From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Windows 11, LG laptop; Fast Startup and Hibernate are both disabled.

I use my laptop infrequently, once every week or two. After using it,
I shut down with WindowsKey+X, U, U.

Yesterday I opened my laptop and pressed the power key; nothing
happened. Plugging in the power cable allowed it to boot, so
obviously it had been fully discharged. This happens around one time
out of four.

I know any battery will discharge over time, but I don't think one or
two weeks is enough time for that to happen. As evidence of that, the
other three times out of four it boots just fine on battery power,
and hovering over the battery icon on the taskbar shows a charge
somewhere in the 60-79% range.

So I really don't think this is a battery problem. Can someone give
me some guidance to solving this intermittent full-discharge problem?
I think I recall a discussion here, with the statement that a true
shutdown with WindowsKey+X, U, U prevented this from occurring, but
that doesn't seem to be the case for me.
--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Fri, 8/28/2026 4:23 PM, Stan Brown wrote:

Windows 11, LG laptop; Fast Startup and Hibernate are both disabled.

I use my laptop infrequently, once every week or two. After using it,
I shut down with WindowsKey+X, U, U.

Yesterday I opened my laptop and pressed the power key; nothing
happened. Plugging in the power cable allowed it to boot, so
obviously it had been fully discharged. This happens around one time
out of four.

I know any battery will discharge over time, but I don't think one or
two weeks is enough time for that to happen. As evidence of that, the
other three times out of four it boots just fine on battery power,
and hovering over the battery icon on the taskbar shows a charge
somewhere in the 60-79% range.

So I really don't think this is a battery problem. Can someone give
me some guidance to solving this intermittent full-discharge problem?
I think I recall a discussion here, with the statement that a true
shutdown with WindowsKey+X, U, U prevented this from occurring, but
that doesn't seem to be the case for me.

One mechanism, is "something" blocks shutdown, OS tries to shutdown
and maybe a "wake event" causes it to arise again. If you'd shut the
cover by then, you might not notice it has come back up. For example,
Device Manager, Ethernet, set to "Wake On Carrier" or similar, a machine
can never hibernate or sleep at least, with such a setting, as that is
easily tripped. A "WOL" Wake On LAN event is harder to generate.

In Device Manager, you can disable the usual culprits so that the
only thing that will wake the computer is... the power button. That's
how my Daily Driver desktop is set up. Moving the mouse, tapping on the keyboard, I've set those up in Device Manager so that nothing happens.
A limited set of devices, have waking capabilities in device Manager.

Maybe you were playing a movie, and the "thing" that keeps the
screen from going blank, also has some effect on other things ?

I don't know about you, but the battery pack on my old laptop is
removable, and after I shutdown, I pop the battery pack. The
charge stays on it for at least six months.

Thin and light devices, the pack is held internally, there is a thin
cable and small connector. You cannot easily perform a similar thing
after shutdown with one of those. The pack is actually a different type,
in that the cells may not be cylindrical 18650 and they're pouch cells
or something. Not that it matters. There might be double sided tape under it.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> powercfg /lastwake

The powercfg utility, gives access to some amount of machine level activity.
I don't know if that particular one is "deep enough" to expose your issue
for analysis or not.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Sat, 29 Aug 2026 06:15:48 -0400, Paul wrote:

On Fri, 8/28/2026 4:23 PM, Stan Brown wrote:

Windows 11, LG laptop; Fast Startup and Hibernate are both disabled.

I use my laptop infrequently, once every week or two. After using it,
I shut down with WindowsKey+X, U, U.

Yesterday I opened my laptop and pressed the power key; nothing
happened. Plugging in the power cable allowed it to boot, so
obviously it had been fully discharged. This happens around one time
out of four.

I know any battery will discharge over time, but I don't think one or
two weeks is enough time for that to happen. As evidence of that, the other three times out of four it boots just fine on battery power,
and hovering over the battery icon on the taskbar shows a charge
somewhere in the 60-79% range.

So I really don't think this is a battery problem. Can someone give
me some guidance to solving this intermittent full-discharge problem?
I think I recall a discussion here, with the statement that a true shutdown with WindowsKey+X, U, U prevented this from occurring, but
that doesn't seem to be the case for me.

One mechanism, is "something" blocks shutdown, OS tries to shutdown
and maybe a "wake event" causes it to arise again. If you'd shut the
cover by then, you might not notice it has come back up. For example,
Device Manager, Ethernet, set to "Wake On Carrier" or similar, a machine
can never hibernate or sleep at least, with such a setting, as that is
easily tripped. A "WOL" Wake On LAN event is harder to generate.

