Interesting discovery! I have been having problems with restarting my PC since upgrading to Windows 8 and reinstalling Norton 360. THe system shutsdown OK but locks up on a restart. IT doesn't matter whether it is a manual or programmatic restart. I have gradually turned off my background apps and finally turned off 360's firewall and antivirus.Surprise - restart works smoothly. I turned back on the 360 and the symptom reappears.
Any ideas?