WIndows 8 Hangs on restart

Anonymous
2012-11-08T06:10:40+00:00

I have Windows 8 Pro and when I restart, the Restarting... screen just hangs. It doesn't go away, so I have to power off my machine(hold power button).

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2012-11-08T19:50:48+00:00

Hello Kim,

Sorry for the inconvenience that you are facing with Windows 8 on restarting it. I will definitely assist you in fixing this issue.

Let us start with couple of questions.

1.       Have you made any changes on your computer prior to the issue?

2.       What happens on the first boot?

3.       Do you have any third party security software installed?

Perform the following troubleshooting methods:

Method 1:

I would suggest you to boot the computer in safe mode and check how it works.

Follow these steps to boot the computer in safe mode.

a.       Press the “Windows + R” key on the keyboard.

b.      In the ‘Run’ windows type “msconfig” without quotes and click “Ok”.

c.       Click the “Boot” tab.

d.      Under “Boot Options”, select the “Safe Boot” option.

e.      Choose “Network” option below the “Safe boot” check box.

f.        Click “Apply” and then “Ok”.

g.       Then select “Restart” option.

h.      Once you check in safe mode, then I would suggest you to place the computer in normal boot option.

i.         Remove the check mark next to “Safe boot” option in “Boot” tab to place the computer in normal boot.

Method 2:

Place the computer in clean boot state and then try to install the program.

You can start Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This kind of startup is known as a "clean boot." A clean boot helps eliminate software conflicts.

Step 1:

a.       Press the ‘Windows + R’ key on the keyboard.

b.      In the ‘Run’ windows type ’MSCONFIG’ and click ‘Ok’.

c.       Click the ‘Boot’ tab and uncheck ‘Safe Boot’ option.

d.      On the ‘General’ tab, click to select the option ‘Selective startup’, and then click to clear the option Load startup items check box.

e.      On the ‘Services’ tab, click to select the ‘Hide all Microsoft services’ check box, and then click ‘Disable all’.

f.        On the ‘Startup’ tab, click ‘Open Task Manager’. In the Task Manager window under startup tab, right click on each startup item which are enabled and select ‘Disable’.

g.       Click ‘OK’, and then click Restart.

h.      If it works in clean boot state, then follow rest of the steps.

Step 2: Enable half of the services

a.       Follow steps 1a and 1b to start the System Configuration utility.

b.      Click the Services tab, and then click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box.

c.       Click to select half of the check boxes in the Service list.

d.      Click OK, and then click Restart.

Step 3:

a.       If the problem still occurs, repeat step 1 and step 2. In step 2, click to clear half of the check boxes that you originally selected in the Service list.

b.      If the problem does not occur, repeat step 1 and step 2. In step 2, select only half of the remaining check boxes that are cleared in the Service list. Repeat these steps until you have selected all the check boxes.

c.       If only one service is selected in the Service list, and you still experience the problem, the selected service causes the problem. Go to step 6. If no service causes this problem, go to step 4.

Step 4: Enable half of the Startup items

·         If no startup item causes this problem, a Microsoft service most likely causes the problem. To determine which Microsoft service may be causing the problem, repeat step 1 and step 2 without selecting the Hide all Microsoft services check box in either step.

Step 5: Determine whether the problem returns

a.       If the problem still occurs, repeat step 1 and step 4. In step 4, click to clear half of the check boxes that you originally selected in the Startup Item list.

b.      If the problem does not occur, repeat step 1 and step 4. In step 4, select only half of the remaining check boxes that are cleared in the Startup Item list. Repeat these steps until you have selected all the check boxes.

c.       If only one startup item is selected in the Startup Item list, and you still experience the problem, the startup item that is selected in the list is the service that is causing the problem. Go to step 6.

d.      If no startup item causes this problem, a Microsoft service most likely causes the problem. To determine which Microsoft service may be causing the problem, repeat step 1 and step 2 without selecting the Hide all Microsoft services check box in either step.

Step 6:

·         After you determine the startup item or the service that causes the problem, contact the program manufacturer to determine whether the problem can be resolved. Or, run the System Configuration utility, and then click to clear the check box for the problem item.

