activate changes from console having problems

weblogic server 10.3.5\

acativate changes indicator is green, and when i click on it the screen is refreshed with the activate changes still there... the changes that were made appear to have been made, when i look at targets for the

manage server in question, the one i removed is no longer checked... the system appears to be running normally... but if i try to make other changes i get a message that  'changes are pending".  i have

note 1292961.1 that shows you how to manually activate the changes, but that requires shutting down the admin server and i was hoping that in the year since that note was published, other work arounds]