Unexpected Shutdown

[pain55]

Hi,

I was using my laptop for general browsing, when all of a sudden, it turned off. At first, I tried turning it back on, but it wouldn't, so I plugged in the charger and it turned on. It then reported that windows hadn't shutdown safely etc.

The thing is though, I checked the battery levels after re-starting, and it was at 25%. I have set my power options so that the laptop goes into hibernate when the battery is at 10% and at Do Nothing when it is at 25%.

So please can someone explain what happened?

 

[richc46]

No one can tell you what happened, but we can offer educated guesses.
The first cause would be overheating. Do you know what the temps of your computer are during load.
Did you have a BSOD, did the screen turn blue?
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

 

[pain55]

No one can tell you what happened, but we can offer educated guesses.
The first cause would be overheating. Do you know what the temps of your computer are during load.
Did you have a BSOD, did the screen turn blue?
SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

No, there was no BSOD.

Just now I just let my laptop battery drain, until it hit critical level so that it would hibernate. But instead of hibernating, it just shut down as if the battery had fully gone. So I plugged in and re-started and the 'Windows did not shut down properly screen...' came up. I think this is what happened before. Can anyone tell me what the problem could be?

 

[Anak]

Hi,

The 2 most probable reasons could be:

• CPU overheating
• Power supply is going bad

To a lesser degree:

A failing memory or video card.

Do you notice the unit running hot to very hot?

According to this cnet review,
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC user ratings and Laptop user reviews and reviews - CNET Reviews two users have measured their units at 107, and 110° F.
This has led to motherboard failures.

The reviews also mention poor performance from the battery pack, can you obtain a known good one to see if it will re-create your situation?

Do you have an Ohm meter to take a reading of the battery voltage when this situation occurs? I would not trust the on board battery life indicator.

Batteries are known to show a resonable life, but once a certain point is reached they will drop out to zero voltage, and will not give enough power to shutdown properly.

Heat is also an enemy of batteries.

The 2133 is equiped with what is called DriveGuard if the unit is bumped or moved unexpectedly it will shutdown to save the HDD, but I do not think that is happening here.

 

[bigmck]

No one can tell you what happened, but we can offer educated guesses.
The first cause would be overheating. Do you know what the temps of your computer are during load.
Did you have a BSOD, did the screen turn blue?
SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

No, there was no BSOD.

Just now I just let my laptop battery drain, until it hit critical level so that it would hibernate. But instead of hibernating, it just shut down as if the battery had fully gone. So I plugged in and re-started and the 'Windows did not shut down properly screen...' came up. I think this is what happened before. Can anyone tell me what the problem could be?

When there is overheating, there is not a BSOD. It just turns off. Get the temperature program listed above and give it a try to find out if the problem is overheating.

 

[pain55]

Hi,

The 2 most probable reasons could be:

• CPU overheating
• Power supply is going bad

To a lesser degree:

A failing memory or video card.

Do you notice the unit running hot to very hot?

According to this cnet review,
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC user ratings and Laptop user reviews and reviews - CNET Reviews two users have measured their units at 107, and 110° F.
This has led to motherboard failures.

The reviews also mention poor performance from the battery pack, can you obtain a known good one to see if it will re-create your situation?

Do you have an Ohm meter to take a reading of the battery voltage when this situation occurs? I would not trust the on board battery life indicator.

Batteries are known to show a resonable life, but once a certain point is reached they will drop out to zero voltage, and will not give enough power to shutdown properly.

Heat is also an enemy of batteries.

The 2133 is equiped with what is called DriveGuard if the unit is bumped or moved unexpectedly it will shutdown to save the HDD, but I do not think that is happening here.

Firstly, mate, I recently updated my graphics card driver, just to let you know.

Secondly, the laptop does get hot quite quick, after all it is a mini laptop.

Last year, the motherboard blew due to overheat, so HP replaced it whilst I was under warranty.

The DriveGuard only temporarily disables the HDD to prevent it from shock. So that can't be the reason.

Finally, running a HP Health Check shows that my battery has a 'good' status.

(A couple of months ago I remember letting my battery drain to critical level to see if it would hibernate, and it did. Don't know what is going on now.)

