Vista Automatic Shutdown

Hi Folk,

It's a couple of days that my vista automatically shuts down. First the screen goes (becomes black) and in a few seconds I hear it shutting down.

It was used to happen once a day but it didn't for like the last 2 days but today it happened again. I don't think if there is any certain time for it. I don't recall doing anything special and I guess it's a common issue googling "Vaio automatic shut down" but I couldn't find the solution.

The only thing I can do is to upload the Event Viewer log for Administrative events. Please let me know if you need something more. I use vista in my laptop VGN-Z650N. Everything is updated, at least I suppose so!

The last time it happened was tonight at about 8:15pm so the events in top of the excel file are the latest ones.

Thanks 4 your help

PS. I doubt if it's a temperature issue.

This might sound dumb, but have you looked into the configuration for "Sleep mode" or "Power Management" ? What you're describing where the screen goes black then you notice it shutting off.... You didn't mention if you're using it or not when it happens, and it could be told to do this from there.

I don't know what the sequence in Vista is, but most of the time you can "Right Click" on the Desktop, and select Display, or something to do with Video / Graphics, and look for the Power Management section where it shows you when it's supposed to shut itself off or go to sleep.

Also, is there a "Sleep" Icon / Button on your keyboard? You could check that it's not stuck, broken, or something spilled on it and makes this happen. (Sticky Keyboards can do this).

By the way, if this is a laptop, it may be Battery.

Hmmm,

You seem to have a number of problems, but none that would obviously cause a shutdown on its own.

I would go into the system and disable all power saving and sleep functions whilst we are troubleshooting. Remember to turn them back on when we are done :)

EDIT: You beat me to that one gore :)

Make sure that there is no disk in your CD/DVD drive. If there is then it is probably defective; if there isn't then I would go into hardware in the control panel and uninstall the drive then reboot to let Windows rediscover it.

Go to MS update and get the SP1 update for .NET 1.1 and try a manual install.

Disconnect your printer and any non-essential USB devices. Get the latest driver for your printer, uninstall then reinstall with the latest driver.

I agree that it doesn't look like a heat issue.

You might as well run chkdsk and MemTest86 whilst you are at it? just to rule them out of the equation.

Hopefully that will remove some of the background noise so we can get a better look? ;)

EDIT:

By the way, if this is a laptop, it may be Battery.

Good point...AFAIK the Vaio is a laptop. My Compaq warns you when it is going to do this because the battery is low, so the question would be if this happens when you are connected to the mains power supply?

Thanks Gore. No it's not dump at all.

- I guess I've been working at most of the times when it happened! (and I was fortunate that I had saved my Word documents in most of them)

-Well I've had it for about a year and I'm just having this problem for a week. I rechecked them. I haven't changed sleep mode or power management since I bought it. Anyhow the power is on Vaio Optimized and I just increased the duration of screen saver appearance to 10 min.

-I use Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 400 keyboard. It doesn't have sleep button.

-My laptop is 24/7 plugged in to the power. I don't move it. I turn it on in the morning and shut it down before going to bed at nights.

-The only new hardwares I've used are the keyboard as I said, a chineese hand held wireless mouse (I didn't use it for a few days including today that the shutting down happened again since I thought maybe the wireless is causing a problem).

-Philips monitor which is connected to the laptop with VGA.

Honestly I'm really suspicious to this monitor! I don't exactly remember if after beginning to use the monitor it happened or not. First I bought a 25" I-Inc monitor but it was defective so I retrieved it and then I bought this Philips one. I have a feeling that every misery happened after these monitors.

This is my other thread for this monitor.
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...074#post956074

Thanks Nihil. Just saw your post when I was typing. Let me try what you said. I'll be right back...

Try running the lappy with only its own monitor for a couple of days.

In my experience defective hardware can produce all sorts of weird issues and Windows is not very good at reporting them. It tends to tell you the consequences rather than the cause. ;)

I am not sure how many of those messages are the result of your system crashing. You certainly need to do the .NET update again. My other suggestions should get rid of the CD controller and printer messages if they are persistent.

The "bad block" message is usually associated with damaged/dirty media, or a dirty drive.................try running a lens cleaning CD.

The actual message that is relevant is "The previous system shutdown at 8:09:28PM was unexpected"

Like I said, Windows error messages can be rather unhelpful at times.

I have revisited your other post and your Philips screen looks a prime suspect. If it is possible I would try a different VGA cable, as that can be a solution. If that doesn't stop the flickering then I would send the monitor back. You might try it at a lower resolution (the same as the built in monitor or slightly less) and fewer colours just in case your video chipset can't support your current settings.

