1

I have a situation where a few Windows 7 based PC's are basically experiencing a power cut every day, in other words they don't get to shut down - the power simply cuts.

With XP there was never an issue, it would reboot when needed and everything was fine. With Windows 7 however the systems lose any grip on reality, forgetting USB devices which are plugged into it (requiring unplug, restart, plug back in), drive corruption, monitor resolution switching etc. Is there anything in Windows 7 which is that different from XP that it would cause these issues?

Update: Caching is the last thing for me to try this week, after that I'm out of ideas and it's time to call in Microsoft to work it out.

Although I had a call today to say 8 XP systems have gone the same way as the Windows 7 machines, so I'm now wondering if it's the HDD's. They refuse to boot, I've heard about XP being finicky of AF drives, I guess it is.

Improve this question
2
  • What are you expecting? Obviously, pulling the power will cause problems.
    – Hello71
    Aug 20, 2010 at 21:11
  • 3
    I've seen these problems dozens of times in XP, more frequently than in 7 actually. I think there may be something else at work here.
    – Shinrai
    Aug 20, 2010 at 21:31

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
5

There is not anything specific in Windows 7 over XP that would cause these issues.

I think it must simply be either very bad timing or bad hardware that simply fails under these circumstances.

I would highly advise that you invest in UPSs (Uninterruptible power supply) which if you have not heard, are basically batteries for desktops - you can get some models which can connect to the PC and automatically shut down when the power reaches a certain level.

Improve this answer
1

UPS's is something I've looked at, and may end up being the solution. What's adding to the confusion is out of 14 new systems, 8 are XP, the rest 7. They are all identical hardware, XP is fine but 7 is buggy.

I've heard about issues with Advanced Format Hard Drives in collaboration with 7, but am unable to find any real evidence of this. I've heard 7's caching could be the issue, but again haven't been able to confirm this. If it was all the systems, that would be one thing. But, it's only the Windows 7 systems that fail.

Improve this answer
0
0

I really need to install Windows 7. But if it's anything like WinXP, some settings and changes don't actually get written to disk until you shut down the system. Try setting up one of these computers the way you want, then shutting it down. When you fire it up, is everything the way you want it? If so, maybe the settings will now persist across power outages as well. To avoid drive corruption, you could try disabling write caching. This will hurt performance, but as long as these outages persist, it's probably a good idea.

Improve this answer
0

Caching is the last thing for me to try this week, after that I'm out of ideas and it's time to call in Microsoft to work it out.

Although I had a call today to say 8 XP systems have gone the same way as the Windows 7 machines, so I'm now wondering if it's the HDD's. They refuse to boot, I've heard about XP being finicky of AF drives, I guess it is.

Improve this answer
1
  • Post these responses to an answer or by editing your original posts, not new answers.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Aug 22, 2010 at 22:52

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .