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Fixing Windows Shutdown and Reboot Problems on Nitro Instances
Fixing Windows Shutdown and Reboot Problems on Nitro Instances

Windows on T3/M5/C5/R5 instance types does not stop or reboot properly. Apply this fix.

Matt Houser avatar
Written by Matt Houser
Updated over a week ago

If you are running Windows on EC2 using any of the M5, C5, R5, or T3 instance types, you may have noticed any of the following problems:

  • Windows does not shutdown gracefully when stopped using the AWS CLI or AWS Management Console

  • Windows does not reboot when rebooted using the AWS CLI or AWS Management Console

  • Creating an AMI image takes longer than usual, and signing-in to your EC2 instance afterwards show an "Unexpected Shutdown" prompt.

You may have seen that these problems do not occur on older EC2 instance types (M4, C4, R4, or T2).
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These problems are new to the Nitro EC2 instances and come from how EC2 signals the Windows OS to initiate a shutdown or reboot. The Nitro EC2 instance types seem to do it differently compared to older instance types, and Windows does not respond properly.

AWS AMI images dated 2018-11-28 and later have been fixed.

To apply the fix on existing EC2 instances, please run the commands below in a CMD or PowerShell prompt on the instances to set the default Windows power management profiles to never turn off displays:

powercfg /setacvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99 3c0bc021-c8a8-4e07-a973-6b14cbcb2b7e 0
powercfg /setacvalueindex 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99 3c0bc021-c8a8-4e07-a973-6b14cbcb2b7e 0
powercfg /setacvalueindex a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99 3c0bc021-c8a8-4e07-a973-6b14cbcb2b7e 0

The default included power management profiles are Balanced, High performance, and Power saver. If you have created and applied a custom profile, you can make the change using the below steps:

1. Run the following command to list existing power profiles. Retrieve the GUID for the active power scheme:

powercfg /l

2. Run the following command to set the power profile to never turn off displays, replacing POWER_SCHEME_GUID with the GUID retrieved in step 1:

powercfg /setacvalueindex POWER_SCHEME_GUID 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99 3c0bc021-c8a8-4e07-a973-6b14cbcb2b7e 0

You can apply these changes to multiple EC2 instances by utilizing Systems Manager Run Command with the AWS-RunPowerShellScript document:
​https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/tutorial_run_command.html#rc-tutorial-ui

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