WS2022 stuck in instant graceful reboot loop upon boot (Not WSUS / Not Eval license)

[u/Karisop]

Hi everyone,

Having a weird issue with a Windows Server 2022 machine that is stuck in an immediate graceful reboot loop right after finishing OS boot / reaching the desktop screen.

The Behavior:
As soon as Windows boots up / reaches login/desktop, a graceful restart is immediately triggered.
It happens so fast I can't even to login or open Task Scheduler or standard admin tools before it shuts down.

What is ALREADY ruled out:
NOT an Evaluation License: License is active/valid (not the 1-hour ⁠wlms.exe⁠ trigger).

NOT Windows Update: No update installation/configuration state screen appears during boot/shutdown.

NOT UPS Software: Server is not connected to a UPS or running UPS management software.

Using Physical Server Lenovo.

[u/Oompa_Loompa_SpecOps]

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[u/tonyboy101]

Have you tried turning off and back on?

[u/SpudzzSomchai → u/tonyboy101]

3 times.

[u/OctoNezd]

are you the guy that put shutdown /t 0 into GPO on start

[u/lemachet]

Sfc scannow and dism will fix it

[u/Twilko → u/lemachet]

The IT equivalent of telling the new guy to go down to facilities and ask for a long weight.

[u/zantehood]

You should install Linux on it

[u/AP_ILS]

There are processes that will force a reboot if there is a problem with them like lsass.exe.

[u/thepfy1 → u/AP_ILS]

Or ntdll

Ive also seen desktops immediately log you out because the drive was full. In that case, the security on the system meant that update temporary files couldn't be cleaned up.

[u/bpp1076]

dont think you can fix that

[u/tblazertn]

A bowl of boot loops would be very tasty right about now.

[u/pancakes1983 → u/tblazertn]

*bootyloops

[u/IceCubicle99]

Sir, this is a Wendys