First when the PC was made, the shutdown process was simple, you flip the switch, the power went off then you were done. Today the shutdown process on a PC is more formal. It’s designed to prevent data lost and controlled by a software. In this article I review the normal shutdown process, how to fix windows shutdown problems and to demonstrate how to shutdown PC deliberately.
Fix Windows Shutdown Problems
The normal shutdown process works like this, you tap window key, choose power button, and if any other accounts are active which means another user is logged in into the same PC or you switched accounts, which is rare, you will be alerted and given a chance to cancel to shut down, because few people bother with multiple accounts on the single PC and fewer still use the switch account feature, this problem most likely never comes up.
If it does go to start menu, click your account name and choose sign out, at that point you can login as other user, how the other user login and then with them gone, it’s easier to shut down the computer.
Otherwise choose power, shutdown and the shutdown process continuous and if the data is unsaved, if so then you are given a chance to save. In this example you see that a notepad is refusing to obey the shutdown order, that’s because it has unsaved data. So, I cancel the shutdown and save the unsaved data before shutting down the windows.
Now you may still see a stubborn program that refuses to quit, as long as something and you know that you don’t have unsaved data in and everything is okay, you can go ahead and force quit those programs, the screen goes blank and windows successfully kills off the task and the shutdown process continues.
The only time the process drags on is during a windows update, when that happens you see messages on the screen alert you to the update process. Don’t force the PC turn off at this point, just wait and let the updates installed.
Resolving Shutdown Woe
To address various shutdown Woes
- first insure that all your programs are up to date, if you are using legacy programs from older computers, they may not properly inter operate the shutdown signal. The solution to get the latest version of program.
- Ensure that the hardware divers are up to date and current.
Hardware that installs the shutdown might also suffer from a software problem, ensure that all hardware drivers are current and up to date.
When to Force the System to Shutdown
If a shutdown process is completely stubborn, you can’t move the mouse and access the keyboard, then you need to a force to shut down. Press and hold the computer’s power button for about 8 seconds, the system turn itself to turn off.
Upon startup you can see the problem persist and you need to take action, such as running the system restore or rolling back a driver update,
System Was Shut Down Improperly
When the shutdown process doesn’t go smoothly, windows lets you know, upon restarting the system displays a message that your system was improperly shutdown.
If you see such message first choose the option to start windows normally, if that doesn’t work, you can choose safe Mode to perform additional troubleshooting, or run system repair, from the windows recovery menu.
This is the same solution you would attempt, shut down the computer somehow enter an endless restart cycle, start the PC and access the windows recovery menu, then you can enter safe mode or run system repair, or perform a system restore.
Windows Update that causes restarts
Another shutdown issues and restart issue takes place for a reason, you may be one of the crowd who keeps the computer on all the time, if so, you turn on your computer monitor in the morning, and you noticed that the windows is restarted overnight, that’s the windows update service in action.
Updates that require the computer to restart or viral security update, the computer restarts for a reason, and in restart no matters how you have configured the windows update service update so, don’t be alarmed, the computer is actually behaving normally.