PC not entering standy mode properly

[martinlest]

When I select Standby/Sleep, nine times out of ten it works fine, and the PC wakes up again normally too. But recently I have had an issue on occasion whereby the PC itself does not power down on trying to 'put it to sleep' - the fans and lights remain on, but to all other intents and purposes, it is 'dead': not even the restart switch has any effect (nor does the normal on/off button) - I just have to pull the mains cord out in the end.

Whereabouts would I be able to find meaningful information on the PC as to what went wrong? Event Log for instance? Boot trace? Be good to know what is preventing it from going into standby normally on these occasions (especially when, as I say, it is an intermittent event).

Thanks.

 

[iko22]

Reliability Monitor will give a chart of abnormal terminations. You can use that to get time/date of these shutdowns, and then go back to Event Viewer to search for Errors at about that time(s).
You can also generate a Hibernate trace, following this tutorial:
:ar: Gathering a Startup, Shutdown, Sleep, Hibernate, or Reboot Trace

powercfg is a cmd that can tell you about what last woke the computer. But if the computer is not hibernating correctly, then this information is not much use.

 

[martinlest]

Yes, I thought about a boot trace, but on second thoughts, since the PC doesn't actually respond, realised that would probably be pointless.

Looked at Reliability Monitor and noted the exact times (though the only record is 'Windows was not properly shut down': me pulling the plug, I suppose). No errors are recorded in Event Viewer around those times, apart from the previous shutdown being unexpected.

Thanks.