Strange Lock Screen Behaviour

Andybtsn

Andybtsn

Andybtsn

Don
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Hi all,

I'm not sure where to look in event viewer to cause why this is happening, but each night, I leave my PC on to upload pictures (I'm on slow internet, so taking forever) and also download some stuff. Each morning I find the PC is at the lock screen. Not only has it locked, but it's closed down all the apps it had open and also my VM, i.e. I go into Chrome, and it wants to restore the tabs I had available, so it's almost like the PC is rebooting unexpectedly. My power settings are set never to sleep or hibernate, so not sure why it's doing this.

Also, this had never happened until I reinstalled Windows 11 last week so I’m assuming something has changed settings wise but didn’t know there was anything beyond power ones. I also updated the BIOS.

What can I check?

Cheers
 
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Murphy said:
Anything showing up in Reliability Monitor like unexpected shutdowns?
Click to expand...

Yeah, quite a few unexpected shutdowns, but the PC is on when I go back to it, so its restarting rather than shutting down. Unfortunately this doesn't show me why it happens, where should I look in event viewer? Presumably around the 8:44 mark this morning

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The below is a starting point:

www.thewindowsclub.com

How to check the Shutdown and Startup Log in Windows 11/10

Want to see your PC Startup and Shutdown History? To view your shutdown and startup events, use the Event Viewer or Command Prompt.
www.thewindowsclub.com www.thewindowsclub.com

Types of events in Windows related to shutting down and restarting​

They are more than four events related to shutting down and restarting the Windows 10 operating system; we will list the important five. They are:

  • Event ID 41: This event indicates that Windows rebooted without a complete shutdown.
  • Event ID 1074: This event is written down when an application is responsible for the system shut down or restart. It also indicates when a user restarted or shut down the system by using the Start menu or by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL.
  • Event ID 6006: This event indicates that Windows was adequately turned off.
  • Event ID 6008: This Event indicates an improper or dirty shutdown. It shows up when the most recent shutdown was unexpected.

1] View shutdown and restart events from Event Viewer​


Open the Run dialogue box, and input eventvwr.msc then hit Ok. In Event Viewer, select Windows Logs > System from the left pane. From the right, click on the Filter Current Log link.

Type in 41,1074,6006,6008 into the box below Includes/Exclude Event IDs... Hit Ok. Windows then displays all shutdown-related events.

The Event Viewer shows detailed information on every operation carried out on the system.
 
If all those shutdown (restart) events say it wasn't shutdown properly you can rule out Windows doing it intentionally, those sorts of events are logged after the PC restarts from things like blue screens or loosing power at the wall.

If you check the event viewers system log shortly before that time/event (the event is recorded when it's restarted) does it show anything?
 
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I just witnessed the reboot whilst on the PC, loaded up Chrome, and it did instantly restarted, no blue screen or anything just rebooted. I wonder if it's a RAM issue. I recently bought 2 new 8gb sticks putting the total up 32gb, I also reinstalled Windows entirely at the same time. Surely too coincidental?
 
Typically when I've had issues with RAM it will have the knock on effect of corrupting the file system (data gets copied from the RAM to the drive in a corrupted state) so I'd run a chkdsk and if that comes up error free you could probably rule our RAM but you may want to run a quick Memtest86+ (quit after test 6 finishes as if it's not found errors before then the other test are unlikely to turn anything up).

If it's instantly rebooting my first go to would be the PSU or that in combination with the Power Supply Idle Control in the BIOS settings if it's a newish board with that setting.
 
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It is not unheard of that going from using 2 slots of memory to 4 can cause stability issues without configuration in the bios. I know I have experienced this with my old ddr3 system. I guess if the rebooting is happening regularly, it’s easy to remove the new sticks and see if this brings any more stability and to eliminate the memory being the problem.
 
Thanks guys. I’ve removed the new RAM for now. I updated the BIOS firmware not so long ago, is there anything specific I should be looking for in there config wise?

I’m away at the moment but when I’m back I’ll run chkdsk/mem test. I did try Windows memory diagnostic test but seemed to be stuck on 0% so gave up.
 
Andybtsn said:
...is there anything specific I should be looking for in there config wise?
Click to expand...
Only really a setting called 'Power Supply Idle Control' if it has it, basically it's a setting used for some older PSUs that shutdown if the idle wattage gets to low.

What MoBo is it?
 
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