My VM won't start, my site has been down for a long time and I am still getting charged

The VM will not start at all. I cannot connect to it.

My problem is not resolved and nothing you have sent me has added any insight to it resolution.

Just and observation, I worked at Microsoft in Redmond WA (developer) for many years (not in support). They are the absolute worst company to try and get help from. The people that answer these questions are at most minimally trained on the products they support. However, they are highly trained to tell you to diagnose the problem yourself. Please, someone at Microsoft, please just start the VM so I can get into the machine.

Hello @Ginger Robertson

I’m really sorry for the experience you’ve been going through. Having your VM and website down for weeks is incredibly frustrating, and I completely understand how upsetting it must be to continue getting charged for a service that isn’t working. Thank you for your patience despite such a difficult situation.

I want to help you get this moving in the right direction. Here are a few steps we can take immediately to pinpoint why the VM won’t start:

• Check the status from Azure Portal

Please let me know what you see for:

• VM Status (Running / Stopped / Failed)
• VM Agent Status (Ready / Not Ready)

A “Failed” or “Not Ready” state can indicate a provisioning or agent issue and helps determine the right recovery path.

• Resource health

Under Azure Portal → Virtual Machine → Resource Health, check if there are:

• Platform issues
• Service outages
• Any warnings logged for the timeframe your VM went down

This helps us distinguish between platform‑side issues and OS-level failures.

• Try a safe recovery action

If you haven’t already, please try:

• Restart
• Stop → Start
• Redeploy (this places your VM on a new Azure node without affecting your disk)

If any of these options are failing, please share the error message so we know exactly where it’s stuck.

• Check Boot Diagnostics / Serial Console
  If Boot Diagnostics is enabled, please capture:
• Screenshot of the boot screen
• Any message like “Getting Windows Ready”, OS boot errors, or blank screens

If accessible, the Serial Console may also show errors that indicate whether the OS is corrupted, stuck in updates, or unable to boot.

**
We can Proceed with a Repair VM if needed**
If your OS disk is damaged (which can happen when a VM refuses to start for days/weeks), the next step is:

• Create a Repair VM
• Attach your OS disk
• Fix boot records / corrupted files
• Reattach it to your VM

This method has resolved many similar cases.

If the above steps did not work pls let us know your availability, we would like to connect with you and work together to fix the issue on priority.

I have requested few details over private chat pls help us with the details.

Thanks,
Manish Deshpande.

Hello @Ginger Robertson

I wanted to check if my last response made sense. I’d be glad to assist further or explain anything in more detail

The VM says stopped deallocated... instead of telling me you know how it feels, which I am sure you don't. Each user has different needs, and feels differently about their deployments. Just look at the VM and tell me what I need to know to start the machine and stop telling me to do your job. Just look at it, don't you guys to anything yourselves but tell the end user to diagnose it ourselves.?