Windows 11 computer will not restart.

[Dave Kelsen]

I wanted to get to safe mode to replace my video driver. Went to Settings, System, Recovery, and Restart now. Computer shut down, then came back on, began bootstrap process, then shut itself down again, and stayed off. Pressed power button, started up, and within about 8 seconds, the computer shut itself down again. I tried again, and it shut down ever quicker. On the last try, the computer would not even flicker on.

I waited a bit, reset the CMOS, and tried again. Same process; it seemed like it was going to reboot (it went a fair time in the booting process), then shut itself down. A few more iterations of this proved no different.

Any ideas how I should approach this? In many decades of computer work, I have not encountered this problem before.

Thanks.

 

[Sir_George]

I wanted to get to safe mode to replace my video driver. Went to Settings, System, Recovery, and Restart now. Computer shut down, then came back on, began bootstrap process, then shut itself down again, and stayed off. Pressed power button, started up, and within about 8 seconds, the computer shut itself down again. I tried again, and it shut down ever quicker. On the last try, the computer would not even flicker on.

I waited a bit, reset the CMOS, and tried again. Same process; it seemed like it was going to reboot (it went a fair time in the booting process), then shut itself down. A few more iterations of this proved no different.

Any ideas how I should approach this? In many decades of computer work, I have not encountered this problem before.

Thanks.

System specs will be a great help in this situation. From your post, it appears you may need to use a Windows 11 recovery disk to get the system up and running. The steps you used to replace a video driver were not necessary, unless you are omitting something that required what you describe.

 

[Dave Kelsen]

System specs will be a great help in this situation. From your post, it appears you may need to use a Windows 11 recovery disk to get the system up and running. The steps you used to replace a video driver were not necessary, unless you are omitting something that required what you describe.

Here are my specs:

Antec Performance 1 FT Case
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-A Gaming WiFi Motherboard
PowerColor Red Dragon AMD Radeon™ RX 6800 XT Gaming Graphics Card
Ryzen™ 9 7950X Desktop Processor
G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo 64GB RGB 6000MT/s DDR5 RAM
Thermalright Frozen Notte 360 RGB Water Cooling CPU Cooler 360
Cooler Master MWE Gold V2 Full Modular 850W Power Supply
SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 M.2
Windows 11 Pro

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I learned 40 years ago (with my Commodore 64) that it is often best to take the time to be careful, so while I agree that it wasn't necessary to go to safe mode to replace a video driver, it doesn't hurt, and can save a problem.

And it turned out (I just got it all back together) that it was all a (very unhappy) coincidence; before I touched the computer case, it was rebooting as described, but it had nothing to do with the video driver.

The ring (that holds the cooler down to the CPU had separated from the cooler. So the CPU was not getting cooled, and shutting itself down (as it should) in mere seconds. I know that I somehow attached it wrong, but it worked fine for 2 days, during which I ran a lot of performance tests. So I naturally (and mistakenly) thought the problem was related to my trying to restart in safe mode! My mistake with the cooler attachment, aggravated by my mistake in assessing the reason for the problem.

It is all fixed now, and the system is running as it should. Thanks for reading, and being willing to help.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
Attila the Nun: A simple girl pledged to a life of violence.