Got a couple of "Windows was not properly shut down" notices, and don't understand them.

Dell Latitude 7430.

Reliability Monitor has given me two of the following notices over the course of the last week:

"Critical Event > Windows was not properly shut down".

I can't account for them: my computer wasn't crashing nor behaving unusually at the times those notices reference. I think I did probably intentionally shut-down the PC at those times indicated by the notices, however.

To shut-down the PC I go to the Desktop and then press "Alt+F4" and then choose "Shut down" from the context-menu that appears.

Something else odd I notice with this laptop is that on occasion, after putting it to sleep, it won't wake without me pressing the power-button--I need to actually press the power-button to wake it from sleep, as if I'm powering it on. Only on occasion though, not often. It then appears to go through the screens that it would usually go through when actually booting it up; and then just brings me back to where I left it prior to putting it to sleep. I wonder if this is related to the question of this post...

It is very likely to be those occasions when you press the power button because it won't wake from sleep. I certainly have exactly that issue (usually when sleep has only been on for a very short time and the system then fails to wake up normally).

I don't think it's anything to worry about. There is a small risk of file corruption, but in five years of using this (Dell laptop) machine, I haven't noticed anything untoward.

John

@Senecio Sounds like it's a bug in the Dell laptop then, and it doesn't seem like there's anything we can do about that. Honestly, I don't even want a small chance of file-corruption. This is not very good news for me as I think I'll have to stop putting the machine to sleep from now on and actually shut it down whenever I stop using it, which is going to be a real pain; but I really don't want files being corrupted.

I've had a total of 7 "Windows was not properly shut down" Critical Event notices in Reliability Monitor over the past single week. I have no idea what's causing this. Over the last six months I've noticed on this PC that on rare occasion it will wake from a "Hibernation" state rather than a "Sleep" state--requiring me to press the power-button to wake it-- after having simply closed the laptop's lid to put it to sleep in the first place; but while this might have happened once over the last week, it has certainly not happened 7 times.

Of these 7 notices, 2 of them occurred on the same day, and another 2 on a different day; the remaining 3 occurring on their own individual days.

A "sleepstudy-report.html" file I made using the "powercfg /sleepstudy" command in Command Prompt concurs with those Reliability Monitor notices as far back as 24-03-24 (which date is as far back as that Report goes); whereas the first of those 7 notices in Reliability Monitor occurs on 20-03-24, which is the first day of using the PC after Clean-Installing W11 onto it.

The event 41 kernel power means that there is something happened unexpectedly that blocked Windows from turning off properly, and there is a message saying that “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. Here's why Kernel Power Error 41 happens and how to fix it.

@FreeBooter Ok, so yes, it turns out Event Viewer has 7 "Event 41: Kernel-Power" instances logged, which all correspond to the 7 Reliability Monitor instances I mentioned in the comment above, i.e. :

_william said:

I've had a total of 7 "Windows was not properly shut down" Critical Event notices in Reliability Monitor

Click to expand...

So the "Event 41: Kernel-Power" error is definitely something to do with the problem.

I watched the video. It wouldn't make sense to me that the hardware was faulty, as the laptop was brand-new only 6 months ago and I've taken neurotically good care of it since. Nonetheless, I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic; but I can't find the results of that test anywhere at all, like many other people online; following this article I get a "No results found" message in Event Viewer, and Command Prompt doesn't return anything either, and there's no notification about it in Notification Centre. I did not run the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool as Administrator, as far as I know, and yet it it still seemed to run fine as per the instructions for it online.

BIOS. My current version matches the most recent version on Dell's Driver-page, though the dates don't: in "msinfo32", the date given to my "BIOS Version/Date" is 31/01/2024, whereas that shown on the Dell download-page is 12/03/2024.

Power-supply. I don't see how that could be the problem as it's a laptop which I pretty-much always have plugged into the mains with its charger and almost never allow its battery to fall below 25.

In his list of possible causes at 00:35 He mentions "hardware-failure"--but I've already explained why I don't think that could be it. He lists "Overclocking", I'll check that after posting this, but I don't think I have any "Overclocking" options turned-on anywhere. He lists "Third-Party Software", which is a very broad term; I haven't installed anything exotic onto the PC, only popular and well-known apps and software. He lists "File-Corruption"; well, I suspect that this problem of the not shutting-down properly and of the "Event 41" error may be causing file-corruption itself, but as for the problem itself being caused by file-corruption on this PC, which PC has just had W11 Clean-Installed onto it, I wouldn't know where to begin with that.

Noises coming from the laptop. I notice that the fan seems to be a little bit louder and 'rougher' than when I first bought it six months ago. I notice the laptop makes a fairly unique 'electronic and mechanical' noise when I enter the BIOS. But other than that, there's nothing of note. As it has an SSD, I can't think what could possibly make a noise inside it besides the fan.

Don't know what he says at 02:30, is it "photo-ram error"? But in any case, I haven't had any Blue-Screen-of-Death; the most of that I've had is a blue screen upon restarting the PC telling me the system is repairing itself, after I had a generic "Drive Error"; this happened a few days ago.

The SFC and DISM Command Prompt lines he suggests I'd already ran before making this thread; those Commands had indeed repaired some corrupt files on the system, as I've detailed in other threads on this forum already; but, no, the 'not properly shutting-down' problem persists beyond having done that.

The last thing he mentions in the video is "incompatible Device Driver". I don't know by his English whether he meant the singular or plural of Driver there. If singular, I don't know what "Device Driver" is. If plural, how would I begin to try and see which Driver was causing this problem?

_william said:

"Windows was not properly shut down"

Click to expand...

