Windows suddenly won't shutdown/reboot! Help.

Mugsy

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May 12, 2004
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Briefly: Suddenly, my computer (Win7 64bit, home built) won't Shutdown or Reboot. Two nights ago, I shut off my PC to go to bed. Everything appeared to shutdown normally (Windows says "Shutting down", pause, screen shuts off) but two hours later, I noticed the PC was still on. I had to hard power-off by pushing/holding the Power Button.

Same thing last night, and checking this morning, I discovered it won't soft Reboot either (I must hit the Reboot button on the PC to do so.)

Even if I try to Shutdown/Restart from the Windows Login screen before most start-up apps even load, it does this. :spamafote:

I didn't install any new hardware or software. The ONLY thing new in that time was that I purchased a new Win10 tablet from BestBuy which uses the same WiFi network and can access the Shared Files/Folders on my PC. So I'm thinking maybe my PC is looking to disconnect from a computer that's no longer there?
:??:

Stuff I've tried:

I booted into Safe Mode, and was able to Shutdown just fine.

I booted into "Safe Mode with Networking", and was also able to Shutdown just fine.

I then tried using "msconfig.exe" to disable ALL running Services and Startup apps. It didn't make any difference. Computer still hangs.

I did a full AV scan using Avast Free AV, MS Security Essentials, Kaspersky TDSS Killer, "Malware Bytes", and even checked for installed background tasks using "HiJackThis". All say everything is fine.

My problem is identical to the problem described in this thread, but the solution doesn't apply to me (I don't have anything RAID related, and I already have SP1 installed.)

Any help is appreciated (and yes, I've scoured Google.)

System Details:

I built this system myself over three years ago. It runs rock solid and is well maintained, running Cleanup software (IOBit Adv Sys Care 10) once a week. All drives scanned for errors.

64bit Win7 Home (OEM) fully updated.

Intel 4770k water-cooled overclocked to 4.3GHz.

Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H motherboard.

16GB Corsair 2133Mhz DDR3.

C: drive: 120GB ssd
D: drive: 2TB Barracuda.

Thx in advance.
 
Solution
<grumble> Okay, for future readers, problem solved (I hope).

Since the only suspicious difference between the computer acting properly *without* the video card driver vs *with* the driver was my UPS reporting "Hibernation Mode disabled", and knowing the computer will Shutdown/Reboot properly from both Safe Mode & Linux, I shifted my attention to my UPS (Battery Backup.)

The UPS Backup software does not run in Safe Mode nor in Linux, so (as mentioned previously) I tried uninstalling it but it didn't help.

Overnight, I thought about how the UPS also plugs into a USB port to control that software, so this morning, I tried unplugging the USB cable... not from the back of the computer but from the back of the UPS itself, and suddenly...
Verify that the Intel chipset drivers are installed, these contain the power management drivers. These drivers are used during the shutdown process to properly power down the system.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775/Intel-Chipset-Device-Software-INF-Update-Utility-
 

Thanks for the quick reply.

I believe I have all the latest chipset/etc drivers installed (checked using "Driver Booster".)

The Device Manager shows everything is working properly (no "!" warnings.)

Oh, and I forgot to mention I also checked checked my "Power" Profile/Options. Still the same as before.

TIA
 
Follow up: Since everything works in Safe Mode, and I already tried disabling all Startup apps & Services, I also tried disabling the same devices that are disabled in Safe Mode.

Unfortunately, only my Battery Backup and a VM Ware Host Device are the only two Devices automatically disabled by Safe Mode in the Device Manager, and disabling them in Normal Mode didn't make a difference.

I'm stumped. *Something* is causing Windows to hang on Shutdown, I just can't figure out what. 🙁
 


Thanks for the reply.

I tried installing the "Driver Update Utility" app on that page and get a "Setup failed" message at the end. No idea why. I may try again in Safe Mode to see if that works.

The IOBit line of utilities are pretty good about not including other crapware.

Something else I've tried that didn't help: Checking the Device Manager in Safe Mode, only two devices are automatically disabled: My Battery Backup and a VM Ware Host device. Disabling them in my normal setup didn't cure the problem. 🙁

I read on another site that the "Sticky Notes" app could cause Win7 to hang. I'm not using it at the moment, but tried loading & closing it to see if it helped, but it didn't.

I'm stumped. But it is certainly a "software" and/or driver issue of some sort. Just can't figure out what. Nothing was installed or updated recently.
 

Thanks for the reply.

My C: (SSD) drive has 31GB (out of 118GB) free. I try to keep it fairly empty. I still have VM set to "Automatic". And my CPU/memory/etc settings are set in BIOS, so if they were at fault, they would likely affect Safe Mode (and my Linux install) as well, and they haven't been changed in over a year, so I doubt they are the source of this new problem.

Is there a way to find out what app Windows may or may not be "hanging" on when the computer is still running even after the screen shuts off? (I tried turning it back on, but it shows nothing.) Thx.
 

Hmm, I'm seeing some errors, but can't figure them out:

Kernel-EventTracing reports two errors in the past hour:

Code:
Session "Microsoft Security Client OOBE" stopped due to the following error: 0xC000000D

Six of these this morning (once for every reboot) and one of these:

Code:
Session "ReadyBoot" stopped due to the following error: 0xC0000188
WMI reports this error six times (though says it only occurred twice) in the last hour:

Code:
Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

And the "Disk" category reports:

Code:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk4\DR4.

...my F: drive, which I've scanned and found no errors.

No clue what to do with any of that or if they're even connected to my problem.

Any ideas? Thx.
 

