Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I last posted, but today, I had an troubleshooting experience that I just had to share.

I logged into a Windows Server and was immediately met with an unexpected shutdown. Not the best way to start the day, right? But instead of panicking, I went into full detective mode to figure out what happened.

Step 1: Check VMware vCenter

Since this server runs on VMware, my first instinct was to check vCenter for any related tasks or events. Maybe the host had an issue, or someone triggered a restart? But nope—everything looked clean. That meant the shutdown was triggered from within the OS itself.

Step 2: Investigate with Event Viewer

Next stop: Event Viewer → System Logs.

Now, if you’ve ever checked Event Viewer, you know it can be a jungle of logs. To make life easier, I filtered the logs using specific event IDs:

• Event 41 – Unexpected shutdown or power failure → Nothing here.
• Event 6006 – Clean shutdown (service stopped properly) → Nada in the last 24 hours.
• Event 6008 – Improper shutdown (crash, unexpected reboot) → Nothing in the last 48 hours.
• Event 1074 – User-initiated restart/shutdown → Aha! Found something!

The Culprit: Patch Tuesday Strikes Again!

Event 1074 revealed the answer:

The computer was restarted to complete the installation of applications and software updates.

Mystery solved! The server was part of Patch Tuesday and had been configured to force a reboot if needed after applying updates.

Lesson Learned

If you ever run into an unexpected reboot, always check Event Viewer and filter by these event IDs. It can save you a ton of time!

Hope this helps someone out there. Have you ever been caught off guard by a surprise reboot? Let me know in the comments!