Solved Shut Down and Restart no long work

This is weird; yesterday I can not shut down the computer using the Shut Down button in Windows 8. I attributed it to some backup software that I loaded.

I uninstalled the backup software, didn't fix it.

Tried a restore point, that was unsuccessful, the restore did not complete correctly. I tried a different point that didn't work either.

The system doesn't seem to have any other ill effects, other than I can shut it down, properly.

Thoughts, suggestion?

Thanks,
Greg

Define "cannot shut down". Do you mean it does nothing? Or that it tries to shut down, but gets stuck? Or that something else happens?

Mystere said:

Define "cannot shut down". Do you mean it does nothing? Or that it tries to shut down, but gets stuck? Or that something else happens?

Click to expand...

Mystere, by my definition it does nothing. There are no apps shut down to suggest it has started and gets stuck, all the system tray apps are still running. I can continue to use the machine; I've even let it stand thinking it will eventually shut down but after 10 minutes I sort of thought it wasn't going to happen.

Hello Greg,

You might see if turning off Fast Startup may help. Some folks report that it has caused issues like this.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/6320-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-8-a.html

Brink said:

Hello Greg,

You might see if turning off Fast Startup may help. Some folks report that it has caused issues like this.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/6320-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-8-a.html

Click to expand...

Hello Shawn,
Well that didn't help, though I would now have to say that I have a different situation from the first post. The shutdown is hung up on something. What is different from before is that I now get the screen that says "Shutting Down" but it hangs, basically it shows it shutting down but never actually turns the machine off.

So does that lead you to any other conclusions?

Thanks, Greg

I agree. You got something that's not closing at shutdown.

Do you have this same issue if you boot into Safe Mode and try shutting down?

If not, then you could try troubleshooting this issue with a clean startup by temporarily disable all of your startup items, boot back into normal mode, test shutdown to see if it works. If so, then enable 1 or 2 startup items, restart the computer, test shutdown again. Repeat until either you ID the culprit or they are all enabled again.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5180-startup-items-manage-windows-8-a.html

In the past some USB mass storage devices has caused very slow shutdowns with XP and 7.

If you want to force it to shutdown or restart you can do it from CMD with the /F option which will force it shutdown and not wait for anything to close.

I'd start by unplugging any devices and forcing a restart by using SHUTDOWN /R /F and see what happens then.

(use SHUTDOWN /R /O /F for advanced boot menu to get into safe mode.)

Have a glance at the event viewer to see if anything wrong. There's always all sorts of Warnings there but you just need to look for errors.

I agree that booting into safe mode and testing shutdown from there is a good idea.

One thing you can do is open up task manager and take note of how many tasks are running. Then, attempt to shut down and see if that list changes at all. If so, that means that at least some applications are being shut down, and may give you some insight into which tasks are blocking it.

Brink said:

I agree. You got something that's not closing at shutdown.

Do you have this same issue if you boot into Safe Mode and try shutting down?

If not, then you could try troubleshooting this issue with a clean startup by temporarily disable all of your startup items, boot back into normal mode, test shutdown to see if it works. If so, then enable 1 or 2 startup items, restart the computer, test shutdown again. Repeat until either you ID the culprit or they are all enabled again.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5180-startup-items-manage-windows-8-a.html

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the problem still exists in Safe Mode.

I've attached a screen shot of the event viewer. You'll see the number of errors in the last hour that I've started the PC, maybe something there will peak your interest for further discussion.

Greg,

As a test, try the force "Full Shut Down" and "Restart" options in the context menu added by the tutorial below to see how they work.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5215-power-add-cascading-desktop-context-menu-windows-8-a.html

Brink said:

Greg,

As a test, try the force "Full Shut Down" and "Restart" options in the context menu added by the tutorial below to see how they work.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5215-power-add-cascading-desktop-context-menu-windows-8-a.html

Click to expand...

Wow that worked, but why? Why would this work when the other Shutdown options don't?

So is this a workaround until I reinstall my image? I'm typically the only one using the PC so that shouldn't be a problem.

Let me know, and if it is a workaround I can live with it.

Greg

The shortcuts in the context menu use the /f switch to force them while the default method included in Windows doesn't force them.

The force option will force whatever is hanging to close to allow the shutdown or restart.

Did you install or change anything right before you started having this unknown hang at shutdown?

You certainly could use the Power context menu as a workaround or for everyday purposes if you like.

Brink said:

The shortcuts in the context menu use the /f switch to force them while the default method included in Windows doesn't force them.

The force option will force whatever is hanging to close to allow the shutdown or restart.

Did you install or change anything right before you started having this unknown hang at shutdown?

You certainly could use the Power context menu as a workaround or for everyday purposes if you like.

Click to expand...

Well it certainly did the trick, I just wish I could figure out what caused the problem.

I installed a backup software that came with a Toshiba Canvio portable drive, just a day earlier. I didn't like the fact it seemed like it was always running in the background or at least it felt like it.

When the problem started to occur, I uninstalled the software, but that didn't fix the problem. Maybe there is remnants of it hanging (no pun intended) around. I tried to restore back prior to the install, the response I got after the restore ran was "unsuccessful".

So I'll use this for now, do appreciate your help, as usual!!

Greg

You might also check in Task Manager as Mystere posted earlier to see what "processes" are running right before shutting down or restarting to see if one of them belongs to that program.

If so, then "End task" it to see if it works properly.

If not, then you could try random suspicious processes to "End task".