Finally you could try an HDMI cable as I believe both the laptop and monitor support this type of connection.

Please be sure to check the RAM, as that can be a cause of this type of problem. I actually had a machine in that crashed because it had 1.5GB of DDR 400 but the MoBo only supported 1GB of DDR 400 or 3GB of DDR 333. The DDR manufacturer was on the MoBo's approved list, there was just too much of it.

More common is the last strip is defective and the machine works fine until it tries to use it, then it crashes.

Good Luck!

I had this very same issue when I was a kid with my desktop computer. It turned out my power supply degraded and became insufficient to keep the whole thing powered up when it started reaching full loads. This sounds like a hardware failure more than software honestly. How old is the laptop? Also, try unplugging the laptop for a bit and see how fast the battery runs down. If it is in 2 hours or less, then you probably have a bad power source. =P Also, the SMU might need to be reset if you are running a x86 chip. It is either hardware or the SMU from the sounds of it.

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It turned out my power supply degraded and became insufficient to keep the whole thing powered up when it started reaching full loads.

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Not that.............the OP has said that it isn't load related and the machine is well specified and only a year old. I know it is running Vista, but it has 4GB RAM and 256Mb of video. It isn't one of those garbage boxes they sold when Vista was first released ;)

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Also, try unplugging the laptop for a bit and see how fast the battery runs down. If it is in 2 hours or less, then you probably have a bad power source.

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Afraid that won't tell you much...............running on mains only for a year and batteries can be of variable quality to the extent of exploding or catching fire.

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Also, the SMU might need to be reset if you are running a x86 chip.

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Not easy to do on a Sony Vaio running Windows Vista?...........PMU/SMU are Apple technologies AFAIK.:)

If the machine will run in its original state then it is OK.

This does sound like the monitor.

1. Try different connection cables/types
2. Look in Windows to be sure that the video settings are supported.

EDIT:

Bit of a long shot, but did the monitor come with its own "drivers" and have you loaded them?

Also, is it recognised correctly by make and model?

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Originally Posted by nihil

Not easy to do on a Sony Vaio running Windows Vista?...........PMU/SMU are Apple technologies AFAIK.:)

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Oh yeah, what I meant was SMM which runs on x86 chips >.<

I don't see how it could be a monitor issue if the machine is shutting down though. It just doesn't make sense to me. It makes more sense for it to be a hardware failure/firmware error.

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I don't see how it could be a monitor issue if the machine is shutting down though.

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Basically because the monitor is just another piece of hardware, albeit peripheral.

I have two CRT monitors in my loft that will do the exact same. I have had the same with stick drives, modems, video cards, hard drives, keyboards, mice, RAM............hey........you name it. If something is misbehaving in an unpredictable fashion then Windows is quite likely to crash or restart. It does not handle hardware problems that well.

If it were software you would quite likely get a BSOD and a somewhat meaningful log entry. Unfortunately it is not so good reporting hardware errors. I am sure that you saw the message I quoted.............all it told us was that the system had crashed?

Like yourself, I believe that this is hardware related, so I suspect the newest kids on the block?............and the monitor is not performing properly? (Please check the other post the OP has linked).

It could, of course, be malware or two apps not playing nice (particularly ones that start themselves periodically to look for updates)............but I really would expect the symptoms to appear a bit more consistently, and the OP to notice it only happened when he was running certain apps.

I would run it as it came out of the box for a while...........if the problems happen again then it is in the original kit..............if they don't then it is the peripherals.

The other testing I have mentioned might help to shorten the process, and help when you want to return something.

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Originally Posted by nihil

2. Look in Windows to be sure that the video settings are supported.

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Well I don't know what you mean:D but I haven't changed any video setting as far as I remember...

Shutting down happened a few more times in the last week, not daily of course and every time I was at the middle of watching a full screen multimedia in FireFox. So the videos were not that high quality and then I switched to full screen so something happened and the system could not handle it....It's my suspicion.

Actually I have one more problem as well. When I watch a full screen video (even SOME DVDs NOT ALWAYS) the movie has some kind of interruptions! I mean it's KIND OF like a slight slow motion. Like it stops for a second and continues and so on! The movement of scenes is not smooth!
It's not that terrible but anyhow the movie is not shown as continuous and smooth as it should be as if there was a delay in sending the scenes to the screen (hopefully my words are descriptive enough :() Not all the things I watch have this problem so I wonder why some of them have!

I have 51GB free in my drive C. I have ordered an HDMI cable but haven't received it yet.

So...

...............................................................................

New update: Oh my gosh...Today the worst scenario happened! I turned on the computer in the morning and was watching a video on youtube (on regular size not even full screen), so suddenly the laptop shut down like the other times! I restarted the computer but after the system was brought up, it shut down again! I did it a couple of times and each time it shut down. So I unplugged the VGA and turned it on, again shut down.

