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I came across a program that is not responding, and I don't know how to restart the laptop properly.

If you're thinking that I should long press the power button to turn off the computer, no! Yes, it will shutdown the computer improperly, and I could just power it back on. (Just like a restart ...)

But, if I do the things mentioned above, it would damage my hard disk (my laptop only have 1 hard disk). If I power it back on again (after long - pressing the power button), it would do a Disk Check (Scanning and Repairing of the Drive), which takes a long time.

The Disk Check starts quickly, but when it reaches 60%, it runs slowly; but then, when it's 66% / 67%, after some time it would immediately be 100%.

Some things, I think, that is slowing down my computer:

  1. IRQ8

    • I had enabled this setting through Ultimate Windows Tweaker for Windows 10, and everything is just freezing.

  2. Windows Insider

    • I had enabled this on my laptop, and the results is what is expected. It is running very slow, so I decided to just disable this setting.

One more thing, I had disabled the Windows Update service through services, to get rid of that "Getting Windows ready, Don't turn off your computer", which appears at boot.

So, what is the best and the proper way to shutdown / restart a laptop, if it is not responding?

Lloyd Dominic
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  • Do you have any other choice? Is it responding to anything else? If not, then long press of the power button is your only option. – David Schwartz May 25 '17 at 11:25
  • Perhaps try and resolve why it keeps on crashing in the first place rather than coming up with a plan to safely reboot every time. What is the program that doesn't respond? – Shiffle McDoobles May 25 '17 at 11:38
  • @DavidSchwartz As usual, my mouse cursor is still moving, but is showing busy (spinning blue icon). – Lloyd Dominic May 26 '17 at 00:51
  • @ShiffleMcDoobles I think, it's the Windows Insider and/or the Windows Update service. Because, I enabled Windows Insider, restarted my computer, and it is now running slow. Moreover, Windows Insider won't work without the Windows Update service (I think?! ...) – Lloyd Dominic May 26 '17 at 00:55

1 Answers1

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Shouldn't you be investigating the cause rather than the immediate "quick fix"...

Computer OS "freezing" can be a number of things but the usual culprits are hard disk failing, RAM faults, incompatible/buggy software, malware/virus and/or updates.

  • Does Ctrl + Alt + Del work - even after you've left it to see if it ever shows?
  • Have you tried a safe boot?
  • Have you tried uninstalling programs to identify a potentially problem software?

There's lots to do.

If the computer freezes entirely then, unfortunately, you'll have no other option but to hard cycle your computer power.

Regarding the physical effects of hard cycling a HDD's power, this has been discussed on here numerous times - a simple search shows: **How** harmful is a hard disk spin cycle?

Kinnectus
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  • **Ctrl** + **Alt** + **Del** is not working. I haven't tried **safe boot** on my laptop yet. I haven't tried **uninstalling programs** to identify a potentially problems software. But, I think, the problem is with the **Windows Insider program**, that lets my computer run slowly. I disabled Windows Insider program completely (though, I still have Feedback Hub), and everything is now running fine and smoothly. I also see on my Task Manager, that the **Disk Utilization** is often 100%. I have a 1TB Hard Disk Drive. – Lloyd Dominic May 26 '17 at 02:26
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    @LloydDominic you should consider doing a clean install of windows (not the insiders version). It's the easiest thing you can do to know for sure if your problems are hardware related or not. – andromeda947 May 26 '17 at 14:41
  • I bought my laptop with the **original version** of Windows 10, not the "Insider" version. Besides, I don't think, Windows Insider had updated anything (operating system and / or software) on my laptop. By the way, I had "opt out" of Windows Insider completely (I still have Feedback Hub), and it is now running smoothly. – Lloyd Dominic May 27 '17 at 14:05