Inquiry about Windows 11 desktop PC unexpectedly restarting after complete shutdown?
Inquiry about Windows 11 desktop PC unexpectedly restarting after complete shutdown?
Greetings. I am operating a custom-built PC with Windows 11 Pro version 10.0.2261 Build 22621. As of 3 days ago, I have all the latest Windows 11 updates.
I have not made any significant hardware updates to this build in the last 3 years or so other than replacing a couple of HDDs with new SSDs. My complete parts list can be found here at PC Parts Picker:
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/BqHhP6
Other than a couple of extra storage replacements, the only changes recently have been Windows 11 updates. Lately, when I perform a complete system shutdown, my PC will start itself back up at random intervals. Mostly when I am not in the vicinity to observe it doing so, but I have caught it rebooting itself a couple of times. Sometimes it remains off for hours, sometimes just a few minutes, but it ultimately ends up restarting randomly. I have not had the opportunity until recently to properly investigate, so I have been doing a complete shutdown, then using the kill switch on my PSU to prevent it from unexpectedly booting back up.
A couple of basics to address; I would classify myself as a Windows Power user. So it's not something simple like putting it into sleep or hibernate mode and something waking it up. These are full system shutdowns. My power button is configured to perform a complete shutdown when I press it, and I also frequently click on the Windows start button, then the power icon, then 'shut down'. Both methods have resulted in the system shutting down, and then booting itself back up at random intervals.
Yesterday I searched Google/Youtube to see if I could determine what could be causing this. In Windows 11's advanced power options, these are the current settings that I have that my searches suggested to use to try and prevent these random boot-ups:
1. Sleep settings
-Sleep after: Never (I never use sleep options)
-Allow hybrid sleeping: off
-Hibernate after: never
-Allow wake timers: Disabled
2. USB Selective suspend setting: Disabled
3. PCI Express:
-Link State Power Management: Off
In shutdown settings, I have fast start-up turned off, as this was also noted as a potential culprit. However, I have had this feature turned off for quite some time now, so I don’t believe this was the issue.
Yesterday, after ensuring these settings were saved, I executed another complete shutdown and left my residence for the day. When I returned home, my system was powered on and displayed the Windows log-in screen. I logged in, accessed task manager, and it indicated my system uptime was 11 hours plus. Based on when I departed my house, that implies my system remained shut down for MAYBE an hour before rebooting.
My next attempt to prevent this has been applied in my BIOS, but I have not yet performed a shutdown to see if it worked. I'll be using my system for the next couple of hours. I have almost all the USB ports on my board occupied by various peripherals and devices. So I thought maybe one of them could be initiating these random reboots. In my BIOS settings for my Gigabyte X570 Xtreme board, there is a setting under the power tab called ERP. If it is disabled, the USB ports remain active after shutdown. It was indeed disabled on my board, so I enabled it to deactivate the USB ports when the system is powered down.
Does anyone else have any recommendations I should consider if the ERP option does not prevent this? I could continue using the PSU kill switch after performing the shutdowns, but I would prefer to avoid doing so if possible. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.
Check in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.
Either one or both tools may be logging some informational event(s) related to the system's random rebooting.
Or indicate that the system is not truly shutting down.
Could be an error code or warning as well.
Examine Task Scheduler as well for any related triggers "restarting" the system.
There are no tasks in the task scheduler. When I check the 'Task Status' section for the last 7 days, the box that states "task name, run result, run start, end run, triggered by" is completely empty.
The only unusual thing I am noticing in the reliability and problem history is Precision X1 stopped working, but that is linked to an EVGA GPU monitoring app I uninstalled ages ago. I am unsure why it would still be attempting to do anything with that. Besides that, I don’t see anything that would trigger this.
Again, I have not turned my system off since enabling the ErP function in my BIOS for my USB ports to ensure they are no longer active when shut down. So once I power down for the day, I'll monitor everything and see if that resolves the issue.
Thank you for the response. I learned a bit of new information looking up the reliability issue. I was unaware of it until today.
My internet modem? Yes, that's not an option. My modem is accessed 24/7 by my network devices (personal clouds, NAS units, etc.) and I would have a couple of upset housemates if I powered it off.
If you are suggesting this due to a BIOS setting called "Wake on LAN" I have that disabled. So that's not the cause.
Just to update, the issue seems to have been resolved by enabling the ERP function in the BIOS. With it enabled, the USB ports are completely turned off while the system is shut down, so it's not being activated by any of my USB devices.
From my understanding, the primary reason you would want ERP disabled is so the USB ports remain active after shutdown for charging devices via the USB ports. I don’t use my ports for charging anyway, so I don’t need this enabled.