Right, this has reared its ugly head again, so I’m hoping some IT guru can help me get this fixed.

Basically, my W10 laptop will shut down and start with no problem; it won’t restart, however (go to start menu/ Power/ Restart). It’s been this way for about 18 months now, and most of the time it’s fine, but every time Microsoft pushes out a big W10 update, it only installs on restarting (ie shut down then start up again doesn’t do it).

What I’ve tried:
– it won’t restart into safe mode (no drivers, etc)
– it won’t restart *from* safe mode (no drivers etc)
– turned off fast boot.
– Ran the command “bcdboot C:\Windows” (from a recommendation here: https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/19805-windows-10-wont-do-restart-2.html)

That last one resulted in BSOD on restart, and a full reinstallation of Windows as on booting it couldn’t find the Windows installation.

Sooo… anyone able to offer some pointers??

This used to be the fix:

Power and Sleep settings: Set to Never sleep.
Disable Fast Start

When you say it “won’t restart,” what does it do instead?

I’ve had that problem with an older PC, disabling fast boot fixed the shutdown but I needed to disable EFI boot in BIOS to fix the restart.

But really the key here would be to delve into the logs and see what happened 18 months ago.

You can also stop windows update from restarting automatically by making active hours 24/7, you can then manually select ‘update and shutdown.

Power and Sleep settings: Set to Never sleep.
Disable Fast Start

Done.

When you say it “won’t restart,” what does it do instead?

Goes to boot, gets as far as the manufacturer logo, then hangs.

You can also stop windows update from restarting automatically by making active hours 24/7, you can then manually select ‘update and shutdown.

I’ve got networks set as metered so updates are manual; but big feature updates like v2004 seem to need to restart. And if it fails, the next time you boot up the update then hogs all your resources again, tries to restart… and fails. Grrr

A fun little diversion: I turned off UEFI in the BIOS (using Legacy boot mode), and it made restart and shutdown/ turn on act the same. Which is that it would start to a point… then be unable to find the boot media.

Switching it back to UEFI means it will boot from shutdown, but won’t boot from restart.

Dunno if it makes a difference, but the OS is on volume 3 of the c drive (SSD), with the d drive being data in 2 partitions.

mine does this periodically too – I tend to force shutdown by holding the power button and, while it moans a bit when I start up again, it does seem to get through it

As we have a W10 thread, Madame’s laptop lost it’s wifi in the latest W10 update. The icon bottom right is stil there but when you click on it the only option is flight mode, the wifi and wireless have gone 🙁

Madame’s laptop lost it’s wifi in the latest W10 update. The icon bottom right is stil there but when you click on it the only option is flight mode, the wifi and wireless have gone 🙁

Sounds like a driver/ device issue. Does said laptop have a button combination (Fn+ Fsomething) that turns on wifi – and what happens if you do that? Or is there another bit of manufacturer software on the laptop which also controls things like wifi etc? Or (stupid question) is there a physical switch on the side that turns the wifi on or off?
Do you have the wifi driver anywhere in a format you could reinstall it?

Thanks, Nicko, I’ll look into all those. I’ve tried the suggestions on the Microsoft help pages (which don’t mention what you suggested) so you’ve given me some more ideas to try.

Fixed, driver reinstalled. Thank you Nicko.

Excellent!

The fact it won’t play in Safe Mode in both directions has foxed 99% of things I could think of.

When you say “a full reinstallation of Windows” do you mean a repair install / “upgrade”? You didn’t wiper the lot and start again?

Is there a (UEFI) BIOS firmware update available for the laptop perhaps?

I had a similar problem last week when W10 forced through an upgrade. My laptop would just black screen then hang when restarting, shutting down or being put into sleep mode. I had to do a hard shutdown (holding the power button) every time i wanted to turn the thing off.

Rolling back the update didn’t work. I had to completely reset the computer using recovery media as no solution I found online would work. Still had the same issue so created a fresh copy of the Windows installation USB drive and completely reinstalled Windows from scratch. This sorted the power issue but then my computer refused to play any audio or video at all.

All windows diagnostic tools said everything was ok but a third party programme called Driver Booster found a load of missing chipset and graphics drivers and that sorted the sound out, but then subsequently buggered up my trackpad. Sorted that out but then the keyboard started double typing letters on a single key press so had to mess around with the registry to change the key bounce settings.

Everything working now, but around 7 hours of my life lost trying to get a 3 month old PC working. I hate computers!

When you say “a full reinstallation of Windows” do you mean a repair install / “upgrade”? You didn’t wiper the lot and start again?

Is there a (UEFI) BIOS firmware update available for the laptop perhaps?

Good question. I’ve been unable to boot from restart for a couple of years I think; this was first a problem about a year ago, when the then-latest feature update for W10 kept being pushed, and wouldn’t work because it couldn’t restart. I ended up doing an in-place install upgrade(?) – downloading the full ISO and installing from that.

This weekend I completely reinstalled because the BCD ‘repair’ scuppered its ability to find a W10 installation, then spent a couple of hours installing all the drivers, etc.

So my inexpert thinking is it’s not a device that’s failing to turn off, or can’t be turned on…

Stupid question, but is there any way to log what’s loading/ not when I restart but it doesn’t boot?

OK. Fiddling in the BIOS (trying to see the version and whether it needed updating), Fast Boot is *on*, but I turned off Secure Boot. It now boots on restart.

I have no idea why…

I have similar with an old one of mine. WOrk round was to download a unix distro to a USB stick, change BIOS settings to allow booting from USB first, and then let it boot. Shut down normally andthen restart with WIndows.

Fiddling in the BIOS (trying to see the version and whether it needed updating

Most laptop manufacturers have some form of “update all” utility, of varying quality.

Fast Boot is *on*, but I turned off Secure Boot. It now boots on restart.

I have no idea why…

Is or was, are you describing now or previously? Was it fast boot or secure boot preventing the restart?