Intermittent Automatic Restart Issue When Selecting Shut Down in Windows 11

Question

Intermittent Automatic Restart Issue When Selecting Shut Down in Windows 11

amralaa-8729 695

Hi everyone,

I am experiencing an intermittent issue when trying to shut down my laptop:

Sometimes, after finishing my work and selecting Shut down from the Start menu, the system turns off briefly and then automatically reboots/restarts on its own instead of powering off completely.

System Details:

The issue is intermittent and does not happen every time.

Fast Startup is already disabled.

There are no Blue Screens (BSOD) or visible errors prior to or during shutdown.

I would appreciate any guidance on how to diagnose what is triggering these unexpected wake/restart events upon shutdown.

Thanks!

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Answer 1

Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Independent Advisor

Hello. Immediately after this happens, open Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System. Around the shutdown time, do you see Event ID 41 (Kernel-Power), 6008, 1001, or 1074? If you see 1074, what does it show for "Shutdown Type" and the process that initiated it?

Also, try this:

Open Command Prompt as administrator and run:

shutdown /s /f /t 0

Does the laptop remain powered off when shut down this way, or does it still occasionally power itself back on?

amralaa-8729 695 Reputation points

2026-08-07T02:17:41.6566667+00:00

Hi,

Just to clarify: I do not experience any sudden crashes, blue screens, or unexpected shutdowns while actively working on the laptop. The system operates completely fine during normal use.

The only issue was that occasionally, when I selected Shut down from the Start menu, the laptop would reboot on its own instead of powering off completely.

To address this, I adjusted the power management settings for both network adapters:

For Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz: Under the Advanced tab, I set both Wake on Magic Packet and Wake on Pattern Match to Disabled.

For Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller: Under the Power Management tab, I unchecked "Allow this device to wake the computer".

Additionally, to verify system energy stability, I ran in Command Prompt and reviewed the generated report at . The report showed no driver conflicts or power management errors affecting system shutdown.

powercfg /energy

C:\Users\amral\energy-report.html

Are these steps correct and good enough to prevent the issue, or is there anything else I should configure?

Thanks!
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amralaa-8729 695 Reputation points

2026-08-07T02:36:48.7366667+00:00

I'm waiting for your reply so I can be reassured about my question.
Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-07T06:59:41.6666667+00:00
Ahh, okay. That's good. I was asking about the computer shutting off because I wanted to rule out Windows crashing during shutdown and then automatically restarting, which can sometimes look exactly like the laptop simply powered itself back on.

The changes you made are correct. I wouldn't configure anything else for now. If the laptop is shutting down normally after those changes, just keep using it and see whether the issue comes back.

If it happens again, before changing anything else, run these commands:

powercfg /lastwake

powercfg /devicequery wake_armed

The first can identify what triggered the most recent wake, while the second shows which devices are currently allowed to wake the system.