Unexpected Windows 7 shutdown at night

[Joepah]

Every morning I find computer laptop off. When I power up I get the message that Windows shut down unexpectedly. I just select normal Windows startup, and everything works fine after that.

There are no unexpected Windows 7 shutdowns when I am using the computer, no BSOD. Power options are set so computer never shuts down.

No messages or archived messages in the Action Center.

I have the Iolo system mechanic professional anti virus software, however, there are no settings i could find that would shut down the computer

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot next time I start up?

Thank you!

 

[writhziden]

Whether you are getting blue screen crashes or not, the logs provided by following the http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html may be helpful for debugging the behavior. They include system information and event viewer logs which can sometimes help even if nothing shows for the time in question.

 

[Joepah]

Will do Writhziden. thank you.

 

[Joepah]

grrr.

Is Windows 7 . . . - x64 ? - original installed OS on the system - OEM = came pre-installed on system - What is the age of system (hardware)? 3 years - What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?) 4 weeks

 

[writhziden]

Problematic Software:

Start Menu\Programs\System Mechanic Professional	Public:Start Menu\Programs\System Mechanic Professional	Public
Start Menu\Programs\System Mechanic Professional\DriveScrubber	Public:Start Menu\Programs\System Mechanic Professional\DriveScrubber	Public
Start Menu\Programs\System Mechanic Professional\Search and Recover	Public:Start Menu\Programs\System Mechanic Professional\Search and Recover	Public

You are getting a blue screen crash. In fact, the .dmp files probably would tell me exactly what is causing your crashes, but the above software keeps deleting the .dmp files...

• Many of us on the forums actually do not recommend automated optimization tools for Windows 7. Windows 7 does a much better job of handling its own optimization than its predecessors did. We especially do not recommend registry cleaning as an "optimization" step because automated registry cleaning causes more harm to the registry than it actually repairs.
  
  In the future, if you need help optimizing Windows 7, please post a thread in Performance & Maintenance - Windows 7 Forums or follow the tutorial enclosed in that forum to http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ws-7-a.html?filter[2]=Performance Maintenance.

Event[2962]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting
  Date: 2012-06-02T06:56:44.000
  Event ID: 1001
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: joepah-pc
  Description: 
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.  The bugcheck was: 0x0000009f 
(0x0000000000000003, 0xfffffa80066c2b30, 0xfffff80000b9c518, 0xfffffa8004cc0220). 
[B][COLOR="Blue"]A dump was saved in[/COLOR][/B]: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 060212-34164-01.

By the way, the BugCheck code indicates that the crash occurs either when the computer goes to sleep (not likely because you would have seen it) or when it tries to resume from sleep in the middle of the night to run a scheduled task (most likely). The .dmp file would also indicate what driver needs updating.

Please remove the software you have installed that is preventing us from analyzing the .dmp files. I would also recommend keeping it removed as it is likely to decrease instead of increase system performance, and it will decrease system stability over time.

 

[Joepah]

Thank you writhziden!

Understand what you are saying.. I think I am guilty of running registry cleaning every day, so that will stop.

I also found two drivers that were either not installed or were crashing and I repaired that yesterday.

Now it may be a coincidence but this morning the computer was just sitting in idle, monitor off - no unexpected windows shutdown, no problems.

I am reluctant to disable this antivirus software, since a virus required me to reload Windows a month ago. I've tried several other brands like Avira, Norton360 and SuperAntiVirus, and those did not work over time. So now it's Iolo Professional.

If it happens again I will follow your advice and disable the software at night and turn off the wifi.

Thanks again

Joe

 

[writhziden]

Registry cleaning software can also damage the OS beyond repair and require a fresh install of Windows, so if your problems continue, that may be a recommended step at some point.

For now, if you need to keep the security software installed, make sure any aspects of it that do disk cleaning tasks are disabled. You may need to consult the manual for the software to determine if those are present. I am not familiar with that line of security, so I do not know if the registry cleaning and disk cleaning are a part of the security software or another standalone program you also installed. I see a System Mechanic Professional Drive Scrubber and a System Mechanic Professional System Shield. Are those two separate programs? I suspect the Drive Scrubber may be what removed the .dmp files, but as I said, I am unfamiliar with that line of software.

 

[Joepah]

customizing anti virus software selection

Problem with comprehensive software like Iolo Professional is that the User can get into trouble without knowing it!

I disabled the 'automatic registry repair' software.

I left Enabled
"automatically repair hard drive errors'
'automatically repair registry fragmentation problems'
'automatically Optimize hard drives'


There are no other automatic Drive scrubbers or Registry cleaners.

Everything working fine.

Thanks again.

Joe.

 

[writhziden]

What does the Optimize hard drives option do, exactly? That may include cleaning files off the drive that the program developer feels are unnecessary (which for some reason often includes the minidumps). Are there any options to determine what Optimize hard drives will do and limit the actions it takes? I imagine it also includes a defragmenting scheme, which can also cause instability due to hard drive access conflicts.

• I recommend against 3rd party defrag tools. Windows has some nice command line flags for the defrag command that will accomplish the same tasks as 3rd party programs. The -b and -w flags will defrag boot files and the boot registry items as well as compact the data to the center of the disk for faster access.
  defrag c: -b
  defrag -c -v -w
  ​
  The first command optimizes boot performance for the Windows drive by defragmenting boot files and boot registry items.
  
  The second command includes all drives on the system through the -c command and optimizes the drives by compacting the data to the center of the disk. Verbose output through the -v option is optional to provide the user with more information about the defrag tasks. The commands have to be run in an http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html.
  
  For more flags, see http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11733-disk-defragmenter-open-use.html.

I understand the system works fine overall, but you are having crashes during the sleep cycle somewhere. Wouldn't it be ironic if the same software that is deleting the .dmp files is causing those crashes? A removal of evidence? Not saying that is what is happening, just that it is a possibility. After all, System Shield is not one of the Microsoft Windows 7 compatible listed security programs for consumers: Windows 7: Consumer security software providers

 

[Joepah]

Well now i'm havign compatibility problems with the Iolo software and the Dell driversfor the motion sensors and HDMI audio. Just have to plow through one problem at a time.

The BSOD Window crashes have stopped. thanks.



I'll try the Windows defrag... Just need to put it on an automatic schedule

 

[writhziden]

Windows defragmenting is scheduled to run once a week by default. Unless you disabled that, it should still be setup that way. The link I gave in my previous post will help in setting it up again if you need to, or it can help you confirm that it is set to run once a week.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11733-disk-defragmenter-open-use.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3292-disk-defragmenter-schedule-turn-off.html