Computer keeps locking automatically

Anonymous
2019-11-17T16:41:28+00:00

My computer keeps locking up. Ill try to run something and a blue screen will pop saying "locking..." And it will completely shut down. How do i fix this?

***Modified title from: my computer (dell, windows 10) keeps locking up, how do I fix it?***

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2019-12-05T19:26:00+00:00

Solved!!!!!

I have confirmed my critical battery level action suspicion I described before.  To test it I set my critical battery level higher and unplugged my PC to run it down to that level.  As soon as it reached that point, the blue "Locking" screen popped up and it went into hibernation just like it's set to do.  There was also another very quick notification screen/message but I'm not certain what it said.  I think it might have said something about critical battery level but, again, I'm not certain.  I am 100% certain that I saw the mysterious "Locking" message on a blue screen exactly as I'd been seeing it before all those times. 

So anyone else who is having this same problem, you most likely have a really old battery that drains super fast when you're working your PC hard and using a lot of energy.  Or your battery may be malfunctioning but leading to the same issue.  It's draining so quickly there's no time for the other power level notifications and it's going straight to the critical battery level action. 

There is another thread somewhere else where the Windows "expert" states that he is not aware of any screen or message that says "Locking" in Windows 10, which we now know is incorrect, and that is probably causing a lot of confusion for those of us that are experiencing this rare issue.  I even noticed that the font for this "Locking" message was the same Windows font we're so familiar with.  And since I read somewhere else someone was having this same issue on a Dell laptop, we can be certain that it is indeed a function of Windows 10. 

Now that I've confirmed it myself, I can stop worrying about malware or a virus causing it.  That would be a very weird thing to be causing anyway since there's no other issues related and I can always restart, or bring out of hibernation, my laptop no problem.

Well, I hope anyone else that's having this same, strange issue reads this and finally finds some clarity.  If you do happen to read this all and changing the battery does solve the problem, please post a response here if you don't mind.  Even though I'm 100% now that I've found the answer, I'd still like to get outside confirmation and also know if my efforts have helped anyone else.  This is such a rare, weird issue that even the Windows experts have been stumped.  It would be great for my ego to know I did, indeed, solve this mystery.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-12-11T04:16:31+00:00

    My HP Pavilion stops on blue screen with :( sign. It refers to a Reference by pointer issue. I'm trying to resolve but haven't been able. How can I restore to a previous date?

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-12-10T23:27:41+00:00

    Not that anyone else is listening, so it seems, but I have also confirmed that my PC will do the same thing in a thermal shutdown.  Exactly the same.  Only difference is when it restarts I get a message telling me it was a thermal shutdown.  I had not yet encountered this before so I can only assume that all of the other instances my "locking" shutdown was due to the poor condition of my battery.  Since replacing my battery this month, my PC has yet to do it again except for a few thermal shutdowns until I reduced the maximum processor speed to 80%.  Hopefully that will be enough.

    Well I hope all this is helpful to someone out there somewhere.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-12-04T15:15:01+00:00

    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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-12-04T03:43:07+00:00

    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

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