 

[pain55]

No one can tell you what happened, but we can offer educated guesses.
The first cause would be overheating. Do you know what the temps of your computer are during load.
Did you have a BSOD, did the screen turn blue?
SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

No, there was no BSOD.

Just now I just let my laptop battery drain, until it hit critical level so that it would hibernate. But instead of hibernating, it just shut down as if the battery had fully gone. So I plugged in and re-started and the 'Windows did not shut down properly screen...' came up. I think this is what happened before. Can anyone tell me what the problem could be?

When there is overheating, there is not a BSOD. It just turns off. Get the temperature program listed above and give it a try to find out if the problem is overheating.

Well, I tried the SpeedFan and it only shoes CPU usage, nothing else. Here is a screenshot:

 

[bigmck]

Do a search in Google for CPUID Hardware Monitor. It will show everything.

 

[pain55]

Do a search in Google for CPUID Hardware Monitor. It will show everything.

I ran the program and here is the screenshot:

 

[richc46]

They seem fine to me. 60 upper limits of acceptable.

 

[Anak]

Firstly, mate, I recently updated my graphics card driver, just to let you know.

Secondly, the laptop does get hot quite quick, after all it is a mini laptop.

Last year, the motherboard blew due to overheat, so HP replaced it whilst I was under warranty.

The DriveGuard only temporarily disables the HDD to prevent it from shock. So that can't be the reason.

Finally, running a HP Health Check shows that my battery has a 'good' status.

(A couple of months ago I remember letting my battery drain to critical level to see if it would hibernate, and it did. Don't know what is going on now.)

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]For whatever reason this line showed in the instant notification that was sent to my email, but it does not show here in your post......[/FONT]

What is an Ohm meter and where can I obtain one?

An ohmmeter is an electronic device which measures resistance in an electronic component or circuit.
How to Use an Ohmmeter - wikiHow

I was in error when I referred to it for your case because I am accustomed to the device having a volt meter incorporated into the device, and forgetting that you do not live in my part of the world.​

You can find them made separately or together, but a volt meter is really what you need.

A VOM; multimeter, mutitester.

Multimeter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia​

Shavano Music Online - Using a Volt Ohm Meter​

As far as obtaining one? Check:
Music stores
Auto supply​

Electronic shops
Wal-mart
Kmart
Sears
Lowes
HomeDepot
Radio Shack

 

[pain55]

Guys, do you think the problem could be with hibernation, because that's what my laptop is supposed to do when the battery reaches critical level.

Anyway, I changed the critical level to 15% for now, and set it so that the laptop goes into sleep mode instead.

 

[pain55]

Just tried hibernation on its own, and it works. Must be some kind of power problem... = /

 

[Anak]

Does the problem only appear when on battery or does it also appear on AC?

 

[wds7]

They seem fine to me. 60 upper limits of acceptable.

It's kind of high to me ....
Anyway...try to run Hibernate program by itself ..see if it works first..
on battery and ac charger ..

 

[pain55]

Guys, I ran hibernate on its own and it works.

About 5 minutes ago, the laptop just spontaneously turned off again and then re-started. So, nothing to do with the critical battery stuff that I was on about before.

I can only guess now that its a overheating problem or maybe a driver problem.

 

[Grumpy Old Tom]

I'm watching this thread because my Dell Precision M4300 does not shut down properly when the battery is exhausted. This is a new thing with Windows 7; under XP Pro it hibernated properly.

Now, on restart, I get the "Windows did not shut down properly" screen. I wonder if there is something mis-coded in the shutdown sequence (which could well be vendor-specific I suppose) that causes this problem.

Anyway, since it may be related to this thread, here it is.

 

[Keiichi25]

Well, what I have noticed with Win 7 on some of its shutdown procedures, it sometimes doesn't talk to programs properly about shutting down.

On my main system, I have noticed that it does pop up with "Should I force quit..." for some programs, then eventually it goes down.

On one Dell laptop, I saw something truly bizzare... I could not get it to shut down at all, or log off or restart short of manually doing it, and it seems that a program just simply would not let go and win7 didn't even try a force quit.

