Restarts and updates have unusual behavior

Whenever I restart or update my W11 laptop, this happens:

Restart: the usual "Restarting" message appears, and after a few seconds the screen goes black as usual, BUT.... it stays that way for a very long time. Five minutes on average. This is on a month old laptop, so there shouldn't be anything slowing it down.
Updates: the "Restarting" message appears, then I see the percentage of updates being worked on, and then the screen goes black for a long time.

For both restarts and updates, eventually the HP logo comes up with the spinning circle, then it goes black for a minute or two, and finally the screen comes back with the picturesque wallpaper. I wait a minute or two for the login screen, I enter my PIN, and the screen goes black screen for another 5 or more minutes. But the mouse cursor is there, I can move it around.

Right now as I type this, the screen is not coming back. It's just black with the mouse cursor, and it's been about ten minutes. However, I can bring up Task Manager no problem. Looks like everything is running except the display.

Would this behavior have anything to do with Explorer Patcher? Not saying it's bad coding, but perhaps Windows is gummed up because it's "alien" software?

Anyway, I'll need to restart again, because the screen is simply not coming back.

It is normal for Windows to take some time to shutdown or load when installing updates in the background, don't worry. Once all updates are installed your computer should as fast as it can. At least in latest Windows 10 versions and in Windows 11 restarts take a little time. Back in the days of Windows XP and 7 it would take ages to complete. The worst scenario is that you need the computer for your work and you encounter the dreaded "Do not turn off your computer" message. And wait, and wait... nightmare!

spapakons said:

It is normal for Windows to take some time to shutdown or load when installing updates in the background, don't worry. Once all updates are installed your computer should as fast as it can. At least in latest Windows 10 versions and in Windows 11 restarts take a little time. Back in the days of Windows XP and 7 it would take ages to complete. The worst scenario is that you need the computer for your work and you encounter the dreaded "Do not turn off your computer" message. And wait, and wait... nightmare!

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I've never had black screens for so long with any Windows version.
5 minutes of black? No.
For updates I expect longer times to complete, but not with black screens for 5 minutes or so.
Also, with regular restarts, no version of Windows has ever given me black screens for more than a minute. Ever.
Also, as I mentioned, after entering my PIN, the black screen never went away, even after 15 minutes (by the time I waited for it and posted my post). I had to shut down and restart the laptop again.
So yes, I do worry, because this is not normal behavior for any version of Windows I've ever had since W95.

You can use this tweak to see more details about what is going on, instead of just a restarting message. CMD as admin and copy/paste:

TairikuOkami said:

You can use this tweak to see more details about what is going on, instead of just a restarting message. CMD as admin and copy/paste:

Code:

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v "VerboseStatus" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

Click to expand...

Thank you. I will try it.

I suspect some startup programs take more time to load before Windows resumes from black screen. I would load Task Manager, go to more details, then to Startup tab and disable any useless app. You don't need most of it loading with Windows. You can always manually load it when needed.