manual trying to find load spec's. I hope my own head scratching can help someone else. Now if I can only get my cable company to stop marking "copy-once" to all my non-premium TV shows I'll have a whole house DVR! Have a great day folks.

Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI
Antec ISK 310-150
Intel Core i3-4130T
Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX DDR3-1600 MHz 8GB
120 gig samsung evo
1TB Spinpoint NAS HDD
WinTV-HVR-2250 HDTV TV Dual ATSC/QAM Tuner
Ceton Infinity USB Cablecard 4 Tuner
Windows 7 Pro 64bit Media Center

 

[terry4536]

There is one problem that I can think of that may account for some of theses assorted cases. It may be Haswel CPU's powered by non-Haswel certified power supplies. The Haswell CPU's have a known problem with non-certified power supplies in the sleep mode.