In Device Manager, you can disable the usual culprits so that the
only thing that will wake the computer is... the power button. That's
how my Daily Driver desktop is set up. Moving the mouse, tapping on the keyboard, I've set those up in Device Manager so that nothing happens.
A limited set of devices, have waking capabilities in device Manager.

Maybe you were playing a movie, and the "thing" that keeps the
screen from going blank, also has some effect on other things ?

I don't know about you, but the battery pack on my old laptop is
removable, and after I shutdown, I pop the battery pack. The
charge stays on it for at least six months.

Thin and light devices, the pack is held internally, there is a thin
cable and small connector. You cannot easily perform a similar thing
after shutdown with one of those. The pack is actually a different type,
in that the cells may not be cylindrical 18650 and they're pouch cells
or something. Not that it matters. There might be double sided tape under it.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> powercfg /lastwake

The powercfg utility, gives access to some amount of machine level activity. I don't know if that particular one is "deep enough" to expose your issue
for analysis or not.

Thanks Paul!

I do occasionally play Youtube videos in my browser, but I close the
browser and other applications when I'm done using them. (KeePassXC, VeraCrypt, and Autohotkey are started at boot time and I do leave
them running in background, but I've never observed any of them
interfere with the shutdown sequence.)

I do have a thin laptop, and removing the battery pack is not an
option. I try to remember to wait for the power light to go out
before I close the lid, but it's possible I forget occasionally.
Should that matter, anyway, since I have closing the lid configured
to shut down the computer?

I know about powercfg /lastwake, but correct me if I'm wrong: when I
try to boot up but can't because the battery has drained, so I plug
in the charger and press the power button, isn't lastwake going to
tell me that the power button was pressed, rather than the unwanted
event that caused the battery drain?

I went through Device Manager and double-clicked every single item in
the tree. Only a small minority had the Power Management tab, and
none of those had "allow this device to wake the computer" checked.

I also tried powercfg /devicequery wake_armed and got the response
"NONE".
--
Trolls wouldn't be trolling if nobody would take the flamebait.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Sun, 8/30/2026 9:19 PM, Stan Brown wrote:

On Sat, 29 Aug 2026 06:15:48 -0400, Paul wrote:

On Fri, 8/28/2026 4:23 PM, Stan Brown wrote:

Windows 11, LG laptop; Fast Startup and Hibernate are both disabled.

I use my laptop infrequently, once every week or two. After using it,
I shut down with WindowsKey+X, U, U.

Yesterday I opened my laptop and pressed the power key; nothing
happened. Plugging in the power cable allowed it to boot, so
obviously it had been fully discharged. This happens around one time
out of four.

I know any battery will discharge over time, but I don't think one or
two weeks is enough time for that to happen. As evidence of that, the
other three times out of four it boots just fine on battery power,
and hovering over the battery icon on the taskbar shows a charge
somewhere in the 60-79% range.

So I really don't think this is a battery problem. Can someone give
me some guidance to solving this intermittent full-discharge problem?
I think I recall a discussion here, with the statement that a true
shutdown with WindowsKey+X, U, U prevented this from occurring, but
that doesn't seem to be the case for me.

One mechanism, is "something" blocks shutdown, OS tries to shutdown
and maybe a "wake event" causes it to arise again. If you'd shut the
cover by then, you might not notice it has come back up. For example,
Device Manager, Ethernet, set to "Wake On Carrier" or similar, a machine
can never hibernate or sleep at least, with such a setting, as that is
easily tripped. A "WOL" Wake On LAN event is harder to generate.

In Device Manager, you can disable the usual culprits so that the
only thing that will wake the computer is... the power button. That's
how my Daily Driver desktop is set up. Moving the mouse, tapping on the
keyboard, I've set those up in Device Manager so that nothing happens.
A limited set of devices, have waking capabilities in device Manager.

Maybe you were playing a movie, and the "thing" that keeps the
screen from going blank, also has some effect on other things ?

I don't know about you, but the battery pack on my old laptop is
removable, and after I shutdown, I pop the battery pack. The
charge stays on it for at least six months.

Thin and light devices, the pack is held internally, there is a thin
cable and small connector. You cannot easily perform a similar thing
after shutdown with one of those. The pack is actually a different type,
in that the cells may not be cylindrical 18650 and they're pouch cells
or something. Not that it matters. There might be double sided tape under it.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> powercfg /lastwake

The powercfg utility, gives access to some amount of machine level activity. >> I don't know if that particular one is "deep enough" to expose your issue
for analysis or not.

Thanks Paul!

I do occasionally play Youtube videos in my browser, but I close the
browser and other applications when I'm done using them. (KeePassXC, VeraCrypt, and Autohotkey are started at boot time and I do leave
them running in background, but I've never observed any of them
interfere with the shutdown sequence.)

