Forum Discussion
PC Won't Shut Down or Restart Properly
My Windows 11 computer refuses to shut down or restart properly—whenever I select either option from the Start menu, the screen goes black but the fans and LEDs stay on, and the system never actually powers off or reboots, forcing me to hold down the physical power button to turn it off completely, which I know isn't healthy for the hardware. I've already tried disabling fast startup, updating my graphics and chipset drivers, and running system file checks, but nothing has resolved the issue, so I'm hoping someone can help me figure out whether this is caused by a misbehaving driver, a stuck background process, or a deeper Windows setting that's preventing the shutdown sequence from completing.
2 Replies
Hi Claudia, disable Fast Startup first, then update chipset/storage drivers and check Event Viewer for shutdown blockers. Running powercfg /requests can also show apps or drivers keeping the system awake.
The most useful discriminator here is whether Windows itself actually finishes shutting down. Right after a failed shutdown, check the System event log for Event ID 6006 ("The Event log service was stopped") timestamped around when you clicked Shut down.
Open Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System, filter on Event ID 6006, timestamped around when you clicked Shut down.
If 6006 is logged, Windows completed its shutdown and handed off to firmware. If 6006 never appears, something inside Windows is blocking the sequence.
Is it there?
