Windows 8.1 randomly shuts self down

Question

I have a 2011 iMac, and was having no problems using Bootcamp to dual boot the 8.1 dev preview and OSX.

However after doing the update in the Windows Store to the release 8.1 version (after making sure proper drivers were installed) my computer works perfectly fine, except every now and then it randomly starts shutting itself down. It doesn't just turn off, it shows the 'Shutting Down..' screen and goes through proper procedure, but I never tell it to.

I tried reinstalling 8.1 directly (using 8.1 ISO ), but it still has the same issue. I've seen a few similar problems while trying to Google the problem but no real answers as to how to fix it.

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

Solution

I had not activated my copy of Windows, and the evaluation had expired. This was causing the computer to shut down (without any kind of message except in the logs..)

Activating Windows solved this problem.

Comments

[o0'.]

Is this the same behaviour that happens if you hit the power button?

[Blam]

Yes, sorry for late reply. It's the exact same.

[magicandre1981]

look into the eventlog if you can why Windows tries to shutdown. You can use tools like softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/DontSleep to prevent shutdown and see if this blocks the shutdown.

[Blam]

Ok the tool didn't stop it from shutting down, all the event log says is The kernel power manager has initiated a shutdown transition.. No other errors near it.

[Blam]

Found the solution, I seemed to have missed an earlier message on the log which said that wlms.exe was shutting it down. After some googling I found out that this was due to me not having activated Windows. Activating windows should now have solved the problem :D