Personal and Small Business Technology

Solving Windows 10 Shutdown Problems on HP 4520s

Since upgrading to Windows 10, I've had difficulty getting my HP 4520s to shut down using the normal Start Button tools, but it would shut down using the Cygwin shutdown command. After trying a lot of stuff, I took it to a local Microsoft Store when we were in the vicinity. The technician was able to fix the problem embarrassingly quickly by disabling the “fast startup” option which is sometimes called “hybrid boot.” This is a relatively new (to me at least) option that speeds up booting, but which does not play well with the older drivers on the HP 4520s, requires that you restart rather than shutdown/start when you install updates and which masks keystrokes to enter BIOS or boot menus while starting up or restarting a machine.

To disable Fast Startup/Hybrid Boot, go to the Power Settings page shown in Figure 1, and select the “Advanced power settings” dialog link at the bottom of the panel under “Related settings,” then select “Choose what the power buttons do” on the left side of the panel as shown in Figure 2. Next, select the “Change additional options that are not shown” link at the top as shown in Figure 3; this will activate the options at the bottom of the page. Un-check the “fast startup” option as shown in Figure 4. You should be able to use the normal shutdown procedures on your HP 4520s.

This may be helpful on other older machines as well.

Figure 1. Windows 10 Power Settings
Windows 10 Power & Sleep settings showing Advanced power settings at bottom of dialog
Figure 2. Windows 10 Advanced power settings showing Choose what the power buttons do menu on left.
Windows 10 Advanced power settings showing Choose what the power buttons do menu on left
Figure 3. Windows 10 Choose what power buttons do menu with selection to change settings that are currently unavailable.
Windows 10 Choose what power buttons do menu with selection to change settings that are currently unavailable
Figure 4. Windows 10 Shutdown settings with Turn on fast startup disabled.
Windows 10 Shutdown settings with Turn on fast startup disabled