Windows 7: Fresh install of Win7 - No BSOD, but won't shutdown, only restart

I've spent probably 7 hours trying to figure this out from searches and different potential resolutions and I am completely stumped. This is a fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premium on a fairly basic machine. I can boot in to safe mode, disconnect any connection to the network, ensure WOL is turned off via the CMOS, and still Windows 7 will not shutdown. There is no BSOD. It simply appears to shutdown, but then the computer reboots with the PC offering a beep in the same way as if I performed a cold boot. If I elect to restart this beep will not be reflected.

I've tried different drivers and just about everything I can think of and still nothing. The event viewer appears almost entirely clean as well. I've also restored fail-safe defaults in the BIOS as well as Optimized and the issue persists. Any guidance is appreciated.

I would reinstall again....sounds like some sort of the installation has gotten corrupted. Then make sure you have all the latest drivers from hardware makers.

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

There is a Microsoft Hot Fix available for this kind of problem you may want to consider trying.

You cannot make a computer that is running Windows 7 shut down or sleep

So frustrating. I would have thought a complete fresh install might resolve it, but no. After formatting the drive and reinstalling 7 I attempted to shutdown and the issue persists.

Then I see seavixen32's post which looks really promising at first. However, once I downloaded the hotix and attempt to execute it I receive the following error: "The update is not applicable to your computer." So apparently the hotfix file has done nothing and bear in mind this is with a fresh install.

Sigh...so I start hunting a little more and find in the Event Viewer 4 errors of the same kind thinking it might lead me to a solution to the problem. It is a WMI Event ID 10 error. After searching here is Microsoft's explanation:

"This originated in the Windows 7 SP1 DVD/ISO creation process. There was an issue in the creation process that caused a WMI registration to remain in the DVD/ISO. Since the registration is designed to work only during the DVD/ISO creation process, it fails to run on a live system and causes these events. These events are not indicative of any issue in the system and can be safely ignored. If however you want to prevent these events from getting generated and want to remove this specific WMI registration manually, please follow the steps mentioned in this article for running the workaround script."

Guess what the workaround script is? One that simply allows you to adjust the OS to no longer make the error visible any more. This is really the best Micorsoft OS to date? Seems like a poor fix especially post SP1.

ummmm...yea, well, I owe Microsoft and any help here an apology. After countless reboots and reimaging nothing worked so I elected to go back to Vista. However, wouldn't you know it the issue persisted so I knew it wasn't the OS since Vista has worked fine for many years.

I still don't have any kind of specific answer of what was causing the issue, but it was certainly hardware related. Once I manually pressed the power button and reset button a few times I went back to try to have the PC shut down and did. I've done a couple of tries since then and it seems to power down just fine. Adding to the complexity this is a HTPC that sits in a rack in another room about 35 feet from my home theater. Installed in it is an IR Receiver which turns the PC on manually. It is designed to do just this and has worked perfectly for many years. There really isn't any explanation why this issue coincided with my Windows 7 install, but I've pretty much concluded it was either in the power button, the reset button, something on the motherboard, or the IR receiver that turns on the computer. At least it is working again. Now I just have the trouble of many hours of configuring it all.

Sorry for the trouble.