Update: I have a crash dump file but I don't know how to make any sense of it.
crash dump? did you get a BSOD? What is name of the file?
the difference between a restart and just starting up is based on Fast startup. Win 10 by default isn't off when you shut it down, its asleep. Or more accurately its in a hibernate state. So the only time the PC is actually off is a restart.
the bios takes longer on a restart as you actually turn PC off in the process. It restarts PC. It also has to reload all the drivers.
Fast start-up - what it does is at shutdown, the PC puts a copy of running drivers into ram or the hiberfil.sys file and puts PC to sleep. When you start PC, its already half loaded and doesn't need to load as much. This speeds up boot times on PC with hdd. No so helpful on SSD based PC.
So its unusual to find a PC that is fine with fast start-up but doesn't like restarts. It is normally the other way around. Old drivers don't like fast start-up. This looks like a piece of hardware not responding to windows and causing desktop to time out. I wonder if it would appear eventually if you wait.
I have had a pair of dying speakers do this to me before. took a while to work out cause, I even clean installed windows trying to figure it out. It was only obvious as I had moved pc to another room to do reinstall, it worked fine until i reattached speakers and it did the same thing again. I was sad as speakers meant a lot to me.
What are the parts in the PC?
What is attached to the PC- - I mean, speakers, USB devices, printers.
what is oldest part of PC?