The actual question is really about "How can I debug" this (see below), but for background a bit more story:
I'm running Windows 7 64-bit (fully updated) on a new Dell Precision M3800 SSD, and I constantly run into the following situation:
- All fine with the system. Can shut-down without problem
- I install Sonic NetExtender for VPN (needed for the next step): All fine still. (Can shut down.)
- I add a new user account for a domain-login (for which I need the VPN at least once) reboot and get it running. I can now use the domain-account even without being VPN-connected. (credentials are locally cached) So far, all exactly as planned.
- I want to regularly shut-down or log-off from windows7 and then I run into the issue....
The issue
Situation: Windows 7 (no problem) with either local or domain account.
Trigger: Restart system (any way), select shutdown or log-off:
Issue: Instead of seeing the "log-off" or "shutting-down" message I get to the same blue screen without any text. (The log-off sound is played though.) The mouse is still visible and moveable (standard cursor) but nothing can be clicked on. Ctrl+Alt+DelL does no longer work. In this situation, the laptop hangs forever (Tested for at least 90min) and only a hard-power-shutdown is possible.
After that, Windows 7 can still regularly boot, but the problem on shut-down remains. I can system-restore to some earlier setting to "fix" this, but what I really want is to find out what is causing the issue.
To clarify: Normally on shut-down one first hears the shut-down sound while just seeing the desktop-background, then the screen goes black very shortly and then the shutdown screen is shown with the text and the waiting mouse-cursor on the side.
In my case, I hear the sound but before the screen goes black. The computer freezes in the "show clear desktop" phase, never showing the "shut-down" text at all.
What options do I have to debug the shut-down process and find the culprit?
Attempted things:
Following the answer in this question here on superuser:
Switching on verbose-mode: While it works when I can shut-down it does not give any text message in my troubled case. So, no help.
Perform a clean boot with no (non-ms) services or start-up programs: Shut down still freezes.
Look into the event log for the shut-down performance: No error are useful information found.
Following suggestions here in the thread:
Running 'chkdsk': No problem found. Would not have expected any. (New laptop, hardly used) *Other attempts:
Booted in BIOS to check if any shadowing/caching is enabled. Could not see any such option. (DELL BIOS Version A10)
Note: I once had a very similar situation (textless shutdown screen with freeze) under completely different circumstances. However, at that time, I simply got lucky and found the culprit by Googling the net (The software tool MagicDisc does not work together with the Intel IRST drivers).
