Can't restart. Re-start circle(?) just goes round and round endlessly

Okay, if my above post doesn't apply, we can "Auto End All Tasks" when you turn off / restart your computer.

BUT here's the little setback. It deals with adding something to the Registry. The Registry will apply settings after you successfully Sign out / Restart / Shut Down the computer. I am assuming that doing this setting will NOT apply, because of the "shutting off" issue.

SO you may have to want to add this key in the Registry from Safe Mode.

Option two, number 2: "Turn_On_AutoEndTasks_for_all_users.reg"
Turn On AutoEndTasks at Restart, Shut down, or Sign out of Windows 10

But you're going to probably have to do this in Safe Mode.

Let's say this method works, then YAY!

So we may have to advance a little bit on this. There's another idea of setting a timer for every app for a certain amount of time to exit normally, in case you have some open document or something, which most likely won't really be an issue.

So there's an idea of us setting a 5 second timer for any open app to exit successfully. Obviously the Screenshot Uploader will lag out to the 5 seconds, and be forced to shut off.

pepanee said:

Let's say this method works, then YAY!

So we may have to advance a little bit on this. There's another idea of setting a timer for every app for a certain amount of time to exit normally, in case you have some open document or something, which most likely won't really be an issue.

So there's an idea of us setting a 5 second timer for any open app to exit successfully. Obviously the Screenshot Uploader will lag out to the 5 seconds, and be forced to shut off.

Oh, oh....I just deleted Steam, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and nVidia apps (except for the graphics driver). I'm also running a registry cleaner as I write. It'll take time. If this doesn't work, I'll uninstall the nVidia graphics driver next and update to the latest version. If that still doesn't work I'll try above.

And if that doesn't work, I'll restore a disk image and start from square one again.

Btw, for the .reg file. Ok if I just double click on it?

I'll bet that uninstalling Steam (which should've been something we could've tried later), will definitely fix the issue.

Hopefully all your saved games etc are all saved, right? You won't lose any game saves and stuff?
(We will re-install Steam again and get your game back up and running)

After the Steam uninstall, restart the computer. After the restart, open the Registry file.
Yes double click it, open it, and say Yes & OK.

Make sure you got the right one: "Turn_On_AutoEndTasks_for_all_users.reg"

pepanee said:

I'll bet that uninstalling Steam (which should've been something we could've tried later), will definitely fix the issue.

Hopefully all your saved games etc are all saved, right? You won't lose any game saves and stuff?
(We will re-install Steam again and get your game back up and running)

After the Steam uninstall, restart the computer. After the restart, open the Registry file.
Yes double click it, open it, and say Yes & OK.

Make sure you got the right one: "Turn_On_AutoEndTasks_for_all_users.reg"

Another deadend...

I uninstalled Steam and the game. Didn't fix the problem.
No, I didn't bother saving. I got it all in an image of the disk.
I downloaded and double clicked "Turn_Off_AutoEndTasks_for_all_users.reg" and re-started a couple times. Didn't fix the problem.

A pause here... in Safe Mode, the PC re-starts and shuts down. Normally. So, it's got to be a driver issue right?

- - - Updated - - -

I just ran Turn_On_AutoEndTasks_for_all_users.reg by double-clicking and merging the file contents to the registry. Re-started a couple of times. It didn't fix it.

Try this one. Same link. Option ONE, number 2: "Turn_On_AutoEndTasks_for_current_user_only.reg"

this is like a major challenge. I'm really sorry you're going through this. It must be tough. I appreciate your cooperation and ...patience (I'm sure you're not at 100% patience really because of how long this really is),

This is also another idea. It will take some time. If you want, we can try it tomorrow or whenever later. This idea can help us narrow it down to if it really is a driver issue or something.
First: You said you have a disk image (please make sure this disk image works perfectly, and you can recover to that disk image).



