laptop switching off

Most likely, if the power was completely shut down, (both electricity and battery), then what you were doing is gone.

Most often, if the power is constant to your computer, then it will remain on standby until the standby is either manually deactivated or the power is totally cut.

You did not give enough detail as to how the computer was remaining on standby for a month. Was it plugged into electricity and the computer not used for that period of time? I don’t know of any computer battery that would last (even on standby) for a complete month without going dead… in which case, the complete power supply would have possibly been cut.

So, in short, you didn’t give quite enough info to give you a solid answer. The best that I can tell you is if the battery is removed and the electric plug is pulled, then standby will most often be cancelled.

…either way, it sure looks like a lesson learned the hard way !

:-)