I thought maybe it's a virus problem so ran an antivirus, TrendoMicrosystem and Avira found some problems and solved them...My windows installer was disabled and I enabled it.....So far it's stable. Amen!

During the shut down-restart process the Philips monitor was going crazy! I mean its resolution changed a few times to the resolution of laptop then it went back to its original 1280!!!!!!! Now apparently it's fine.

........................................
heck! Happened again. I'm trying using the Philips as the only monitor right now and see if it solves the problem...

and even with only Philips monitor, it happened again today and after restarting the computer it happened I guess two more times successively...

I attach the log files hopefully someone can show me the light...


I don't even have a Canon printer! I don't even know what the f*** that Vaio entertainment upnp client adapter does in my computer <cry>...

You know, sometimes you have to sacrifice things to gain another thing! It was totally messed up and it didn't seem like it was going to cure so I transferred my files from C drive and then there is an option which formats the C drive and recover it to its factory settings and reloads the entire Vista (it can be found under Vaio Care) so I did. So far it seems to be OK....Stay tuned for future new :D

Hi there boyboy 400,

Sorry for the lack of input..............I got this stomach bug........... so it was mostly output for the past 10 days............. memo to self.... install dropdown system in John/Loo/Khazi/Heads :D

I think that you did exactly the right thing; those logs looked pretty bad. I would suspect conflicting malwares as it goes?

Please keep us informed, and many thanks for the feedback.

:):)

Isn't that upnp thing meant to prioritize network stuff? I mean there's an Nvidia app for mother boards that have the in-built network card on the motherboards, a person can assign priority apps for network activity, it's meant to come in useful so that you can assign priority to say online games that need to utilize maximun connection to the game server.

I think i was reading something similar the other day when i was having a quick research regarding this thread.

hopefully i'm making a little sense :??

I guess I'm pretty confident right now that unfortunately it's a temperature issue although my laptop is meant to be really great and expensive but....

I can say 95&#37; of the times it happened was during watching multimedia stuff.

One particular situation was you know, you can watch youtube videos either full screen or as it is like there is no middle ground. But sometimes I used to use ctrl and + in my firefox to maximize the normal youtube size video so to get something between normal condition and full screen. It ended up shutting down, I guess, all the times.

The other situation is when I watch full screen movies from my computer. After a while it slows down like you see interrupted movements and even if you try to minimize the windows you see that the minimization occurs slowly not as fast as always and after a few seconds the computer shuts down.

I also hear the sound of fan.
I'm using an external keyboard and monitor as you guys probably know.

So I managed to put my laptop vertically leaning against a box :D right below my room's window and whenever this slow motion begins I open the window and after a while slow motion disappears and the laptop does not shut down...

The problem is that this part of Canada is like North Pole so when I open the window I have to put on a hoodie and .... which is not cool at all because I'll catch cold sooner or later....now I have this headache....

And I doubt if there is any solution for it....

Does anyone know anyway to keep the laptop cool like is there anything I can put below my laptop to absorbs the heat and solve the problem?

Practically I can't watch any full screen movie if the window is closed. Apparently full screening requires lots of energy leading to excess heat and shutting down.

I just downloaded CPUID hardware monitor and I'm trying to test this assumption using this software as well. And yes the ACPI temperature reaches the maximum as I start off watching the Glee full screen and it drops as I close the video player...HHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPP

Unfortunately, it's been my experience that many laptop brands are guilty of using piss-poor cooling systems, especially for the video chip. If you keep letting the lappy heat up to the point where it shuts itself off, you will likely eventually wear out the soldering around the video chip and be without video at all. So be warned.

As for optimizing cooling of the unit, a few things I like to do is run a vacuum over all of the air grills/holes to free any blockage. Other than that, just be sure that the lappy is elevated w/ at least 1.5" clearance around all of the air grills/holes. Also, try to set your display slightly dimmer. Seems to help.

They also sale cooling pads, but since I've never used one, I can't say how effective they are. I would imagine not very.

However, if your computer is cluttered with malware or is using other unneeded resources, then your processor my be running at 100&#37; all of the time, which will make it run hotter. To be sure, try this first:

Slow Computer Rant:

The first thing I would do is completely uninstall anything that says Norton or Symantec. It's a major resource hog. Follow the steps in this post, and we'll replace it with something equally effective and less demanding.

Next, download rkill.exe and Malwarebyte's Antimalware.

Boot into Safe Mode and run rkill, then Malwarebytes Antimalware and remove anything it finds.