We can try a complete brand new install of Windows (don't register it with the serial number you already have installed, so there won't be some conflicting issue). After the install, do ALL WINDOWS UPDATES. Restart the computer. Turn Off the computer. Etc.
We can see if this issue happens in a brand new install of Windows with all its updates.

SO WEIRD! I really thought it was the Steam bug!

pepanee said:

Try this one. Same link. Option ONE, number 2: "Turn_On_AutoEndTasks_for_current_user_only.reg"

....I'm really sorry you're going through this. It must be tough...

First: You said you have a disk image (please make sure this disk image works perfectly, and you can recover to that disk image).

SO WEIRD! I really thought it was the Steam bug!

No worries. It's a hobby. No time wasted. I'd have replaced or re-imaged the drive long ago if this was work or if time is an issue.

Yes, let's call it a day. nVidia has a new version of their graphics driver which I just clean installed but that didn't help either. The problem still exists.

The key info here is that the PC works normally when in Safe Mode. So it's got to be a driver of some sort. It can't be a program because it is in Safe Mode and it can't be hardware related because hardware tests show it runs stable.

Time to re-image the drive and catch some Zzzzz's. Maybe a solution will come in a dream. Lol. Gnite!

bofhlusr said:

...Maybe a solution will come in a dream. Lol. Gnite!

lol hopefully! Goodnight

A new day. Disk image restored successfully. And, the problem persists.

Got the pop-up below on my first re-start of the day. I took a picture of the pop-up with my cellphone. I then transferred the resulting cellphone jpg to my PC using iTunes and tried to upload the jpg to tenforums. Apparently tenforums does not like jpg's from iPhones? I had to display the jpg on my PC screen and do a screen cap. The resulting screen cap from the PC is the screen cap I uploaded to tenforums which is what you are viewing here.



The [Test Files] folder on the screen cap contains files that I use to test a successful restore of drive images and can be ignored (bunch of mp3, avi, jpg, pdf, etc.) .

Pressing 'Restart Anyway' shown on the screencap results in the Re-Start issue. I have to press the physical Re-start button on the PC box to re-start the PC.

To sum up:
1. Safe Mode fixes the problem. Re-start and Shutdown execute within 10-15 seconds
2. Doing a 'clean' install of the newest nVidia graphics driver does not help
3. A Repair Install of Windows does not help
4. Removing the Steam client and Microsoft Flight Simulator does not help
5. Windows Update is current. The problem persists
6. Device Manager show a problem with a 'Base System Device'. Troubleshooting that issue does not help
7. Running "sfc /scannow" does not help
8. Checking the hardware with IntelBurnTest on 'High' mode show the system runs stable
9. No overclock
10. Ran Windows Security and Malwarebytes. No malware
11. RealTemp show no overheating issue (PC is watercooled)
12. ...some other troubleshooting procedure I'm not remembering....

A clean install of Windows is the last resort. This system is self-assembled and there are lots of DRM'ed programs installed. Figuring out where and when a program was purchased and downloaded or the website it came from is a big issue. A good example of a DRM program is WX Advantage Radar. It's an essential program used in another DRM'ed legacy program (Prepar3d). WX Advantage Radar has been discontinued and can't be found anywhere. There are other DRM'ed programs that I had to wrestle with to work with updated versions of programs they work with.

The motherboard was upgraded last Nov2019. I'm uncertain when Windows 10 was last installed. Originally, this system was running Windows 7.

Additional suggestions welcome. Wishing Event Viewer is more helpful...

Hi
I have not read your entire thread.

But maybe a bad windows update comes to my mind.
Have you tried to back your computer with windows restore point to say March 10.. (before your problem started so to speak)
Then check so your updates has been uninstalled by the windows restore point... if not uninstall all windows updates back to March 10.. then pause windows update and see if the computer start to behave.
If it starts to behave... then use https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx and manually install the updates one by one and restart the computer twice between every update you install, so se which one that is the bad guy.

Just a thought.