Question Windows 11 desktop PC randomly boots back up after full shutdown ?

[liberty610]

Hi there. I am running a custom built PC with Windows 11 Pro version 10.0.2261 Build 22621. As of 3 days ago, I have all the latest windows 11 updates.

I have not made any major hardware updates to this build the last 3 years or so other than swapping out a couple HDDs for new SSDs. My entire parts list can be seen here at PC Parts Picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/BqHhP6

Other then a couple extra storage swap outs, the only changes recently have been Windows 11 updates. As of late, when I down a full system shut down, my PC will boot itself back up at random times. Mostly when I am not in the room to catch it doing so, but I have caught it botting itself back up a couple of times. Sometimes it stays off for hours, sometimes just a few minuets, but it does end up booting itself back up randomly. I have not had time up until recently to properly investigate, so I have been doing a full shut down, then hitting the kill switch on my PSU to prevent it from randomly booting back up.

A couple of basics to cover; I would consider myself a Windows Power user. So it's not something simple like putting it into sleep or hybernate mode and something waking it up. These are full system shut downs. My power button is set to do a full shut down when I press it, and I also often click on the Windows start button, then the power icon, then 'shut down'. Both methods have lead to the system shutting down, and then booting itself back up at random times.

Yesterday I hit up Google/Youtube to see if I could figure out what could be causing this. So in Windows 11's advanced power options, these are the current settings that I have that my searches said to use to try and prevent these random the boot ups:

1. Sleep settings
-Sleep after: Never (I never use sleep options)
-Allow hybrid sleeping: off
-Hibernate after: never
-Allow wake timers: Disabled

2. USB Selective suspend setting: Disabled

3. PCI Express:
-Link State Power Management: Off

In shutdown settings, I have fast start up turned off, as this was also mentioned as a possible culprit. But I have had this feature off for quite some time now, so I don't think this was the issue.

Yesterday, after making sure these settings where saved, I did another full shutdown and left my house for the day. When I came home, my system was booted up and was at the Windows log-in screen. I logged in, hit up task manager, and it said my system uptime was 11 hours plus. Based on when I left my house, that means my system stayed shut down for MAYBE an hour before booting back.

My next setting attempt to prevent this has been applied in my BIOS, but I have not done a shut down yet to see if it worked. I'll be using my system for the next couple hours. I have almost all the USB ports on my board used for random peripherals and devices. So I thought maybe one of them could be triggering these random boot ups. So in my my BIOS settings for my Gigabyte X570 Xtreme board, there is a setting under the power tab called ERP. If it is disabled, the USB ports stay active after shut down. It was indeed disabled on my board, so I turned it on to shut the USB ports off when the system is shut down.

Does anyone else have any suggestions I should try if the ERP option does not prevent this? I could just keep hitting the PSU kill switch after doing the shutdowns, but I would like to avoid doing so if possible. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[Ralston18]

Look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing some informational event(s) related to the system's randomly booting back up.

Or indicate that the system is not really shutting down.

Could be an error code or warning just as well.

Take a look in Task Scheduler as well for some related trigger "restarting" the system.

 

[Bob.B]

Hi there. I am running a custom built PC with Windows 11 Pro version 10.0.2261 Build 22621. As of 3 days ago, I have all the latest windows 11 updates.

I have not made any major hardware updates to this build the last 3 years or so other than swapping out a couple HDDs for new SSDs. My entire parts list can be seen here at PC Parts Picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/BqHhP6

Other then a couple extra storage swap outs, the only changes recently have been Windows 11 updates. As of late, when I down a full system shut down, my PC will boot itself back up at random times. Mostly when I am not in the room to catch it doing so, but I have caught it botting itself back up a couple of times. Sometimes it stays off for hours, sometimes just a few minuets, but it does end up booting itself back up randomly. I have not had time up until recently to properly investigate, so I have been doing a full shut down, then hitting the kill switch on my PSU to prevent it from randomly booting back up.

A couple of basics to cover; I would consider myself a Windows Power user. So it's not something simple like putting it into sleep or hybernate mode and something waking it up. These are full system shut downs. My power button is set to do a full shut down when I press it, and I also often click on the Windows start button, then the power icon, then 'shut down'. Both methods have lead to the system shutting down, and then booting itself back up at random times.

Yesterday I hit up Google/Youtube to see if I could figure out what could be causing this. So in Windows 11's advanced power options, these are the current settings that I have that my searches said to use to try and prevent these random the boot ups:

1. Sleep settings
-Sleep after: Never (I never use sleep options)
-Allow hybrid sleeping: off
-Hibernate after: never
-Allow wake timers: Disabled

2. USB Selective suspend setting: Disabled

3. PCI Express:
-Link State Power Management: Off

In shutdown settings, I have fast start up turned off, as this was also mentioned as a possible culprit. But I have had this feature off for quite some time now, so I don't think this was the issue.

Yesterday, after making sure these settings where saved, I did another full shutdown and left my house for the day. When I came home, my system was booted up and was at the Windows log-in screen. I logged in, hit up task manager, and it said my system uptime was 11 hours plus. Based on when I left my house, that means my system stayed shut down for MAYBE an hour before booting back.

My next setting attempt to prevent this has been applied in my BIOS, but I have not done a shut down yet to see if it worked. I'll be using my system for the next couple hours. I have almost all the USB ports on my board used for random peripherals and devices. So I thought maybe one of them could be triggering these random boot ups. So in my my BIOS settings for my Gigabyte X570 Xtreme board, there is a setting under the power tab called ERP. If it is disabled, the USB ports stay active after shut down. It was indeed disabled on my board, so I turned it on to shut the USB ports off when the system is shut down.

Does anyone else have any suggestions I should try if the ERP option does not prevent this? I could just keep hitting the PSU kill switch after doing the shutdowns, but I would like to avoid doing so if possible. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Just a test.
After shutdown turn off the modem.

 

[liberty610]

Look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing some informational event(s) related to the system's randomly booting back up.

Or indicate that the system is not really shutting down.

Could be an error code or warning just as well.

Take a look in Task Scheduler as well for some related trigger "restarting" the system.

There is no tasks in the task scheduler. When I look in the 'Task Status' section for the last 7 days, the box that says "task name, run result, run start, end run, triggered by" the entire box is emtpy.

The only odd thing I am seeing in the reliabilty and problem history is Percision X1 stopped work, but that is related to an EVGA GPU monitoring app I unstalled forever ago. I don't know why it would still be trying to do anything with that. Other than that, I don't see anything that would be trigger this.

Again, I have not turned my system off since enabling ErP function in my bios for my USB ports so they are no longer active when shut down. So once I shut down for the day, I'll monitor everything and see if that fixed the issue.

Thanks for the reply. I learned a bit of new ordeals looking up the reliability ordeal. I was unaware of it until today.

 

[liberty610]

Just a test.
After shutdown turn off the modem.

My internet mdem? Yea, that's not an option. My modem is accessed 24/7 by my network devices (personal clouds, NAS units, etc) and I would have a couple upset house mates if I turned it off.

If you are suggesting this because of a BIOS setting called "Wake on Lan" I have that disabled. So that's not causing it.

 

[liberty610]

Just to follow up, the issue seems to have been resolved by enabling the ERP function in the bios. With it being enabled, the USB ports are completely turned off while the system is shut down, so it's not being triggered by any of my USB devices.

From my understanding, the main reason you would want ERP disabled is so the USB ports are active after shut down for charging devices over the USB ports. I don't use my ports for charging anyways, so I don't need this enabled.