Laptop switching off when in sleep mode

JohnB47

Another mystery has started happening with my Toshiba Sattelite Pro Win 10 laptop - always up to date with latest software. Our usual pattern is to put the laptop in sleep mode when not in use (momentarily press the power button). This has always worked fine - for years.
Now, in the last two weeks or so, we've noticed that when we come to waken it up, it has powered off. 
Last night I looked at the advanced power settings and another odd thing happened. I saw that I was on something called 'Speed' (I think). I mooched around a bit and changed it (temporarily I thought) to Balanced. Then I checked that all settings were set to turn the screen off after 20 minutes and to never switch off if mains power is connected (mains is always connected when we enter sleep mode). Then I went back to the advanced power settings screen and saw that the 'Speed' option had dissapeared, to be replaced with an Eco option - something controlled by Toshiba. What happened there? I left it set to Balanced and put it in sleep mode.
This morning I saw that it had powered off.
The power-off never happens immediately - the laptop does go into sleep mode and stay there for a while.
I have been to every setting I can find in power management (choose what the power button does, what happens when I close the lid, change when the computer sleeps etc.) and I've set everything to not power off when mains is connected.
Any thoughts??

pbartlett

Is it definitely switched off or could it have gone into hibernate mode? You could check the advanced power settings / hibernate after....?

The_Fat_Controller

The clue may be to see what happens after it has switched itself off.
If it has hibernated you will see a message saying "Resuming Windows" when you press the power button
It is has, for some reason shut down, it'll be a complete new start.
Have a look in EVENT VIEWER to see if there is anything unusual for those times.
At the bottom of the POWER and SLEEP settings page, see if HIBERNATE is enabled, to change it if necessary you need to allow changes that are currently not available.

neilmcl

My dad's W10 (Dell Inspiron) laptop has been doing this for years. Was working fine, waking up from sleep as expected but all of a sudden stopped, forcing you to restart each time. The only difference with you is that we don't manually put it to sleep via the button but allow closing the lid to do the same. I've never been able to figure it out and tried just about everything to resolve the problem. I'd be interested if you actually manage to fix this.

grumpycrab

Not a fix but suggest you reconfigure the power button to "hibernate".  OK, this is a power-off mode, but will quickly resume to where you left off.  You should really be using a power-off mode overnight anyway (you may have been using sleep overnite?).

JohnB47

Thanks for the suggestions.
The laptop has definitely switched off - no  "Resuming Windows" message when I power back on. It does seem to completely restart and I have to Recover Chrome browser tabs, (and recover some LibreOffice files I often have open) so the laptop seems to uncontrollably power down. I can't see Hybernate anywhere in my settings. Perhaps I'll try set it to Hibernate rather than sleep.
Where is the Event Viewer to be found?

RumRat

Go to 'Settings' - 'System' - 'Power and Sleep' - 'Related Settings (Additional power settings)'
click on 'Choose what the Power buttons do' - 'Change settings that are currently unavailable' - Check the 'Hibernate' Box. Save changes and exit.
Hibernate should now be in your power choices.

JohnB47

RumRat said:

Go to 'Settings' - 'System' - 'Power and Sleep' - 'Related Settings (Additional power settings)'
click on 'Choose what the Power buttons do' - 'Change settings that are currently unavailable' - Check the 'Hibernate' Box. Save changes and exit.
Hibernate should now be in your power choices.

Thanks but my apologies. When I said "I can't see Hybernate anywhere in my settings." I meant I can't see anywhere where I've set hybernate as an option. Still good advice though - although doing what you said made no difference. I had hybernate as an option on some dropdown boxes before checking the Hibernate box (it was unchecked before). 

JohnB47

I've found the event viewer. Now to figure out how to use it.

pbartlett

May be a red herring but it is possible the laptop is actually being WOKEN from sleep for some reason, eg to check for windows updates at 3am. This would mean whatever is causing it to wake would have to shut it down again. One maybe silly suggestion is to put the laptop by your bed tonight in the hope that the screen coming on would wake you. If it happened it might give you some pointers

pbartlett

google event view for shutdown or:

Read Shutdown Logs in Event Viewer in Windows | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

Where and how to see the Shutdown and Startup log in Windows 10? - Read Our Articles and Optimize Your PC for Peak PerformanceRead Our Articles and Optimize Your PC for Peak Performance (auslogics.com)