Hi,
I run a network of about 200 clients with a Windows 2003 Standard Server Active Directory.
This server also runs WSUS.
The machines are configured to install updates at 5pm every day and then at 6pm each day, the server runs the following script to shutdown all computers:
shutdown -m \\computername /s /t 90 /c "Automated computer shutdown for preservation of energy. Please save all work immediately!"
I have found that sometimes computers whose monitors are already off, or screensavers are perhaps on (not always though) - they will not shutdown when the command is sent. However. When I go up to the machine and move the mouse, it then shuts down and reboots!
I'm not sure whats causing this exactly - if anyone can shed any light on it, that would be great.
Cheers,
Paul.
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It's weird. The PC's don't hibernate or standby. They just turn off the monitors.
In some rooms the computers actually turn off when the command is recieved... in others they just sit idle - then when you move the mouse they reboot. I am not entirely sure if it is related with the shutdown request though.
Thanks for your input
Yeah, I know that /f (force) could be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" for the first person who leaves their docs open - but on the plus side (besides the user education), if you're running current versions of Office, they usually recover "lost" documents pretty well when the program is re-opened after the "crash" (forced shutdown).
I don't know how "locked down" your client computers are, but if you want to avoid the /f you could look for non-standard screensavers (Webshots), desktop indexers (Google, MSN, etc.), shared computing apps (SETI@home, Folding@home), and other "Stuff" like that on the trouble machines that could be the apps preventing the shutdown -- you know, things that run all the time and the programmers thought we're too important to go down quietly...
I havent had a chance to implement /f yet, but will do over the next week.
We run a custom screensaver developed in house in VB6 which displays a countdown and gives the user the option of continuing working or logging off. After counter reaches 0 it auto logs off.
I will do some more investigations, thanks for your input :)
hi guys, sorry to forget about this, working 2 jobs right now :-)
My discovery has been that this is unrelated to power settings or screensaver and seems to be related to WSUS and running updates.. At the end of updating it pops up a box which says the machine will restart in X minutes.. and it has a countdown. When the screen is off, this countdown seems to hang at the end and nothing happens until you move the mouse, which then tells the countdown that its time to restart - just as the screen is fading into life the machine reboots.
So this is a problem with microsofts implementation of automated updates.
I have allocated points as assistance here has lead to this conclusion.
Thanks!
Paul.
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by: MCPJPosted on 2006-05-01 at 07:27:59ID: 16577430
Hmm....it sorta makes sense that if the computer is in hibernation mode it wouldn't receive the command to shut down, once you awaken it by moving the mouse, the queued command is received and it then shuts down. I don't know why it would do a restart instead of a shut down however. You may want to use active directory/group policy to make sure that your computers (except for laptops of course) do not go into hibernation and that may help. Best of luck to ya! =)