Windows 7 shuts down unexpectedly when I close my lid

Question

Level 1

0 points

Windows 7 shuts down unexpectedly when I close my lid

I recently installed Windows 7 Professional x86, and recently when I close my lid my computer instead of going to sleep, which is what the power setting is set to, it shuts down. When I open my computer, I have to turn my computer on and when Windows loads, I get the 'Windows shut down unexpectedly' window. Has anyone heard of this happening or has had it happen to them or knows how to fix it?

Early 2008 MacBook-Black 2.4 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Boot Camped w/ Windows 7 Professional

Posted on Feb 9, 2010 6:08 PM

Reply

Answer 1

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 11, 2010 11:44 AM in response to vanquish72

I get the 'Windows shut down unexpectedly' window.

Hmmm. There's a few different things that might cause a bad shutdown on Windows 7 under those circumstances.

Let's check to see if your Problem History can give us more of a heads up about the cause of the problem.

Head into your Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel (Or the Windows 7 equivalent ... the "Action Center"?) and open your problem history. Look for Problem reports that occurred at about the same time as the bad shutdowns, open them up and have a look through them.

Do they all seem to be saying pretty much the same thing? If so, paste the contents of a typical report into a reply here so we can have a look.

Reply

Answer 2

vanquish72 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 13, 2010 2:14 PM in response to b noir

Didn't find anything in the Action Center. But did find similar events that match the times in the Event View that said the following:

'The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error
could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power
unexpectedly.'

They all has the source as being Kernel-Power, Event ID of 41, and Task Category of (63). Searched Microsoft's website and it didn't return any results. Despite this, it hasn't happened since I originally posted this. Hopefully it doesn't start doing it again. Although one thing I remember it saying on the 'Windows has experienced an unexpected shutdown' window was something about a blue screen. But I never saw one. And I don't know what would even cause this to happen cause I never had this problem when I had Windows XP Pro on my Mac.

Reply

Answer 3

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 13, 2010 4:02 PM in response to vanquish72

Interesting ... by any chance have you had the Windows sidebar open at the times when you've had the shutdowns? In amongst the hardware-BIOSy sorts of causes discussed in the following thread at Microsoft Technet, there's a hint that that can help with this:

[Iam having Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power crashes|http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproperf/thread/9e71f6 00-7c62-4869-8236-964e93d17936]

Reply

Answer 4

bhall7

Level 1

35 points

Feb 16, 2010 8:38 PM in response to vanquish72

I'm having this exact same problem! It seems to have started just last month when the notoriously-failing 3.1 update for Boot Camp came out. I've also discovered that the MacBook seems to be running super hot lately and the fan is kicking on more than it should.

I've searched through the Windows logs and there doesn't seem to be any indication of what caused the error.

Everything was fine until this 3.1 upgrade (which doesn't even install properly, BTW).

Actually, just a few minutes ago while watching a streaming video replay of an Olympic event, the machine completely powered off. I suspect that the CPU got too hot and the auto-shutoff mechanism kicked in to prevent permanent damage to the system.

Reply

Answer 5

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 16, 2010 8:41 PM in response to bhall7

I've also discovered that the MacBook seems to be running super hot lately and the fan is kicking on more than it should.

That sounds more like a standard Windows overheating shutdown, if there's no errors showing up in the event logs whatsoever.

Reply

Answer 6

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Feb 17, 2010 3:25 AM in response to b noir

There are some recent hot fixes:

http://windows7news.com/2010/02/14/microsoft-identifies-windows-7-memory-leaks-h anging-and-freezing-issues/

Elevate the laptop can help, too.

Reply

Answer 7

bhall7

Level 1

35 points

Feb 17, 2010 7:27 AM in response to b noir

Yeah, it very well could be a Windows issue. I just noticed this issue occurring around the same time Boot Camp 3.1 was released (which never really installed correctly on its own, I had to extract the files from the .exe and manually run each individual driver package--totally annoying).

However, I think that a recent Microsoft update could be causing this ( http://www.bhall.com/2010/01/reliability-update-for-windows-7.html). Let's hope it gets resolved by either Apple or Microsoft soon.

Reply

Answer 8

gcsaky

Level 1

8 points

Feb 17, 2010 10:00 AM in response to bhall7

Hi, I experienced the same problem after upgrading BC to 3.1. I was working in a CRM application on a website. When the machine shut down. It happened several times in different situations: e.g. working in Outlook.

Reply

Answer 9

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Feb 17, 2010 10:14 AM in response to The hatter

Many thanks for the heads up again, hatter!

I've been seeing a lot about 2 and 3 lately. HP has them bundled into an "essential operating system enhancement" package on the downloads pages for their Windows-7-supported models.

I'm hoping 2 will have a reasonable amount of impact on some of my other "advice fields" ... I've been having way too much success recently in iPod/iPhone-connection-related contexts with the old trick from from the following document:

[iPod not recognized when connected to Windows laptop over USB|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1401]

Fingers crossed, the hot-fix will help put that particular advice industry out of business.

Reply

Answer 10

vanquish72 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 17, 2010 10:54 AM in response to The hatter

Thank you very much for that. That hotfix definitely seemed to fix whatever the problem was because I haven't experienced the problem once today, because over the past few days it would happen about once throughout the course of the day. But that hotfix definitely did the trick. I just hope it doesn't start doing it again after a while. Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 11

bhall7

Level 1

35 points

Feb 17, 2010 7:41 PM in response to vanquish72

@ubuntu72, which specific hotfix did you apply?

Reply

Answer 12

vanquish72 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 17, 2010 8:45 PM in response to bhall7

If you go to the link posted by The hatter and scroll down, I applied the one listed under the first issue titled 'Computer Crashing with BSOD'. Just click the link that says 'Hotfix provided by Microsoft' and it will take you to the one that I installed. If you can't find it just let me know.

Reply

Answer 13

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Feb 18, 2010 12:48 AM in response to bhall7

That was a winner!

"this reliability update fixes.... reliability!"

And I thought with all the Apple updates ("this update improves reliability and performance issues") had copyrighted redundancy!!

Reply

Answer 14

bhall7

Level 1

35 points

Feb 18, 2010 11:51 AM in response to The hatter

The Microsoft hotfix (KB979444) did not resolve the issue for me. After installing the hotfix, I closed the lid of my MacBook and it completely powered off and I lost all of my work. When it started back up, I got the familiar "Windows was not shut down properly" message.

Reply

Answer 15

bhall7

Level 1

35 points

Feb 18, 2010 1:11 PM in response to bhall7

This problem appears to be caused by an update from Microsoft (KB977074), which is affecting many people. After uninstalling KB977074, I can now close the lid of my MacBook and go into sleep mode, and properly resume from sleep mode without the machine powering off. I posted details here: http://www.bhall.com/2010/02/fix-closing-macbook-lid-shutdown-issues.html

Hope this helps anyone else experiencing this problem.

-Brian Hall

Reply