PC shuts down when left idle for too long. NOT OVERHEATING

[nicorette1234]

My pc, with windows 7 installed on it, mysteriously shuts down when I am not around. I come back to find it turned off, and upon starting it, I get the screen saying that it shut down improperly and asking whether or not I want to start it in safe mode. It is certainly not due to overheating as I have recently installed superior cooling and it has not fixed the problem.

The strange thing is that it has never happened when I was using my pc. Also, it does not happen under any predictable circumstances. sometimes I leave my pc for hours and it stays on, other times I leave for minutes and find it shut down.

Does anyone have any input? I checked the Application Log in the computer manager and I cannot find any indication of a problem which would cause the pc to shut down. the last time my computer shut down itself, I noticed one log saying : VSS service is shutting down due to idle timeout, but this seems to be irrelevant. I really don't know where I should be looking for answers.

thanks!

 

[bjornl]

Check your power management settings. (Power Options in your control panel).
Also check your BIOS power settings if your PC has those (some do).

 

[nicorette1234]

Check your power management settings. (Power Options in your control panel).
Also check your BIOS power settings if your PC has those (some do).

what would you say that I am looking for in these settings? if I get the <your pc has shut down incorrectly> screen, doesn't that mean that the problem can't have anything to do with the power options?

 

[bjornl]

Given that this has never happened when you are using the PC, it is highly unlikely to be bad hardware and so the only logical thing to pursue are things which happen when the user is not in front of the PC which would be power management.

I have seen the following happen more than once.
PC due to power settings goes in to hibernation. Then due to either user misunderstanding or some hardware bit which does not support hibernation they restart the PC rather then wake it up. This will trigger a dirty shut down prompt.

While in BIOS power management a recovery is a bit tricky as the bios might or might not communicate fully with the PC (driver dependent). And thus is also capable of getting a dirty shutdown flag.

 

[nicorette1234]

So you think it is the hibernation that is the problem? For now I turned off Hibernation and also Sleep to see if this ever happens again. Thanks for your help!

 

[msproject251]

I know this problem, I have two soluions go to control panel>power options>change when the computer sleeps> and put both settings on never if unsuccesful, go to windows update and disable automatic updates.