I get that same error every time I shutdown my computer, without shutting down all applications. I have a tendency to leave my browser and a few apps running. Mostly, I just ignore it. It has never caused an issue. Sometimes the OS warns me, before it shuts down. I just tell it to shut down any way.

@K7MEM Ah, maybe that's it then. You get that "Critical Event > Windows was not properly shut down" notice every time in the Reliability Monitor tool then?

@FreeBooter I'm pretty certain now that my laptop is not doing any Overclocking: a quick google told me that it's difficult to get Dell laptops to Overclock anyway, and I couldn't see any such option as I scanned through and auto-searched the BIOS.

My laptop makes that 'electronic and mechanical' noise when I boot it up normally also, I'd describe it as a small person or child's stomach rumbling.

William,

You can, if you want, monitor Event viewer records of going to sleep & waking up.
You should first check what power-sleep states you have using this command
PowerCfg -a
[I have the feeling you've already reported doing this in one of your other threads.]
Event viewer, Custom view definition - Power - Sleep-Hibernate-S0 transitions - my post #9 - ElevenForum
It might be that your computer is not achieving a sleep state.


All the best,
Denis

@Try3
Maybe. That thread will take a bit time for me to digest fully, I've not come across any of that before. Is the gist that this "Modern Standy" mode is interfering with things?

I did use a "powercfg" command to get a log of my PC's sleep-states, yes. I think I remember it produced an html file which had some 'error'-state entries for the instances where Reliability Monitor had flagged the system not shutting-down properly. As I remember, the instances being flagged by Reliability Monitor were all times at which I remember actively shutting-down the PC, rather than putting it to sleep...

Oh, and here's a copy of what Command Prompt returned by the "powercfg -a" command. I think they're all "not supported" because I have actively turned-off sleep altogether completely in the PC under the suspicion that sleep in general is causing the problem--the third comment in this thread.

He is me who owns the video if you think its software causing the problem then you can try in-place upgrade if that won't help clean install Windows 11.

You can also perform in-place upgrade of Windows 11. In-place upgrade is to use to replace the current operating system files on your computer. Unlike a clean installation of Windows, you can start a Windows in-place upgrade when your OS is still running. And an in-place upgrade can keep your files, settings, & apps during the upgrade process. You can perform a Windows 11 in-place upgrade is to use the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool. Make sure to select Upgrade this PC now and click Next. Follow the on-screen guide to perform a Windows 11 in-place upgrade.

@FreeBooter No, I can't think of any software that would be causing this problem. Well I just Clean-Installed a week ago, you see. Thanks for the video. Maybe its some Driver, maybe its the sleep states user Try3 talked about, I don't know.

Software been Windows 11 that could be causing the problem, it does not matter if you clean installed week ago if there is corruption it can happen soon as you installed device drivers.

@FreeBooter So I guess the solution in that case would be to just continually Clean-Install until the problem disappears.

No problem is if you don't know what is causing the problem you have to try basics first that mean try in-place upgrade if that won't help clean install Windows 11 if that won't help then it's definitely faulty hardware.

FreeBooter said:

Event ID 41 The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first - Windows Client

Describes the circumstances that cause a computer to generate Event ID 41, and provides guidance for troubleshooting the issue.

learn.microsoft.com

Click to expand...

Thanks for that article.

Is it worth looking at these "Details" of the "Event Properties" for the offending "Event 41"? I noticed that there are just "0x0" entries for the "BugCheckParameter"s...

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 20/03/2024 06:33:55
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (70368744177664),(2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: laptop
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331c3b3a-2005-44c2-ac5e-77220c37d6b4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>9</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000400000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-03-20T06:33:55.6916293Z" />
<EventRecordID>694</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>laptop</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">6</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
<Data Name="BootAppStatus">3221225684</Data>
<Data Name="Checkpoint">16</Data>
<Data Name="ConnectedStandbyInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="SystemSleepTransitionsToOn">1</Data>
<Data Name="CsEntryScenarioInstanceId">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckInfoFromEFI">false</Data>
<Data Name="CheckpointStatus">0</Data>
<Data Name="CsEntryScenarioInstanceIdV2">0</Data>
<Data Name="LongPowerButtonPressDetected">false</Data>
<Data Name="LidReliability">false</Data>
<Data Name="InputSuppressionState">0</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonSuppressionState">0</Data>
<Data Name="LidState">1</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

_william said:

Is the gist that this "Modern Standy" mode is interfering with things?

Click to expand...

No.
You just need to know what power-sleep states you have.
I used to really dislike S0 Modern standby ["S0ix"] but I changed my mind when I learnt to tame it.

_william said:

I did use a "powercfg" command to get a log of my PC's sleep-states, yes. I think I remember it produced an html file

Click to expand...

That must have been a different command [there are many PowerCfg commands].
PowerCfg shows you a result onscreen in the command prompt / PS window that you issued the command in.
It can be saved to a text file if you want.

If you can remember which thread you were using & what PowerCfg command you used, I'll join in.

You've got so many threads going that I have no idea how you are coping with all the ideas coming in parallel.


best of luck,
Denis

@Try3 Thanks. I dunno, I guess I'm probably just being obsessive at the end of the day. So I read the Modern Standby article and watch the Linus video. I don't actually get any those battery-draining problems. My problem seems to be that often something happens to cause the system to execute a "dirty shut-down" rather than a "clean" one, and I don't know what it is. Is the machine slipping into some version of sleep or Modern Standby right before shutting-down, which causes the problem? I've disabled sleep altogether on my machine now, maybe that will solve it.