Machines switch off if idle

[MK-2]

This is a real weird one.

Today a teacher reported his PCs are switching off if left at login screen idle. If logged in and used they are ok, so can't be a power issue.

We have no policies in place to switch off idle machines so that's out.

I've checked the event logs of one of the machines. Nothing I can see out the ordinary. It got to 13:18 running fine, then the next entry was 13:29 when the machine was switched on again. Nothing in the logs shows anything like psshutdown or any sort of user initiated shutdown.

 

They are Dell XP SP2 machines. Nothing like this happening until this week. I'm pretty sure kids cant get to control panel as we have a locked down start menu and control panel access off in GPOs.

Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

[Gerry]

Any chance it could be a BIOS setting?

[Michael]

Are you sure it's not WSUS rebooting the workstation after silently installing security updates?

[MK-2]

hmm fair point ive not had a look at that. only thing is its every machine in his room. so if some kid has gone round every machine, some serious questions about teachers in rooms have to be asked

[MK-2]

Are you sure it's not WSUS rebooting the workstation after silently installing security updates?

 

it shouldn't be, i'm pretty sure i set the policy to not autoreboot. but ill have another check on that one too.

[Michael]

Well if you set deadlines for security updates to be installed, getting the domino effect of all workstations rebooting is possible. I know so because I have done it a few times

[MK-2]

Right, for that room we have:

 

auto download and schedule the install - every day at 21:00

intranet server specified

reschedule automatic update scheduled installations - disabled

no auto-restart for scheduled installations - enabled

allow auto update immediate installation - enabled

[Michael]

That looks fine to me, so if it isn't WSUS I wonder what it could be!?

 

You could perform a

gpupdate /force

on a few workstations just to make sure they have the latest GPO settings.

[MK-2]

That looks fine to me, so if it isn't WSUS I wonder what it could be!?

 

You could perform a

gpupdate /force

on a few workstations just to make sure they have the latest GPO settings.

 

i'll try that the next time the machines are on

just looked on our console and they've all gone off again.

 

**edit**

ok i used remote cmd prompt on one that was on and it failed to update user policy (but then nobody was logged in so thats to be expected i guess), but computer policy updated fine.

this is steering wheel down the pants time!

Edited April 24, 2008 by MK-2

[Michael]

Do you have a camera setup in the room? I wonder if it's not a child turning all the machines off?

[sidewinder]

Ive not seen this at school but Ive had this happening with my home PC for a while. if its left on the ctrl+alt+delete screen, it shuts down/hibernates after about 10 minutes

 

Havent got a clue what causes it, but its definately not updates as it happens all the time

[MK-2]

ugh.

worst case scenario is i ghost the room in a hope its some weird software issue.

failing that, a hammer!

[MK-2]

Ive not seen this at school but Ive had this happening with my home PC for a while. if its left on the ctrl+alt+delete screen, it shuts down/hibernates after about 10 minutes

 

Havent got a clue what causes it, but its definately not updates as it happens all the time

 

i suppose the only plus point here is it cant be power failure (or very unlikely) if its happening elsewhere. points more to a software issue somewhere. i might try a spyware check on the machines

[sparkeh]

I saw this here just last week. A machine I was sitting next to, and left at logon, just turned itself off. I powered up again and left it for a while and it did it again. If I logged in it didn't do it, if I logged out it did.

 

Followed pretty much the same steps as above but couldn't find any reason for it.

 

The cycle carried on until I performed a restart myself. After this it didn't do it again. Never found any reason for it.

[rhyds]

Power options?

[Gerry]

Some motherboards can shutdown the PC if CPU temps are too hot...

[DSapseid]

Some motherboards can shutdown the PC if CPU temps are too hot...

 

Yep that would be a winner with me. We have had a few and when you check the cpu temp in bios it was nearlly 100c after removing all the dust from case fans, cpu fan, power supply fan its back down to 30c ish. It would stay on for a while and then just turn off like there was a power cut no warning.

[mortstar]

Power options?

 

I'm guessing this too....

 

I use EZ-GPO client to set the power options by Group Policy. We had trouble with machines going into standby and hibernation at different times - and if people had/hadn't logged in. (Windows manages power options really badly!)

 

Also students didn't know if they were off, the screen was blank or the computer was in standby. Now they know that if the screen is black, just wiggle the mouse - no need to press the power button!