After that, download and install Piriform CCleaner. Run the program, and on the left hand side select Registry. Scan and Fix Issues. Continue scanning for/repairing issues until it doesn't find anymore.

Then, if you're like 90% of Windows users, you probably have a ton of extra programs starting up automatically when Windows starts up. You can disable unneeded processes from starting up by doing the following:
Go to Start-->Run-->type in 'msconfig' and hit <enter>

In the Startup tab, uncheck everything that you do not need running in the background at startup and click "Apply." Alternatively, you can just click "Disable All" and then go back later and re-enable any process you find you actually need on startup.

Then, in the Services tab, check Hide All Microsoft Services, uncheck everything that you do not need running in the background at startup and click "Apply." Again, you could just click "Disable All" and go back and re-enable certain processes later if you find that you need them running on startup.

Restart the computer.

Next, download and run the executable for TrendMicro HijackThis!. Post your scan log here and we'll see if there's anything else that needs to be looked at.

You should probably install a free anti-virus to help keep you protected (these aren't nearly as taxing on your memory as Norton). I prefer AVG Free Edition, but I've heard good things about Microsoft Security Essentials as well. Avira AntiVir and Avast! are two more options. Please install one of these programs to help keep you virus free.

You should also defragment you harddrive. This can be done using the Windows Defragmenter found under Start-->Accessories-->System Tools-->Disk Defragmenter. Alternatively, you can use a 3rd party disk defragmentation program such as Auslogics Disk Defrag.

Reboot the computer.

After you've done all of these things, please wait until the computer is idle (no programs loading/scanning/etc), and hit ctrl+alt+delete and make note of your CPU usage at the bottom of the popup window, and any programs using more than 10,000K in the process list.

I would also check your temperatures - I use SpeedFan.

On your next post, please give us your computer specifications if you haven't already. And please include the HijackThis! Log, your idle CPU usage and temperatures, large running processes (over 10,000K) and an update on how your it is running.

OK, so let's have a quick rethink on this one?

Originally:

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I don't think if there is any certain time for it. I don't recall doing anything special

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We now know that this seems to be a temperature issue related to the video card being loaded?

My guess at this point would be that the onboard video chipset in the laptop is not capable of supporting the resolution that the external monitor is set to.

If you persist with this you will certainly kill something! Most probably the video chipset, which is cold soldered to the motherboard. That means return to Sony and pay through the nose for a new motherboard.

Unfortunately, Windows will let you set resolutions that are not supported.


You need to go into your video settings and reduce the external monitor settings to ones supported by the video hardware, rather than the monitor. I would try 16-bit colour and a 1064x768 setting for starters. That is totally adequate for the shite you find on YouTube:p

Now, if you want to watch "proper" videos (like they are intended for fullscreen) then you really need a desktop. You don't need to go out and buy anything fancy or expensive as I have had great results with old PIII and P4s. Just make sure that it has an AGP slot, preferably a video card and a Microsoft OS sticker on it. You will need to check out local laws here as in the UK you sell the OEM OS with the computer. Corporations usually install their own corporate licence version, so the original OS shipped with the machine is still valid ;)

What specific video card is that Vaio running?

We used to have engineers with high-end T60's running
ATI FireGL cards (256mb) that gave us fits. The engineers
needed them to run Catia (CAD) but a number of them
had problems like you describe. The T60's would lock up
in Catia and/or reboot. The standard T60's the reps and
other users had didn't have issues.

I steer clear of high-end video cards in laptops.

Hmmmm,

Design Engineers shouldn't have craptops :D

Can't think of any professional DE who would live with less than a 24+" screen, and probably twins?................they need desktop architecture, and permanent server support.

OK, a "field engineer" can, but they are not designing in the field (I hope!!!!) and do not need CAD, other than for "bragging rights"???????????

Professional CAD is very "back office", so craptops are out?

At least, that is how it works with WMD ;).............apart from the security angle.

:)

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Originally Posted by nihil

Design Engineers shouldn't have craptops

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Ha! Tell those guys that. These particular engineers spent a lot of time in the
field supporting aircraft design engineers who bought the composite tooling. And
when they were in the office they did have the big monitors, hooked up to the
docking stations.

We had composite machine tools in all the big aircraft mfg'ers. Boeing, Lockheed,
Airbus, Embraer, Israeli plants (UAV's). Amazing machines. Composites start
out as tape, and end up as airplanes. And Catia seems to be the preferred CAD
app in aerospace.

It was weird. Catia ran without a hitch on half the T60's, the other half were nothing
but grief. We had Lenovo techs out replacing mobos, the whole nine yards, never
did get a handle on that other half. Must've been the users. ;^)