I frequently get "Windows not shut down properly" from draining the battery while hibernating?

[engineheat]

I don't like to power off the computer each time I take a break. But I usually like to leave it as is, or close the lid, thinking it would automatically hibernate or sleep after awhile.

But lots of times it drains the battery completely and I get the "Windows not shut down properly" message when restarting. First of all, how damaging is it?

I tried to play around with the power setting and it didn't solve the problem. Can someone explain the difference between "sleep" and "hibernate" so I can try to prevent this in the future? Please recommend a setting for me. I got the Power Manager by Thinkpad in addition to the one that came with Win7.

Thanks

[axur-delmeria]

Sleep -- Screen, disk, LAN, wifi, and most USB devices are shut down. CPU, GPU enter a very low power state, but RAM is kept active. Resuming from sleep is relatively quick.

Hibernate -- RAM contents (as well as CPU state) are written to disk, then the computer shuts down. Resuming from hibernate can take a bit longer (especially if you have a hard drive instead of SSD) since you have to turn on the laptop, and Windows still has to boot.

You can set the laptop to either sleep or enter hibernation when closing the lid, or explicitly use their keyboard shortcuts.
If the keyboard shortcuts don't work, you probably haven't installed the necessary software.

[engineheat]

I just closed the lid to test, and when I opened the lid again I got the "Windows not shut down properly" message after pressing the power key. It seems merely closing the lid would cause the computer to suddenly shut down as if you unplugged it with no battery.

And I had full battery when this happened. What's wrong?

I just checked my power settings, it should "sleep" when lid is closed.
Thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

You should also check what "press Power button" does in Control Panel/Power options/System settings.

[engineheat]

okay, I changed it to hibernate when closing the lid, and it seems to do that.

Final question: I sometimes like to download or run a calculation that can take hours, and I don't want it to cease when I'm away. For this, I chose "never" for when to put the computer to sleep under my power plan. Is this the correct thing to do or is it not necessary? I still allow the screen to dim after a few minutes. I wonder if I allowed the computer to sleep after a few minutes, it'll stop the download/calculation process too.

thanks

[axur-delmeria]

I wonder if I allowed the computer to sleep after a few minutes, it'll stop the download/calculation process too.

Both will definitely stop when the computer goes to sleep.

[engineheat]

Oh, another issue I discovered is that when the battery is drained, the computer will shut down and I will get a "Windows not shut down properly" message the next time I turn it on. I find this to be annoying, as I remember the other laptops I've owned will actually hibernate or shut down "properly" when it sense the battery is about to go dead. But the way I have it now is equivalent to unplugging it all of a sudden with no battery, if you know what I mean. It's not a proper shut off.

Is this normal?
thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

Check this out: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht071025
Maybe your Power Manager is out of date? https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds014924

[axur-delmeria]

Another possibility is that the battery is going bad--for example, the battery suddenly dying even though there's supposed to be 20% or so charge remaining.