Thanks for the reply.

I cleared all the logs (why is there no way to clear the "Administrative Events" history?), tried to reboot, and when I got back to Windows after pressing Reset, I had one error in "Windows Log" | System (nowhere else):

Code:
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Launch permission for the COM Server application with CLSID 
{C97FCC79-E628-407D-AE68-A06AD6D8B4D1}
 and APPID 
{344ED43D-D086-4961-86A6-1106F4ACAD9B}
 to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.
No clue what to do with any of that. :??:
 

Thanks for the follow-up.

I did a Reboot instead of a Power Off. Neither work. I must use the Reset button to force a reboot.

I retried installing the Intel driver app from your link with all Startup Apps & Services disabled but it needs the Win Installer Service to run. I uploaded the error logs from the Intel installer (plus screenshot) here.

A search online on the Windows Log error I posted earlier turned up some people who had the same problem and fixed it by deleting those two registry entries (the stuff in {braces}.) I was able to delete those two entries but it didn't help (ditto for most of the other users.)

I also tried creating a New User account to try to Reboot/Shutdown from, but it made no difference.

The only thing "new" was that I bought a (brand) new (not used) Win10 tablet and was able to access my Shared Files on this computer. The problem with this computer began that same day (when I went to Shutdown that night.) No other new hardware or software.

The tablet is off (the battery is dead and it won't recharge, so that's *another* headache I'm dealing with as I'll have to return it), so it's no longer connected/logged to my PC in any way.

I questioned in my initial post if my computer might still be looking for the tablet to disconnect from it?

Thx.
 

I hope to save that as my last resort. 😉

My last backup of my C: drive was last July. Better than nothing. No System Restore points older than today (the scourge of small SSD's is fewer Restore Points.)

A full reinstall/repair using the Windows DVD is the least palatable option. I use Windows Media Center and MS made changes to it that were a bear to get working (they replaced the Guide source for the TV listings but released no patch to update it.) And reinstalling all those Updates takes hours. I'd rather live with the annoyance of using the buttons than go through all that again. 😛

I'll try a few more things before trying to restore my Backup from July. There must be SOME reason I can shutdown/reboot normally from Safe Mode but not a normal boot. 🙁

Thx.
 
Just a follow-up:

Restoring Windows from an old backup didn't help... I think. I can't be sure b/c I couldn't get Windows to boot after restoring the old backup.

A real nightmare followed. Fortunately, I had done a full backup before trying to restore an old one. When I tried to reboot, I got a (DOS text) error message telling me to Repair Windows using my install DVD, but when I tried to, it said it would not work with my "version" of Windows. ???

So I completely wiped the C: drive... partitions and all... and tried to restore my backup from that morning. That didn't work either (oh crap.)

I had had a similar problem before and was able to fix it using "EasyRE" Recover/Repair CD for Windows 7 that I bought in 2015. But when I tried it, it said my version of the software was "too old" and needed a *newer* version. So I spent the $20 to buy the latest version online and burn a CD using Ubuntu.

I ran an Automated fix on the Windows installation, which got me as far as the flashing flag/logo but that's it. 🙁

So I tried ANOTHER Restore of my more recent backup (over the "fixed" copy) and THAT got Windows running again.

Long story short, two days later, I'm finally back where I started. Windows works, but won't Shutdown on Restart on its own. 🙁

I checked the Event Logs and it reports NO errors during an attempted Reboot. <grumble>
 
OMG, I found the problem and it is now fixed, but I'll be damned if I can figure out why. I stumbled upon the cause by sheer luck.

I was trying to update the driver for my old nVidia GTX670 video card (which I discovered had tried & failed to update on it own) but every time I tried to install the latest driver (downloaded from their site) myself, it reported "Installation Failed."

I had to use a special utility to completely remove all trace of the driver ("Display Driver Uninstaller"), and after I did, I was suddenly able to Shutdown & Reboot normally once again! Bizarre!

I ended up reinstalling an older version of the driver from 2015 and everything appears to be working once again, but damned if I know why!
 

Thanks, though a few hours later, the problem returned and I had to completely remove the old nVidia driver to fix it. 🙁

Is this a sign my video card is dying? (No video glitches to suggest a problem). I can't run in 1600x1200 forever. 😀
 
Follow-up:

An extensive search online shows a LOT of people have essentially had the same problem with their PC (mostly laptops) not turning off or rebooting, but most of the suggested fixes involve changing the "Power Profile". I have tried every power-related tweak, even reset to defaults, and it made no difference. 🙁 One Power settings "fix" involved disabling "File Sharing". This didn't work for me, but it makes me wonder about how this problem started after I bought a new tablet and accessed my PC from it.

I found some Dell laptop users that traced the problem to an outdated MMC card reader driver. Another cites needing to rollback the "Intel Management Engine Interface" driver in the Device Manager, but mine was not updated recently. Those are the closest I've found linking a driver issue to the computer not shutting down.

I noticed that when I attempt to Shutdown/Restart my PC, beside all the fans & lights still running, the NUM-LOCK led on my keyboard stays on as well. This is new. It does not stay on when I successfully shutdown from Safe Mode.

I don't know what "Sleep" or "Hibernate" mode looks like on this PC because I never used them, but it sure seems like that's what's going on except that pressing any key or the power button doesn't wake the computer. When I remove my video card driver and Shutdown works again, my UPS warns me at startup that "Hibernate Mode has been disabled". But I've tried disabling hibernate mode (powercfg -h off) and it didn't help.

Any idea ideas from any of this new info? Thx.