Win 11 24H2 can not reboot... but can boot?

If I use Windows Button -> Power -> Reboot, Windows 11 reboots and afterwards (not at the "Restarting" screen, but the boot logo) hangs on the rotating loading circle indefinitely.

If I shut down and start up again, it works perfectly fine. If I hold the power button during the infinite loading circle, it shuts down and then boots up perfectly fine, too.

Event manager has an entry about not shutting down cleanly after force-shutdown by power button, but no error messages about what caused it to hang.

Any ideas where to look? This used to work normally until about 2 weeks ago, then suddenly showed this behavior.

Both sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth (and /scanhealth) show no issues at all. Neither does scanning the system drive.

the imensity of issues with 24H2 is why I will NOT update to this version. Id say with the amount of bugs itll be a year before i jump from latest 23H2.

Some trial and error steps:

If Windows fast startup is on then turn off:


Place the computer into clean boot:

It may well not have anything to do with 24h2. It can be defective hardware, third party driver, or software handle.
First put machine into a clean boot state and restart. If it will restart in a clean boot state, you have a piece of software causing the issue.
Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

If it still happens in clean boot state, return all services to normal operation.

Then enter safe boot and restart. If restart is normal in safe boot, you have a driver causing the problem.

I would go Settings, system, recovery and "fix problems using Windows Update", reinstall now.

If none of other suggestions make a difference, make sure your uefi bios and chipset drivers are updated.

I'll be trying out your suggestions on the weekend. Chipset drivers and BIOS are the very latest already.
Thanks.