PC's wont shut down

pmann

I keep seeing a problem where PC's (XP) will not shut down, they just hang at the blue screen. They will shut down smoothly after pulling the plug and restarting. Im suspecting that something is being told to shut down and isnt, having pulled out all the peripherals, same problem.

I cant seem to isolate it to any particular application or see any abnormal processes running. Is there some way I can tell what might be causing this?

Ricka182

Check the event log. My first guess......

mobri09

check those process out and you might see something that sticks out, causing it to hang at shutdown.

keatron

My suggestion would be to check the event logs first (as already mentioned). Then set up your "start up & recovery options" to allow you to check the memory **** to see what's causing the blue screen. Chances are, whatever's causing the blue screen is what's hanging.

Right click "my computer" then select properties, click the advanced tab, then click the settings button in the bottom in the startup recovery section. Make sure everything is selected to write the report to a memory **** file. This file may very well hold the key to what's actually happening.

JDMurray

When a Windows machine hangs in the last stages of shutdown it's a driver (kernel mode or user mode) that is failing to unload. Windows XP is much better at recovering from these situations than Windows 2000, but it's not perfect. Hardware driver errors are the most difficult to successfully recover from.

Start the machine in safe mode and verify that it does or does not shutdown correctly. If it does shutdown, then a hardware driver that isn't loaded in safe mode is probably the cause. Think back to just before this problem started and remember if any hardware was added/changed/removed, or hardware configurations were changed in Windows or in the CMOS. This would be a big clue.

pmann

Fixed it!

This was solved using UPHClean.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837115&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

This is a free download and cleans up any profiles that will not unload.

JDMurray

Excellent!

I have a Windows XP workstation at work that takes a very long time to shutdown. I don't see any of the event log messages mentioned in the MSKB article, but I'll try that utility on it anyway.

skully93

My very fast and lovely machine that takes about 10 seconds to boot takes foreeever to shut down, so I'll peek at it too.