I do have a thin laptop, and removing the battery pack is not an
option. I try to remember to wait for the power light to go out
before I close the lid, but it's possible I forget occasionally.
Should that matter, anyway, since I have closing the lid configured
to shut down the computer?

I know about powercfg /lastwake, but correct me if I'm wrong: when I
try to boot up but can't because the battery has drained, so I plug
in the charger and press the power button, isn't lastwake going to
tell me that the power button was pressed, rather than the unwanted
event that caused the battery drain?

I went through Device Manager and double-clicked every single item in
the tree. Only a small minority had the Power Management tab, and
none of those had "allow this device to wake the computer" checked.

I also tried powercfg /devicequery wake_armed and got the response
"NONE".

I don't think LastWake keeps enough data to be a good debug tool.

I think it is possible for a laptop to start with the lid closed.
It's also possible to configure a laptop to keep running with
the lid closed.

Maybe something is blocking the shutdown. In Eventmgr.msc, see if you
can spot the bootup sequence, then scroll back a bit and see if anything
is present around the last shutdown (attempt) which indicates it
immediately bailed on the shutdown and came back up. I can't think
of any examples right off hand, of what would be doing that.

You could try CoPilot, and posit the question and see what unlikely
things it can think of. It's brain works better than my brain does :-)

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On 2026-08-31 06:48, Paul wrote:

I think it is possible for a laptop to start with the lid closed.
It's also possible to configure a laptop to keep running with
the lid closed.

It certainly was. At a company I worked for, it was the custom to
provide personnel with laptops, and a docking station with full
keyboard, mouse and display. The laptop lid was closed and then docked
beneath the display.

That was about yr 2000.
--
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:48:31 -0400, Paul wrote:

Maybe something is blocking the shutdown. In Eventmgr.msc, see if you
can spot the bootup sequence, then scroll back a bit and see if anything
is present around the last shutdown (attempt) which indicates it
immediately bailed on the shutdown and came back up. I can't think
of any examples right off hand, of what would be doing that.

Thanks for the suggestion. Next time it happens, I'll try that.
--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Stan Brown wrote:

Windows 11, LG laptop; Fast Startup and Hibernate are both disabled.

I use my laptop infrequently, once every week or two. After using it,
I shut down with WindowsKey+X, U, U.

Yesterday I opened my laptop and pressed the power key; nothing
happened. Plugging in the power cable allowed it to boot, so
obviously it had been fully discharged. This happens around one time
out of four.

My laptop can shut down in "battery safe" mode, where the battery is disconnected. This lets one work on internal components without risk of short-circuits or system malfunction.

In "battery safe" mode the laptop will not start up without the power
cable, but the battery is not fully discharged.

I do not see any evidence in your post for the statement "obviously it
had been fully discharged." Your post does not say that you checked the battery level after starting.

I know any battery will discharge over time, but I don't think one or
two weeks is enough time for that to happen. As evidence of that, the
other three times out of four it boots just fine on battery power,
and hovering over the battery icon on the taskbar shows a charge
somewhere in the 60-79% range.

So I really don't think this is a battery problem. Can someone give
me some guidance to solving this intermittent full-discharge problem?
I think I recall a discussion here, with the statement that a true
shutdown with WindowsKey+X, U, U prevented this from occurring, but
that doesn't seem to be the case for me.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:28:31 -0700, Shawn Breard wrote:

Stan Brown wrote:

Windows 11, LG laptop; Fast Startup and Hibernate are both disabled.

I use my laptop infrequently, once every week or two. After using it,
I shut down with WindowsKey+X, U, U.

Yesterday I opened my laptop and pressed the power key; nothing
happened. Plugging in the power cable allowed it to boot, so
obviously it had been fully discharged. This happens around one time
out of four.

My laptop can shut down in "battery safe" mode, where the battery is disconnected. This lets one work on internal components without risk of short-circuits or system malfunction.

In "battery safe" mode the laptop will not start up without the power
cable, but the battery is not fully discharged.

I do not see any evidence in your post for the statement "obviously it
had been fully discharged." Your post does not say that you checked the battery level after starting.

This is the first I've ever heard of "battery safe" mode, but there's
nothing about it in the (scanty) user documentation provided by LG,
the manufacturer. The battery is not removable.

In the past I've seen the laptop boot on as little as a 6% charge. It
was obvious to me that the battery had been fully discharged (or
nearly so) because (a) nothing happened when I pressed the power
button, but (b) when I connected the charging cable to an outlet and
to the laptop and pressed the power button it booted right up.
Immediately I moused over the battery indicator, and it said it had a
1% charge.
--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2