A weird thing just happened...

d3moliti0n · 4 Jan 2009 at 18:57

Hi

I was playing Fallout 3 on my PC about 5-10 mins ago then all of a sudden my computer closes itself down. It doesn't crash or reboot or anything, it actually logs off my user and switches itself off altogether. I had to start my PC back up again afterward, but that was a really weird thing to happen. Does anybody have any idea what just happened?

Thanks for your help.

95thrifles · 4 Jan 2009 at 18:59

Only thing I can think of is maybe you were accidentally leaning against your power button and it started shutdown, I've done this before

gazza0371 · 4 Jan 2009 at 19:17

Do you run Vista by any chance? If so it could well be automatic updates applied and because you were playing the game you didn't see the 'reboot in 10 mins' prompt. Check your update history to see if anything was applied.

Dicehunter · 4 Jan 2009 at 19:23

OR theres a button combination i cant remember which one exactly but if pressed does exactly what you explained.

dannywilco · 4 Jan 2009 at 19:43

Do you run Vista by any chance? If so it could well be automatic updates applied and because you were playing the game you didn't see the 'reboot in 10 mins' prompt. Check your update history to see if anything was applied.

thats well narked me off once. right in the middle of TF2

Mr-White · 4 Jan 2009 at 19:58

i have the tendency to hit the hibernate button when im in games

MW

miniyazz · 4 Jan 2009 at 21:24

dannywilco said:
thats well narked me off once. right in the middle of TF2

There's no 'postpone indefinitely' button like there was on xp that just did it when you turned off the pc. Now whenever I do a fresh install, sorting out automatic updates is first on my list of things to do.

dannywilco · 4 Jan 2009 at 21:37

There's no 'postpone indefinitely' button like there was on xp that just did it when you turned off the pc. Now whenever I do a fresh install, sorting out automatic updates is first on my list of things to do.

im pretty sure its up there somewhere on everyones lists.

OCdude · 4 Jan 2009 at 21:43

I didn't think Windows Update would shut down your PC........?

Surely once it's done installing updates it'll prompt you to reboot or postpone.. can you even set it to automatically reboot?

Plus it wouldn't just shutdown, it would reboot wouldn't it?

OneTime · 4 Jan 2009 at 21:55

I have had this once or twice. Mainly when playing CS:Source for long periods of time.
Usually due to overheating...goes into a failsafe mode I guess?...shuts itself off to prevent further damage.

gazza0371 · 4 Jan 2009 at 22:08

OCdude said:
I didn't think Windows Update would shut down your PC........?

Surely once it's done installing updates it'll prompt you to reboot or postpone.. can you even set it to automatically reboot?

Plus it wouldn't just shutdown, it would reboot wouldn't it?

Can't remember whether it will reboot or shutdown - but, yes, it will do it. In Vista it will give you a prompt to say that updates have been installed and that your machine needs to reboot, with a countdown timer default of 10 mins. Happened to me when I was playing Supreme Commander once.

You can change this to a couple of hours, however if you are playing a full screen game you will not see this prompt and your machine will reboot after the 10 mins has elapsed. You can probably change this behaviour with local policy, but I haven't looked into it really.

miniyazz · 5 Jan 2009 at 02:11

gazza0371 said:
Can't remember whether it will reboot or shutdown - but, yes, it will do it. In Vista it will give you a prompt to say that updates have been installed and that your machine needs to reboot, with a countdown timer default of 10 mins. Happened to me when I was playing Supreme Commander once.

You can change this to a couple of hours, however if you are playing a full screen game you will not see this prompt and your machine will reboot after the 10 mins has elapsed. You can probably change this behaviour with local policy, but I haven't looked into it really.

There's an option in the automatic updates settings in control panel. I set it to download updates automatically but only install them when I say. Now when it's ready to install them it just gives me a popup and the shutdown button turns to an "install updates and shut down" button.