Why Does My Windows 7 PC Hate Being Left Alone?

Factual Questions
1

I normally leave my W7 PC in Sleep mode but do power it all the way down once or twice a week. In these cases it restarts normally.

But if I power down for more than a few days–say if I go on a 7-day trip–then I have all kinds of problems getting it running again.

I have to do multiple power cycles as:
It will hang before the Starting Windows screen.
It will hang at the Starting Windows screen.
It will hang at the Select User screen.
Sometimes it will tell me I need to do the System Recovery routine, but it will hang if I try.
It won’t boot to the System Repair disk, hanging if I try.

Before my last escapade, I ran SFC /SCANNOW as an administrator and it said there were no “integrity violations.”

I also changed out the battery for the RTC but that didn’t do anything except erase the BIOS password!

Please don’t suggest upgrading. This PC is for some irreplaceable legacy programs and must remain at W7.

Any suggestions short of my desire to use it for target practice would be appreciated.

2

One thing I’d consider is just not shutting it down. Sleep mode draws very little power. And if you want a fresh boot every once in a while, you can just do a reboot instead.

As for educated guesses about what’s going wrong? The first thing that comes to mind is something in the power supply needing time to warm up. You could try replacing it. But I’d at least try just using sleep mode all the time first.

3

Have you tried running Belarc Advisor to see if it could spot any problems? I believe it will work on a Windows 7 system.

4

I’m reaching here but it may be a fan issue.

If the CPU fan doesn’t spin (or spin fast enough) the system will stop to prevent overheating.

When you leave it off for a few days the fan may get kinda…stuck (especially if it is dirty from years of gunk stuck to it). A few power cycles is like giving it a few nudges and then it goes again. Once going, it keeps going.

If that is the problem (not saying it is…this is really a guess) then the fix is cheap and easy. Replace that fan.

5

Not a bad idea, if the problem persists even with using sleep more often. (Sleep also powers down the fans, usually.)

6

Definitely sounds like a hardware issue to me. Might be bad capacitors, or the hard drive could be dying (weak motor, has difficulty getting up to speed and/or maintaining speed until warmed up). If it’s the power supply caps that are going south then @BigT’s suggestion to replace the power supply might fix it. Otherwise it’s probably not going to be an easy fix.

You might want to consider running W7 on a virtual machine on a more modern version of Windows. I have a couple of Windows XP virtual machines for basically the same reason (legacy software that won’t run on a modern OS).

Otherwise my best suggestion is to not power it down when you leave for 7 days.

7

But this sounds like a warning that the computer may die for good in the not too distant future. I’d be trying to find a new windows 7 computer, actual or virtual, to port everything valuable to.

8

Since it appears to be a hardware problem and not a software problem, I suggest imaging your present Windows 7 machine and saving that image on an external drive. Then do a fresh install of Windows 7 on a new machine. Once that is done, plug in the external drive and do a System Recovery by installing the saved image over the new Windows 7 installation. Voila, you will have “your” computer back on a new and reliable hardware platform!

So, do you have a Windows 7 installation CD so you can initiate the process? Since I’m a techie, I have a lot of stuff, and one of those installation CD’s is something I have. I never use it any more, and it is a perfectly legal and licensed Win 7 installation. Let me know if you want it, and I can send it to you.

9

Given the legacy software I would look into cloning the hard drive (and doing so ASAP…if the PC has critical software running on it and it seems to be failing it is high-time to get a new PC).

10

You can pick up a new Windows 7 system at Newegg.

11

Careful at Newegg.

They used to be my go-to place for PC hardware shopping. They are considerably worse than they used to be. I don’t know why but it is sad. I’m not saying do not buy from them but…be careful.

12

I use them to get an idea of who is offering what, then go directly to the companies involved.

13

In what way? (I hesitate to hijack this thread, but if and when I next need a new computer, what do I need to watch out for?)

14

For one thing, they’ve been caught shipping damaged parts and doing everything they could to prevent returns. They also have dubious bundling of known defective parts.

These are just the things I remember being reported on from Gamers Nexus and Linus Tech Tips, both rather large computing YouTube channels.

15

What @BigT said. Same sources. Well documented.

One example:

Second example:

There’s more.

Sorry for the hijack.

16

**Why Does My Windows 7 PC Hate Being Left Alone?"

Separation anxiety. My dog has it. :wink:

17

I’d like to thank everyone for their answers. (And thank you very much to Jasmine for the offer of a disk–I may take you up on that.)

Before going down the hardware road, though, let me throw this out there for and additional consideration.

I don’t think it’s the fan(s) because, after all the years I’ve been using it, I know what it sounds like when it powers up and the fans definitely come on at high speed on power up and then throttle back but keep running. Based on the suggestions above, I further verified this by booting with the covers off to see it happen. I’m going to take a look at monitoring the speeds between a day where it was booted from Sleep vs. after being down a week or so to see if there’s a difference.

I have a recent HDD image (I do that as part of my standard backup rotation) so I’m ready if that turns out to be the actual problem. But, the HDD was replaced (I used Acronis to clone the new one) within the last year. Both the new and replaced disks are WD Blue Label–not the priciest, but they’ve been working for me for many a year in various machines.

I also invested in a handheld temperature gun (any excuse to buy new/extra electronics that I can play with) and will start watching the heat sinks. But, I don’t know what the normal temps are for my machine so that may be more if a toy than a tool.

Interestingly enough (meaning I don’t know if this is germane) when I went to try to boot to the system repair disk, I was unable to get the change to BIOS to stick. I changed the initial boot from HDD to DVD. When I did “exit and save” it still wouldn’t boot to the DVD. When I looked in BIOS, the order had changed back to (1) HDD, (2) DVD --but the HDD tries to start Windows then hangs as described in the OP.

Going to check all the caps or outright replace the PS as suggested, but that may take me a few days. I miss having a Fry’s Electronics nearby… (But if it’s a cap, shouldn’t I be having the problem on startup from Sleep?)

Once again, thanks to all for taking the time to respond. While I futz around with hardware, please let me know if there are any software (Windows-specific) things I should check or do since I can do that while I’m waiting.

Oh yes, as to leaving it on all the time, that is what I usually do. My problem comes if there is a power outage while I’m away. Then the PC goes to the UPS and, when that drains, it’s total power off for the duration. (And we won’t talk about the time that someone-who-will-remain-nameless thought they could repurpose that particular outlet while I was away.)

Separation anxiety may have a lot to do with it. I work it like a dog. When it’s working.
Also, I will look into Belarc. I’m not familiar with that.