My wife complains of her Laptop with Vista "crashing" now and then when she is in the middle of something e.g. writing an e-mail on Gmail. The laptop appears to swicth off she says, in so far as the "on" button has no light around it. When she presses it and reboots, the computer restores her to where she was . . .e.g. in the middle of writing that e-mail, via the "Windows was ot shut down properly" message. I've not witnessed what happens myself so am only going of what she tells me. Any ideas? This has only been happening since she allowed updates to Vista. She wouldn't be able to tell me which since she is computer "illiterate," by her own admission.
MiketheBook 0 Junior Poster in Training
BigPaw 17 Master Poster
It sounds like a power management situation. Is it possible that your wife has been using the laptop running off the battery, and because the battery has run low the laptop starts entering the sleep or hibernation mode. Entering sleep or hibernation made isn't always a quick process and it could seem to your wife that the laptop has crashed, so she then uses the power button. Because your wife uses the power button, the laptop hasn't completely finished its sleep or hibernation phase and instead is just powered off. When the laptop is turned back on it also implements its wake-up procedure along with the complaint that it wasn't shut down properly.
The fact that the laptop continues from where it left off is a clear indication that the laptop was entering a sleep or hibernation mode when it was turned off. It may put your wife's mind at ease if you explained to her how to check if the battery is running low, and you may need to check your power management settings to ensure that when it is running low it should display a notice.
If you know that the above is not the problem, it may be a good idea to test your battery - use the laptop yourself to see if anything happens to you.
This incident could also be a key combination your wife is using. Could it be she is accidentally tapping the 'Sleep' key?
MiketheBook 0 Junior Poster in Training
She tell me that she's been running on the mains but at times she has run the battery very low and forgotten about it. Maybe I should check the power settings in case they have been changed at all. I'll look into that. I was also not aware there was a "sleep" key. Where would that usually be and what would it look like? Many thanks.
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