Step 7:

Note: After you have finished troubleshooting, follow these steps to boot to normal startup.

a.       Press the ‘Windows + R’ key on the keyboard.

b.      In the ‘Run’ windows type ’MSCONFIG’ and click ‘Ok’.

c.       On the ‘General’ tab, click the ‘Normal Startup’ option, and then click ‘OK’.

d.      When you are prompted to restart the computer, click ‘Restart’.

Method 3:

Perform System File Check (SFC), and then check if this fixes the issue.

Follow the steps:

a.       Press “Windows Key + Q” to open Charms Bar.

b.      Type “cmd” without quotes in the search box.

c.       On the left pane, right click on the “cmd” option and select “Run as Administrator”.

d.      Type “sfc /scannow” without quotes and hit enter.

**Note:**It may ask for windows installation DVD to fix and to enable SFC to make more than minor repairs. Some files saved on your computer might get deleted when fixing corrupted files.

I hope this helps you fixing the issue. If the issue continues, reply to this thread, we are glad to help you further.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-02-14T02:12:11+00:00

    I was able to fix it by updating the display drivers... was getting really annoyed with the freezes on restart and had to manually reset the notebook... the problem was with ATI control manager (or catalyst).... when i checked for latest updates through device manager, i got the message that the latest update was already installed... but just got curious and went to ATI's website and downloaded the auto detect app.. presto... it suggested the latest drivers which were not showing up through device manager>display adapter>update drivers, but upon installing it... everything worked fine... one observation though... for some strange reason... windows throws up an error asking me if the application has installed correctly or to reinstall it!

    Also check your system time... I have Norton Internet Security 2013 and Astrill VPN installed... have travelled to another country... NIS updates were not being installed at all.. so i changed the timezone which fixed the NIS update error... guess this also helped in fixing the restarting freeze issue

    Updating display drivers worked for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-18T18:42:41+00:00

    I have the same problem. There is no issue when shutting down the computer completely, ie. when I select shutdown. This only happens if I select restart. I suspect there is some process running in the background that windows is unable to end.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-19T10:08:41+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for approaching Microsoft Community.

    Perform the following troubleshooting methods:

    Method 1:

    I would suggest you to place the computer in clean boot state and then check if you can reboot the computer without any problem.

    You can start Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This kind of startup is known as a "clean boot." A clean boot helps eliminate software conflicts.

    To set the computer in clean boot, follow the steps from the link: How to perform a clean boot

    **Note:**After checking in clean boot, follow step: 3 from the article to reset the computer to normal boot.

    Method 2:

    Perform System File Check (SFC), and then check if this fixes the issue.

    Follow the steps:

    a.       Press “Windows Key + Q” button from the keyboard.

    b.      Type “Command Prompt” without quotes in the search box.

    c.       On the left pane, right click on the “Command Prompt” option and select “Run as Administrator”.

    d.      Type “sfc /scannow” without quotes and hit enter (There should be space between sfc and /).

    **Note:**It may ask for windows installation DVD to fix and to enable SFC to make more than minor repairs. Some files saved on your computer might get deleted when fixing corrupted files.

    I hope this helps you to fix the issue. If the issue continues, please do reply. We would be happy to help you further.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-02-21T21:09:42+00:00

    For me this was caused by the Hyper-V switch.

    When Hyper-V is installed and a virtual switch is bound to a physical network adapter, restarting or shutting down windows takes forever. Restarting virtual machines takes a lot of time as well. another issue that I noticed is that if I try to disable a LAN card bound to hyper-v or just update the driver, the process will appear to be hanging for several minutes before completing. The whole thing is very unreliable. Microsoft should revisit the implementation of the virtual switch in external mode.

    The solution for me was to delete the external virtual switch and create a new one, choosing internal. Then instead of relaying on Hyper-V to provice a connection to the external network, just bridge the virtual lan to a physical adapter from the Network Connections folder.

    This solved my problem and windows is restarting properly now in just a few seconds.

    Hiberboot doen't seem to be supported on my system, the registry change didn't help either. No ativirus or security software is installed, as I'm bored from software that slows my work.

    Just a side note: UAC is set to no prompt, I'd rather have this disabled if it wasn't for the metro apps. Do I care about security? Yes, but not when it's preventing me from doing my work! So I'd rather I like to make windows 8 as unsecure as possible so that there's nothing standing on my way and all this prompts - are you sure? Yes, I'm developing software I'm sure! I hate windows 8 and microsoft!

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