Windows 8.1 shuts itself down

[dannyboy75]

Hi all,

I've had a weird issue with my system for ~ 6 months, whereby roughly 1 in every 10 boots, it shuts itself down within a few minutes of Windows loading (sometimes within a few seconds).

This only started when I upgraded from Windows 7 to 8.1 - never had the issue when running Win 7 on the same hardware, so I'm fairly sure it's a software issue.

To be clear, this isn't a BSOD or any other kind of reset/power-off, it's a graceful shutdown - literally as if I'd told the OS to shut down (except I haven't). One minute I'm looking at my desktop, the next I get the Win 8 'Shutting down' screen, and then it powers down.

I don't think this is a temp issue as the system is usually idle when it happens (it's never happened while gaming). I've also checked event viewer but there's nothing relevant in the system or application logs that I can see. There are no stop errors or other errors/warnings at the time the problem occurs.

Has anyone else seen this and figured out what could be causing it?

thanks

[Agent]

Do you have classic shell installed by any chance?

[stilkun]

It worth checking if there anything or task set in task scheduler but it probably unlikely if the computer is randomly doing a graceful shutdown at different time.

[dannyboy75]

Thanks for the replies chaps. The answer to both questions is no unfortunately though.

Have had another dig around this morning but still can't find any clues. I'm wondering if it's some weird glitch with my Gigabyte BIOS, pretty sure I'm on latest version though.

[dannyboy75]

I checked and there is now a slightly newer BIOS available (F22) so I'm going to install this tonight. The changelog just says 'improved system compatibility', which might help. There is also an F23 beta BIOS but as far as I can tell it only addresses an issue with the onboard sound chip, which I don't use anyway.

I neglected to mention that I also changed my PC's case around the same time I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 8.1, so it's occurred to me that this could be an issue with the power button in the new case. As a test, I've gone into Windows power options, and changed the function for when the power button is pressed from 'Shut down' to 'Sleep'. It'll probably be a few days before it happens again so we'll see...

[dannyboy75]

Well the BIOS update and changing the power button behaviour made no difference, as it happened again this morning.

My only other thought at this stage is a possible PSU issue, but I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts if anyone has any.

Cheers.

[stilkun]

Was upgrade or clean install of Windows 8.1? In event viewer under system section, look for event ID 1074 source User32 it will tell you what cause the shutdown. For example, for mine I perform a normal shut down:

Log Name: System
Source: User32
Date: 13/08/2014 22:58:12
Event ID: 1074
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: COMP\bob
Computer: COMP
Description:
The process C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE (COMP) has initiated the power off of computer COMP on behalf of user COMP\bob for the following reason: Other (Unplanned)
Reason Code: 0x0
Shut-down Type: power off
Comment:

[BobF64]

My only other thought at this stage is a possible PSU issue, but I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts if anyone has any.

Surely a PSU issue would cause the PC to either just turn off or become unstable and BSOD.

Does your PC have health monitoring in the BIOS? Perhaps its a temperature thing.

As stilkun suggests, there should be entries in the event log indicating what initiated the shutdown.

[dannyboy75]

Hi guys

Thanks for the replies.

This was an upgrade from Win 7 to Win 8.1 (via Win 8 as you can't jump directly to 8.1). I was only looking for warnings and errors in th event log, so checked for event ID 1074 and it says:

The process C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe (DAN-PC) has initiated the shutdown of computer DAN-PC on behalf of user Dan-PC\Dan for the following reason: No title for this reason could be found
Reason Code: 0x800000ff
Shut-down Type: shutdown
Comment:

I've done quite a bit of googling of this reason code, but not really found anything conclusive.

BobF64 - Yes I have to admit I'm clutching at straws slightly with the PSU thing. Although while searching the above reason code, came across one guy on the Technet forums who traced it back to faulty RAM in his case, so who knows....

I don't think it's a temp issue though, because, as per my OP, the issue happens very randomly but always within a minute or so after bootup, while the PC is at idle.

If all else fails I might try a clean install, but really don't want to have to as I really don't have the time these days!

[BobF64]

Ok, so its definitely a piece of software on your PC thats initiating it, as you because its showing that youre logged in.

Question. Does it do it if you dont log in? Or does it automatically log in because you have no password?

Faulty RAM generally should cause BSODs, or in Windows 8s case Sad Faces of Uselessness, unless maybe Win8 does memory checks at start up.

Take a look at all the software running at start up, maybe one of those is part of the problem.

[dannyboy75]

Yeah I would've expected page fault BSOD's if it was faulty RAM, but after reading the Technet thread I mentioned, I ran MemTest anyway. Of course it was clear though.

That's an interesting point about whether the problem would occur at the logon screen. I have a password set, but have configured the OS to logon automatically as I have only have the one user profile on this PC. I'll try setting it to stay on the logon screen instead for a while, and see if it still happens.

[Bonebreaker777]

Would it be worth it to take an image of your current OS partition, save it. Reinstall a fresh Windows 8.1 and run it for a couple of days to see what happens.

[dannyboy75]

Would it be worth it to take an image of your current OS partition, save it. Reinstall a fresh Windows 8.1 and run it for a couple of days to see what happens.

It probably would be a worthwhile exercise, especially as I haven't taken a backup image for ages anyway. It's just finding the time to actually do it when you have a newborn and a demanding toddler to look after!

[rickywarner]

Was facing the same problem. Thanks for the post.

[Bibo]

does sound strange, if I was you I would reformat using an OEM disk and seeing if it still persists.
it could be due to a incompatible piece of hardware, have you had to force a diver?

[dannyboy75]

does sound strange, if I was you I would reformat using an OEM disk and seeing if it still persists.
it could be due to a incompatible piece of hardware, have you had to force a diver?

Well since I configured Windows not to log into the desktop automatically, the problem hasn't happened since so that seems to have resolved it. Don't ask me why though.