Can't force shutdown using power switch any more

perdrix · Apr 27, 2023

I had a situation recently where a USB problem meant that the mouse/keyboard weren't working, so I pressed and held the power switch to force a shutdown.
No such luck! I was presented the login screen background sliding down the screen to about half way with a large DOWN arrow and the text: "Slide to shutdown PC"
At which point I wasn't able to get the system to shutdown as I couldn't interact with it.

Is there any way to complete the shutdown if KB and Mouse are AWOL?

If not then MS have dropped the ball big time!

David

jvickers · Apr 27, 2023

perdrix said:
I had a situation recently where a USB problem meant that the mouse/keyboard weren't working, so I pressed and held the power switch to force a shutdown.
No such luck! I was presented the login screen background sliding down the screen to about half way with a large DOWN arrow and the text: "Slide to shutdown PC"
At which point I wasn't able to get the system to shutdown as I couldn't interact with it.

Is there any way to complete the shutdown if KB and Mouse are AWOL?

If not then MS have dropped the ball big time!

David

You could always turn it off at the PSU.

perdrix · Apr 27, 2023

It was the power switch on the computer I was pressing (remember most PSUs don't have a HARD power switch these days)

idgat · Apr 27, 2023

What are the Windows power option settings?
Control Panel > Power options > System settings

Ghot · Apr 27, 2023

Yeah... what @idgat said...

jbcarreon123 · Apr 27, 2023

perdrix said:
I had a situation recently where a USB problem meant that the mouse/keyboard weren't working, so I pressed and held the power switch to force a shutdown.
No such luck! I was presented the login screen background sliding down the screen to about half way with a large DOWN arrow and the text: "Slide to shutdown PC"
At which point I wasn't able to get the system to shutdown as I couldn't interact with it.

Is there any way to complete the shutdown if KB and Mouse are AWOL?

If not then MS have dropped the ball big time!

David

Slide to shutdown PC is a executable in the System32 folder named SlideToShutdown.exe. If you slide it down, it will shut down your PC. It will shutdown with Fast Startup enabled, or it will hard shutdown when Hibernation is disabled.

Is your PC a touchscreen tablet?
If it is, try to hold the volume-up and the power button at the same time.

Try3 · Apr 27, 2023

perdrix said:
I pressed and held the power switch to force a shutdown.
No such luck!

Last week I found the same problem with an HP laptop.
I pulled out the power lead then plugged it back in after which I was then able to force it off by keeping the power button pressed down.
Made no sense to me either.

Best of luck,
Denis

perdrix · Apr 27, 2023

No it's not a touchscreen. Power settings look pretty much as expected:

perdrix · Apr 27, 2023

This in response to press and hold power button.

jvickers · Apr 27, 2023

perdrix said:
It was the power switch on the computer I was pressing (remember most PSUs don't have a HARD power switch these days)

Oh. My bad, then. My PSU is 4 years old and still has the hard power switch. I was unaware they'd changed things.

idgat · Apr 27, 2023

perdrix said:
No it's not a touchscreen. Power settings look pretty much as expected:

View attachment 58916

Just to test, set the sleep button options to Shut down.

To be safe, change the setting > reboot > now, test power button.

TechnoMage2021 · Apr 27, 2023

I've got an old Toshiba laptop with a very finicky power ON button.
If it's ON and I press the power switch to turn it off (not the proper way to turn off a PC) and I hold the button too long, it will go down and then boot right back up again.
So with that PC I've learned to never hold down the power ON button.
For a proper shutdown, I always use my Quick Shutdown ICON on the Taskbar.

john1955 · May 1, 2023

jvickers said:
Oh. My bad, then. My PSU is 4 years old and still has the hard power switch. I was unaware they'd changed things.

Mine is brand new and it has a power switch.

kelper · May 1, 2023

OP's system specs do say it's a laptop...

jvickers · May 1, 2023

kelper said:
OP's system specs do say it's a laptop...

Yeah, that's the part I totally missed. I gotta remember to look at the specs!

kelper · May 1, 2023

john1955 said:
Mine is brand new and it has a power switch.

But yours is a desktop...

john1955 · May 1, 2023

kelper said:
But yours is a desktop...

I have a few systems, can't list them all.

kelper · May 1, 2023

john1955 said:
I have a few systems, can't list them all.

are you saying your laptops have a hard power switch?

TechnoMage2021 · May 1, 2023

Before we had the electronic 'Flip-Flop' we had the "Locking Relays".
The similarity is that both have just one input, a touch to toggle push button.
In the case of the Power ON switch, like on most laptops, There is a time limitation on the button, as to how long it can remain pressed, before its function reverses.

I found this weirdity on one of my own laptops, some years ago. One press would turn the laptop on, another press would turn the laptop OFF. But, if I held that OFF press for too long, it would be interpreted by the internal circuitry as an ON press.

On some laptops, maybe due to age, those on and off times can change, and grow closer together.

I have six laptops, and they all turn on with just a single press of the ON button, as designed.
Windows was designed to be shut down with it's own internal "Shutdown.exe" program.
And, not with a button.

Then along came The Extended Shutdown, sometimes called the QUICK SHUTDOWN.
It's changed in syntax over the years since Windows was first Created, but today looks like this:
C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 1
That's a shortcut to the Windows Shutdown program, and when put in the taskbar can shut down the PC with just one click of the mouse.
There is also a Registry Tweak in a .reg script, that can assist in a Quick Shutdown.
Or, the timeout value can be changed in the registry, manually.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Shorten shutdown time. Time is in milliseconds.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="1000"

Using these tips, all 12 of my own PC's will shut down in about 5 seconds, + or - a sec.

Bree · May 1, 2023

TechnoMage2021 said:
If it's ON and I press the power switch to turn it off (not the proper way to turn off a PC) and I hold the button too long, it will go down and then boot right back up again.

A brief press of the power button can be a perfectly proper way to turn off a PC as long as you have configured it to do that in Control Panel.