Resolving Restart or Shutdown Issues

Normally, you shut down or restart Windows 7 by clicking Start, clicking the Options button to the right of the power and lock buttons, and then clicking Restart or Shut Down as appropriate. Sometimes, however, Windows 7 won't resume, shut down, or restart normally, and you must try to resolve the problem.

Recovering from a Failed Resume

Windows 7 creates a snapshot of the current state of the computer whenever your computer enters sleep mode or hibernates. Windows Resume Loader handles sleep and hibernate operations. With sleep mode, this snapshot is created in memory and then read from memory by the resume loader when you wake the computer. With hibernate mode, this snapshot is written to disk and then read from disk by the resume loader when you wake the computer.

Your computer may have a problem resuming for any of a variety of reasons that may include errors in the snapshot, physical errors in memory, and physical disk errors. Whatever the problem, Windows Resume Loader prompts you with a warning message similar to the following:

Windows Resume Loader
The last attempt to restart the system from its previous location
failed. Attempt to restart again?

Continue with system restart
Delete restoration data and proceed to system boot.

Enter=choose

The resume prompt gives you two options. You can try to continue with system restart, or you can delete restoration data and proceed to system boot. If you select Continue With System Restart, Windows Resume Loader attempts to reload the system state again. If you select Delete Restoration Data And Proceed To System Boot, Windows Resume Loader deletes the saved state of the computer and restarts the computer. Although a full restart will typically resolve any problem, you'll lose any work that wasn't saved before the computer entered sleep or hibernate mode.