Windows 10 Crashing Every Other Startup; Sleep seems to fully shut down too
Within the last month or so, my PC has been basically crashing on startup every other boot. It never wavers: First time from a cold start, it starts loading Windows 10, then stops. When I reset via the PC case's reset button, it starts normal. Next time I shut down (or even put it to Sleep mode), the process repeats.
The failure seems to happen in one of two ways. I took a series of small videos (apologies if the video plays sideways):
- First attempt to boot up results in no spinner on the Windows 10 load screen. Hangs forever.
- Next attempt it boots up normally
- Next attempt the spinner seems to crash, and the screen fades to black. Hangs forever.
- Next attempt it boots up normally again (no video here).
Like clockwork it is every other boot that fails to start. And as mentioned above, if I even put the computer to sleep (which I normally never do, but for testing this out I've been trying), on wake up it seems to go through the same process as a cold start.
What it is not
- Windows 10 Anniversary Update: This problem predates the installation of the Windows 10 Anniversary update/edition on my PC.
- Peripheral hardware (except the monitor I guess): Tried booting with nothing plugged in except the monitors shown in the above video.
What might've caused it
- I had Catalyst Control Center installed for years now. I don't know when, but at some point (when I started digging) it enabled some Adaptive Sleep Service, which kept changing my Power Options to things like "make the hard disk shut off after 3 minutes of inactivity" and other such nonsense. I only started digging when this problem first started to occur.
- Eventually I just uninstalled CCC altogether and manually disabled the service that kept resetting my power options. Currently my Power Options are back at what they were: Turn off the display after 1 hour, and that's it. No other auto-power options are enabled.
PC Details
- Winver (Windows 10 Pro; Version 1607, OS Build 14393.51)
- 16 GB RAM
- CPU
- Graphics
- Any additional information available upon request.
Got it. Curious, I checked the Event Log, and found out that Windows was actually apparently having issue recovering from an apparently-botched shutdown. In time to when I turn the computer off and on, I would get
Event ID 41 - The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
And then after that (by the timestamp when I would reset the PC to start again):
Event ID 6008 - The previous system shutdown at <time> on <date> was unexpected.
Googling that eventually led me to this Super User answer. Indeed, Windows' somewhat-recent "Fast Startup" feature was the thing doing it. At a guess, Windows is not able to successfully do the hybrid functionality on my machine, and every subsequent boot from that state never worked. A reset then forces it to truly start from scratch, and that always works.
Just did a reboot and started up normal!
FYI, the answer posts an out of date screenshot. In Windows 10, open up Power Options in Control Panel, then click "Choose what the power buttons do." For whatever reason, this is where the "Shutdown settings" are now located. Clicking "Change settings that are currently unavailable" will let you check/uncheck those boxes.
