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If a computer is turned off using holding down the power button or loses power it could cause damage to the OS due to it not going through the steps it needs to take to shutdown properly.

If a laptop is left in sleep mode and the battery runs out, will it result in possible OS damage due to it not shutting down properly?

I checked the logs and there is a Event ID: 6008 after the shutdown, does this mean it shutdown randomly and was not able to go through its processes?

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    My desktop PC has lost power in sleep mode many times with no issues so far.
    – Moab
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 19:42
  • The dangers of power off are overstated.
    – Mark
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 20:49
  • I do not like forcing off a computer which is doing something. Possibly data could corrupt. I just wait 5 or 10 minutes before forcing off. Allowing a machine to go off while suspended will not cause any harm at all
    – anon
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 20:53
  • If Modern Standby (S0) is supported (do powercfg /a to check) and enabled, the system will transition from S0 sleep to S4 hibernate after a certain amount of battery is drained in S0 or some timeout is reached. IIRC, even without this (S3 sleep), S4 hibernate will trigger after the "hibernate after" timeout or the "critical battery level" setting is reached. However, I don't want to post this as an answer because I was unable to find conclusive documentation (both Win 10 and ACPI) that S3 -> S4 must always happen at low battery levels. In my experience, though, it does.
    – Jason C
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 2:01
  • If, otoh, the battery suddenly dies (e.g. it's removed) in any sleep state, then your suspicion is correct and the system will not have been shut down properly. Usually, however, this isn't a problem from standby (as far as hard drive errors, etc goes) aside from you losing unsaved work and such. Unsaved work is safe, though, if you've got hybrid sleep enabled (disabled by default on laptops), which is a combo of S1-S3 and S4: it goes to sleep and writes the hibernate state file, and uses the latter only if needed after a power failure, but otherwise resumes from RAM for a quick wake up.
    – Jason C
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 2:03

1 Answer 1

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Event ID: 6008 is an unexpected shut down. The event log shold also give what kind of unexpected shut down occured. Despite that normally an unexpected shut down can lead to damage to the OS, on a laptop that runs out of battery its not likely. A part of the battery is always reserved and the laptop goes in hibernation if you reach this battery level. The settings are 5-15% of the battery.

Even if its left in sleep mode, the laptop will go to hibernation at 5% battery level. What ever caused your unexpected shut down, is in the log. For a laptop, the battery level or power to be the reason for the unexpected shutdown is almost impossible.

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    Hibernation mode doesn’t use battery life, while in that power state, the device is turned off.While in sleep mode, the device uses significantly less power, but the battery is still drained. These two power states are absolutely different and the result of the battery discharging completely will be entirely different depending on which power state actually being used. This answer doesn’t really say anything that authors doesn’t already know based on their own statements. Furthermore, the question is all over the place honestly, sleep mode on a laptop, and forcefully losing power are different
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 0:49

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