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Summary: Computers can be configured to shut down after periods of inactivity. But if it happens without having configured it, reasons aren't as clear.
I don't have anything very specific, but there are a few things I'll throw out as places to look and perhaps some items that hadn't been thought of yet. • The first thing that comes to mind is your screen saver. Particularly if "after a time" is a relatively consistent amount of time. Normally a screen saver wouldn't turn the computer off, but a screen saver is software after all, and could have a bug that's manifesting on your machine. This certainly sounds and feels like it could be a standby or hibernation issue - though if either you'd be able to tell right away when you turn the computer back on. If it resumes immediately it went into standby, and if it says "resuming from hibernation" that's pretty clear. Even if hibernation and standby are turned off, for a long time I ran into a problem where they would automagically turn themselves back on. "Power management is, at its root, a BIOS initiated and
managed thing."
Another place to look is the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) power settings in the BIOS. Power management is, at its root, a BIOS initiated and managed thing. Perhaps turning that functionality off in the BIOS, or at least twiddling with the settings there might affect the issue. There are services that kick in after inactivity. The indexing service is one (you can turn it off), and in Vista I believe there's a bunch of defragging stuff that happens in the background after some idle time. In either of these or similar cases it's possible that the service is causing a problem that would result in the machine shutting down. In fact, because of the possibility of services kicking in at idle time, it actually still could be a thermal issue. The services might be driving the machine harder than you do when you use it normally, and thus the machine might be experiencing higher temperatures. If it's something you can watch, try running process explorer and see if some application is using up all CPU prior to the machine shutting down. It certainly wouldn't hurt to run a RAM diagnostic anyway. You might have a look in the event log for anything suspicious. Error messages or messages of other activity that happen around the time of the shutdown might throw some interesting light on the situation. Related:
Article 12212 | Posted February 3, 2008 |
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I am not a fan of indexing, which I turned off on my old system, as the sound of my drive working when I'm not irritates me. Imagine my chagrin to discover you are not allowed to turn off indexing in Vista (contrary to the impression Leo gives in the article, above.)
Posted by: Big Bill at February 9, 2008 07:04 AMTo turn of indexing in Vista:
Open up Services through control panel, or by typing services.msc into the start menu search box. Find "Windows Search" in the list of services and double-click on it to open it.
Change the Startup type of the service to Disabled, and then click the Stop button to stop the service.
www.geocities.com/terryhollett2003/
Posted by: Terry Hollett at February 9, 2008 07:59 AMAt night, I usually put my desktop (XP) into hibernate mode. In the morning, while I wait for it to power back up again, I get bored of waiting so go and make myself some tea. When I come back, it's powered itself down again. It seems that if there's a period of inactivity from the point of coming out of hibernation, then it will power down. Once I've moved the mouse or pressed a key in the morning, it will never auto-power-down. I've tried the suggestions above, but to no avail.
Posted by: Jon Smith at May 16, 2008 02:09 AMmy lenovo think center A61 desktop pc power supply auto shutdown after power on few 5-10mins.
Posted by: yang jian jun at June 5, 2008 07:50 PM