Computer keeps locking automatically

Me again.

Could it be a glitch with the Critical Battery Action process and an old battery or one with problems?  I was going through the battery settings and found this setting, the lower power setting, notifications, etc. 

I think my computer might actually be going into hibernate instead of shutting down.  I noticed that upon restarting after the "Locking" screen and shutdown or whatever, some programs have to boot back up but my web browser will automatically open back up and restore the last session I was in.  And since I removed Spybot from my PC since it was really slowing down the restart process, my PC starts back up very quickly now.  I'm not sure if it's hibernating or not really but I suspect this could be the case. 

I'm not getting any notification of low battery or critical battery level at all, just the sudden "Locking" screen and immediate shut down or hibernation, whichever is actually happening.  Since I just changed my battery finally for the first time in 7 years, maybe running a bunch of applications at once was causing it to use the battery power and, since the battery was so old, it drained it very quickly, going past the thresholds for the warning notifications and just went immediately to the critical battery action. 

I noticed that the critical battery action was set to "hibernate" for both on battery and plugged in so this all would make sense.  Each time this problem happened, I was definitely running a lot of things at once so it was working hard.  The old battery would not hold a charge very long at all.   I had noticed that when the AC plug was not seated quite all the way in and, therefore, not getting AC power and had to rely on the battery only, it would shut down in less than 5 minutes and maybe faster. 

Is it possible that since the battery was so old and could hold such little charge, when my PC was consuming a lot of power running several applications at the same time, it started draining my battery and maybe drained what little capacity was still capable of so quickly it didn't have time to give me all of the low battery and critical battery notifications and just went into hibernation mode immediately?  We could confirm this was the case if we could confirm that the "Locking" screen is supposed to be shown right before it goes into hibernation as the "critical battery action."  I don't know all that much about computers but I would think this would be a possibility if my battery was in such a bad state that just the PC using a little of the battery's when running lots of things at once could sap what little charge it was actually able to hold very quickly going past the 10% level where I should get the "low battery level" notification and also the 5% level when I should be getting the "critical battery notification." The battery was going from full charge down to nothing so fast, because it was so old, it went past all the usual notifications and just went into hibernation immediately and that's why I see the "Locking" screen so quickly, just a flash for a split second, before it hibernates (or shuts down whichever it's actually doing).

If someone can figure out if we should be seeing the "Locking" screen just before the computer takes the actual "critical battery action" then we have this problem solved.  I do not know how to find such information.

Also, there is no other error code or anything else on the blue "Locking" screen. 

Windows 10 OS build 18362-476

Processor i3 M370 @ 2.40 Mhz

I'm getting the exact same problem and there's almost no information on this particular issue out there that I can find.

At seemingly random times, the screen actually says "Locking" very briefly (blue screen I think) then the computer shuts down.  Turns completely off and has to be turned back on manually.  I've scanned for malware and virus' but found nothing.  Even deep scanned with the Windows security app and nothing.  That scan went on for over 2 hours. 

I have an HP 2000 Notebook I got in 2012.  It's just a Core i3 processor that I've expanded to 8 gigs RAM but that was in 2012.  The battery was original and couldn't hold a charge for 5 minutes at this point but I just replaced that battery today.  I've not had that "locking" message today but I got it a few times on Sunday while running a virus/malware scan and doing other things at the same time.  That time, I actually got the message 4 or 5 different times with 3 of those happening within 1 hour.  One of those happened about 5 minutes after restart and then another was about 10 minutes after..  I thought for sure I had a virus and was not going to be able to use my computer very much if that persisted.  Thankfully it has not and I've not had another incident since. 

After much searching the web for a solution, I came across only two places this was specifically mentioned.  The advice given was to change the "lock screen" settings and similar settings which I've already done.  It's not a lock screen it's a screen that says "Locking" very quickly then it shuts down.  I can always restart it. 

So far, after ruling out a lot of other possibilities, I think it either has to do with the processor temperature or the battery.  So I reduced my maximum process speed to 75% and it's run much cooler since.  The day before I noticed it was running very hot so I air sprayed out everything really good.  That helped but it was still hot air and it's been running fairly not for at least a year now. 

The other change is the battery which I did this afternoon.  I had run a diagnostic on that battery from the HP website and it found no issues with it.  Again, it was very old - the original factory battery holding maybe 5 minutes of charge when I unplugged it. 

I think I started getting this message every so often maybe about a year ago or less.  It's happening at random times as far as I can tell.  But it does seem to happen when I'm doing a lot of things at one time.

Since I've not had that message again since reducing my maximum processor speed, I suspect that may be the cause.  However, I cannot find anything anywhere that says the "Locking" screen is a function of Windows 10.  Maybe it's an HP feature but I haven't found any evidence of that either.

I'm writing a lot of detail here because there's so little info on this specific problem . Again, it's not an actual lock screen problem, the screen just says "Locking" really quickly then shuts down.  I'm hoping the few others I've seen out there with this exact problem can benefit from my input here, assuming I can find the real cause.

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

To get clarity on the issue, it would be great if you can help us with the details requested below:

• When you say, “Ill try to run something and a blue screen will pop saying "locking” do you see any error message/code on the screen?
• What is the model number of your Dell computer?
• Are you aware of any changes made to the computer recently?
• Which build version of Windows 10 are you using currently? To check type: winver in the search bar on the Taskbar and hit Enter.

Please reply with the detailed information on the issue to help you further.

Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator