Windows 8.1 Pro x64 UEFI very slow boot and shutdown

You were correct. I tried to go back using Acronis restore and although it appeared to work the laptop refuses to start. Luckily it is under warranty and iy is going back to HP from John Lewis for factory reset.

Hi, for me the thing that causes this is the Bluetooth-device. Disabling it in Device Manager makes Windows go back to 10 s shutdown, as before 8.1. 

In my case the device is Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 + HS. Maybe new device drivers will solve the problem.

BINGO!!!  THANKS <Tess82e> --No more long shutdown after the 8.1 store upgrade on my P27K Gigabyte laptop with a Killer 1202 Wi-Fi card.   Right clicked on the Qualcomm AR3012 Bluetooth adaptor in device manager and clicked on "Update Driver Software".  8.1 replaced the Qualcomm driver with a Microsoft generic driver and now I have 14 second shutdowns instead of 5 minutes plus.  Obviously Atheros needs to update their drivers.

I Am Still Wondering every time I push the start button though if 8.1 is going to boot up on the first cycle of the little spinning circle of dots and when it doesn't boot having to wait several minutes while it is going through its Automatic restart and then you really have to watch it when that doesn't work because it next goes into its Automatic repair mode and when that doesn't work watch out because WINDOWS 8.1 CAN AUTOMATICALLY RESET THE OPERATING SYSTEM BACK TO WINDOWS 8  A CLEAN  REINSTALL OF 8 with nothing else there.

That happened to me!  What a painful experience it was .... I almost wiped the drive and installed 7 Ultimate.  But I imagine that should be a new thread which I don't know how to start....

THANKS MICROSOFT COMMUNITY---

My Dell notebook is still rebooting fast. 25 seconds.

When I turn it off and than turn it on, it starts even faster... 8 seconds.

So it was really a problem during windows 8.1 update. I really recommend you all to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 to see if it fixes the problem.

Update 31 dec 2013. A miracle occurred.  This morning my Gateway started with Windows 8.1 in 20 seconds or less.  I have shut down and restarted twice with this successful start up rate.  After the first start up I checked for updates and found none installed.  Before restarting a second time, I found about 20 updates and I elected to install these immediately.  One update that may have relevance is KB2887595, however, I installed this after the first successful start of 20 seconds.  I am now using the "Charm Bar" method of shut down. For new Window 8 users,  mouse over to a right corner of  the screen, see a vertical menu, click on settings (lowest icon on listing), click on the power options, and then select shutdown.  Things have improved significantly over one day.  I have no real idea why, except that I used the Charm Bar Last night.   What didn't work for me was unplugging all external devices, searching and not finding a bluetooth driver that I could disable.  I decided to participate in Microsoft's customer experience programs for the first time yesterday, so that my "experiences" are being sent Microsoft.  I was preparing to call Microsoft this morning, further, I was preparing to try reformatting the hard drive, and reinstalling Windows 8.1 Pro again.  Neither of these action were required today.  The operating system seems to be working very well on my Gateway. One day and counting.  Happy New Year.

Early in my debugging, before solution found, I tried many times to use the charms bar to shut down. In no situation did it decrease the shut down time. Fortunately, something different happened to your computer and it is well again! If you discover what the change was, please let us know.

Update 31 dec 2013. A miracle occurred.  This morning my Gateway started with Windows 8.1 in 20 seconds or less.  I have shut down and restarted twice with this successful start up rate.  After the first start up I checked for updates and found none installed.  Before restarting a second time, I found about 20 updates and I elected to install these immediately.  One update that may have relevance is KB2887595, however, I installed this after the first successful start of 20 seconds.  I am now using the "Charm Bar" method of shut down. For new Window 8 users,  mouse over to a right corner of  the screen, see a vertical menu, click on settings (lowest icon on listing), click on the power options, and then select shutdown.  Things have improved significantly over one day.  I have no real idea why, except that I used the Charm Bar Last night.   What didn't work for me was unplugging all external devices, searching and not finding a bluetooth driver that I could disable.  I decided to participate in Microsoft's customer experience programs for the first time yesterday, so that my "experiences" are being sent Microsoft.  I was preparing to call Microsoft this morning, further, I was preparing to try reformatting the hard drive, and reinstalling Windows 8.1 Pro again.  Neither of these action were required today.  The operating system seems to be working very well on my Gateway. One day and counting.  Happy New Year.