Now from what i am reading here in this thread, I am wondering if the minibook is having thermal issues and isn't processing the hibernate/shutdown as nicely as it should. You might also have to put the tolerances a little higher, depending on how fast the minibook's power is draining, as I think while it is 'checking' something else is kicking in to try and save itself in the process.

 

[Anak]

Guys, I ran hibernate on its own and it works.

About 5 minutes ago, the laptop just spontaneously turned off again and then re-started. So, nothing to do with the critical battery stuff that I was on about before.

I can only guess now that its a overheating problem or maybe a driver problem.

From: HP 2133 Mini-Note PC - Guided Troubleshooting

STATE:
The computer restarts unexpectedly or restarts while shutdown.
GUIDANCE:
If 'Automatically restart' option is enabled, the PC will reboot automatically in the event of a very serious system error. This reboot happens too fast to record the error message for use in troubleshooting.
Disable "Automatically restart" option by performing the steps mentioned below:

1. Log on to the computer as either an administrator or the owner.
2. Click Start menu, and then click Control Panel.
3. Double click System icon.
4. Select Advanced tab, and then click Settings under ' Start up and Recovery'.
5. Uncheck the ' Automatically Restart' option under ' System failure'.

This is the HP troubleshooting link:
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC - Guided Troubleshooting

As Keiichi25 says:

Now from what i am reading here in this thread, I am wondering if the minibook is having thermal issues and isn't processing the hibernate/shutdown as nicely as it should.

As the CPU kicks in to shutdown it will create extra heat

You might also have to put the tolerances a little higher, depending on how fast the minibook's power is draining, as I think while it is 'checking' something else is kicking in to try and save itself in the process.

Here is a HP link to calibrate the 2133 battery:
HP Notebook PCs - Calibrating the Notebook Battery - c00817650 - HP Business Support Center

This link covers a wide assortment of areas to check including how the lid switch could be deffective, and shutdown the unit:
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC*-* HP Notebook PCs - Troubleshooting No LED Lights Glow During Startup or Boot - c00372748 - HP Business Support Center

 

[pain55]

Guys, I ran hibernate on its own and it works.

About 5 minutes ago, the laptop just spontaneously turned off again and then re-started. So, nothing to do with the critical battery stuff that I was on about before.

I can only guess now that its a overheating problem or maybe a driver problem.

From: HP 2133 Mini-Note PC - Guided Troubleshooting

STATE:
The computer restarts unexpectedly or restarts while shutdown.
GUIDANCE:
If 'Automatically restart' option is enabled, the PC will reboot automatically in the event of a very serious system error. This reboot happens too fast to record the error message for use in troubleshooting.
Disable "Automatically restart" option by performing the steps mentioned below:

1. Log on to the computer as either an administrator or the owner.
2. Click Start menu, and then click Control Panel.
3. Double click System icon.
4. Select Advanced tab, and then click Settings under ' Start up and Recovery'.
5. Uncheck the ' Automatically Restart' option under ' System failure'.

This is the HP troubleshooting link:
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC - Guided Troubleshooting

As Keiichi25 says:

Now from what i am reading here in this thread, I am wondering if the minibook is having thermal issues and isn't processing the hibernate/shutdown as nicely as it should.

As the CPU kicks in to shutdown it will create extra heat

You might also have to put the tolerances a little higher, depending on how fast the minibook's power is draining, as I think while it is 'checking' something else is kicking in to try and save itself in the process.

Here is a HP link to calibrate the 2133 battery:
HP Notebook PCs - Calibrating the Notebook Battery - c00817650 - HP Business Support Center

This link covers a wide assortment of areas to check including how the lid switch could be deffective, and shutdown the unit:
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC*-* HP Notebook PCs - Troubleshooting No LED Lights Glow During Startup or Boot - c00372748 - HP Business Support Center

Thanks for helping guys, but as I mentioned above, now it has nothing to do with the hibernation problem that I started the thread with.

I tried hibernation, and it works.

Before, I was using my laptop, it was quite hot, and it just spontaneously powered off. I think this is what happened yesterday too. So far, the problem has occured 3 times.

Any ideas guys?