Windows 10 keeps powering off my laptop

[IrateRob]

Hi,

Since I have installed Windows 10 (reluctantly) my laptop keeps switching off whilst I am working with it.

I have an old Thinkpad and have set so the power settings so it never sleeps whether on battery or mains. However, it is always plugged into the mains and I never use it with the battery.

This may be a red herring but I do have Microsoft Solitaire going most of the time, so wondering if it could be a potential cause.

 

[Trouble]

my laptop keeps switching off whilst I am working with it.

I can't think of any possible power configuration setting, even including a screen saver setting that would physically turn off your computer while you were actively using it.
Are you absolutely certain that it is shutting down? How do you recover, do you have to use the power button to physically turn it back on? Does it restart on its' own?
IF you look in Event Viewer, do you see any errors reporting that the computer was not shut down properly?
Have you observed any error messages or blue screen events when this happens?
Possibly your temperatures are high and the computer is shutting down to protect itself.

 

[IrateRob]

I can't think of any possible power configuration setting, even including a screen saver setting that would physically turn off your computer while you were actively using it.
Are you absolutely certain that it is shutting down? How do you recover, do you have to use the power button to physically turn it back on? Does it restart on its' own?
IF you look in Event Viewer, do you see any errors reporting that the computer was not shut down properly?
Have you observed any error messages or blue screen events when this happens?
Possibly your temperatures are high and the computer is shutting down to protect itself.

Hi,

Thanks for responding.

I will be working on the laptop and it just switches off.

• No blue screen or error messages.
• I then need to power up using the power button and log in as normal.
• No it doesn't restart on its own.
• I don't believe it is temperature related
• As mentioned above it does appear to happen when I have Microsoft Solitaire open, but again that may be just a red herring

I haven't looked at the Event Log but have captured the summary of the errors from the administrative log that I have attached. I am not sure whether this actually shows the event and if so which one it is.

 

[IrateRob]

It has just happened again. The only application I was running was Spider from the Solitaire Collection. This is the event:

- System
- Provider
[ Name] EventLog
- EventID 6008
[ Qualifiers] 32768
Level 2
Task 0
Keywords 0x80000000000000
- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2016-01-15T10:22:30.795221200Z
EventRecordID 4124
Channel System
Computer Home-PC
Security
- EventData
9:45:21 AM
‎1/‎15/‎2016
62412
E007010005000F0009002D001500F201E007010005000F0009002D001500F201600900003C000000010000006009000001000000B00400000100000000000000
Binary data:

In Words

0000: 000107E0 000F0005 002D0009 01F20015
0010: 000107E0 000F0005 002D0009 01F20015
0020: 00000960 0000003C 00000001 00000960
0030: 00000001 000004B0 00000001 00000000

In Bytes

0000: E0 07 01 00 05 00 0F 00 à.......
0008: 09 00 2D 00 15 00 F2 01 ..-...ò.
0010: E0 07 01 00 05 00 0F 00 à.......
0018: 09 00 2D 00 15 00 F2 01 ..-...ò.
0020: 60 09 00 00 3C 00 00 00 `...<...
0028: 01 00 00 00 60 09 00 00 ....`...
0030: 01 00 00 00 B0 04 00 00 ....°...
0038: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

 

[Trouble]

I'm not seeing anything obvious in the images you've attached.
What I would suggest is examining both the Application log and the System log under the Windows Logs individually around the time of the shut downs for "Critical Errors" indicated by a red icon and see if you can find something specific.

 

[IrateRob]

Thanks. The alternative is I suppose not to play Microsoft Spider Solitaire

 

[Trouble]

Again, I can't imagine any scenario where playing or not playing Microsoft Spider Solitaire would result in what you are reporting.
IF it is in fact turning off / "switching off", as in shutting down, while you are actively using it, then....
That would suggest to me, a hardware problem.
AND
Even if it is not shutting down, but rather entering some type of power saving mode (sleep, hibernate, hybrid sleep, etc.) I cannot explain why that would occur when you are actively using the computer.

Does it happen with any determinable consistency as in the same time every day, or the same amount of time after starting from a cold boot at the start of a day, or the same amount of time after restarting after it shuts down.
Does the amount of time you can actually use the computer between these events seem to diminish at all or does it always run for 1 hour and then shut down or 10 minutes and then shut down.

 

[IrateRob]

There is no discernible pattern, the only constant being Spider Solitaire.

This laptop is left plugged in on my desk, powered up most of the time, bad I know but I can't be bothered to pwer up everytime I I go in and use it. It is often left on all night.

It is potentially a battery problem though. It is about 4 years old.

 

[Trouble]

It is potentially a battery problem though

That's certainly a possibility.
Some laptops require them to be present and free of defect, while others.... you don't even need to have one installed at all.
I suppose a means of testing which category your laptop falls into, might be to shut it down, remove the battery, make sure the AC adapter is plugged in and see if it will start.
IF not, then you might have just diagnosed your problem.

 

[IrateRob]

The laptop was up for 24 hours without shutting itself down without Solitaire running. Within an hour of solitaire being started, the laptop shut down. Solitaire was the only user application running.

I then took out the battery and re-booted. Again with solitaire being the only user application running, it restarted.

I will leave the laptop running without any applications to see if it shuts itself down.

 

[davehc]

You say the machine is a little old?
MS solitaire collection is, unfortunately, graphic intensive. It is possible that the machine is overheating. Not very many solutions to this, other than opening up and trying to clean out the motherboard.

 

[IrateRob]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I have done further tests and it does appear to be pointing to MS Solitaire Collection. Every time it has just switched off, the only application running has been Solitaire. I can leave it up overnight running with say Chrome or IE windows up and nothing happens. Shut those down and bring up Spider and it shuts down at some point.

 

[gcohen6]

IrateRob, it is not an isolated anomaly. I have a Lenovo X61 Tablet laptop that Microsoft automatically installed Windows 10. I had been running Windows 7 Home Premium with no problems. Now, with Windows 10, when I run Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Spyder, the laptop abruptly powers down. No notice, just an abrupt black screen and the power is off.

It will start up properly and run fine with everything else, it's just the spyder solitaire. It has happened at least 4 times.

Also, I'm not sure if this is relevant, the initial installation went poorly. Many things did not work, including the start button, cortana, and a few other things. Microsoft tech support re-installed Windows 10 and it now works. Also, the sound didn't work and Lenovo didn't make a Win 10 driver for my SoundMax audio system. I installed the Windows 7 drivers and it now works. I tested it with as many things as I could, You Tube, etc. and it seems to work fine.

 

[davehc]

Note the thread is four months old.

 

[IrateRob]

Hi,
It has been over 5 months since I raised this initially and still today the only thing that powers off my laptop is when I have Microsoft Solitaire Collection open. If it isn't down to this then it is one hell of a coincidence. I always close the product when I am not using it as it switches the laptop off if left open.

 

[gcohen6]

I finally gave up and simply put an old spider.exe on the desktop and it works fine. Apparently this is one bug Microsoft and Lenovo don't care about. I attached the spider.exe file if you need it.

 

[gcohen6]

The odds of people that own a Thinkpad and then use the microsoft apps to run spider after they get forced to upgrade to 10 are pretty small. Time will tell.

 

[IrateRob]

Hi gcohen6,
Thanks for the offer. I still have Windows 7 running on my wife's machine, so I can get it from there.

 

[gcohen6]

I'm retired now but one of my many jobs was software testing. I'm glad I am not still in the business, because, apparently, no one is hiring software testers anymore. (Snark)

 

[IrateRob]

I know what you mean. I have recently retired after 40 years in the IT industry and I know exactly what you mean.