Win ME Shutdown Problems...

Hi...

My brother has a computer with a problem and has asked me for help... now I'm asking you good folks!

The computer is an

HP Pavilion XE783
Celeron 700 (I think 700)
192 mg RAM (came with 64 and we just added 128)
30 gig HD
Windows ME

I've cleaned off old unused programs (using add/remove programs), streamed lined what loads at startup (only things in the task bar now are volume, popup ad filter and display options) I've run scan disk (took over 48 hours in safe mode) and defragged.

Everything has run great for two weeks until two days ago. Twice in the last two days the computer won't shut all the way down. Usually it powers off by itself, now the hard drive just keeps whining and running and it has to be shut down at the power strip.

The last thing I did before putting it back in my brother's hands was to add 128 MG Ram PC 100 (that's what HP site said to put in it - that's the speed of the 64 mg). After adding the Ram I only ran it for a day or two... could this shut down problem be related to the RAM??? Did I miss a step? Is there something in the BIOS I should have changed???

Other than that, there has been nothing new added since it was running great.

Should we just upgrade it to Windows XP???

Thanks for any ideas.

krec

One more thing... when the computer is turned back on of course it runs a scan and then he gets the screen to restore the active desktop - is that a clue? thanks again.

 

Hi Krec

Sounds like you did a good cleanup. But all can not be cleaned manually.

Finish by doing these steps

Configure CleanMgr to max settings
Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sageset:1
The above need only be ran once (these settings will be remembered as the default until another sageset is ran).

It will present a menu select all except compress, then

Go to Start-Run and type

cleanmgr /sagerun:1
As long as /sageset above has been ran on this computer from now on the /sagerun is the only thing that needs to run.
_______________________________________________

Spyware and adware removal

SpyBot http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download
Run this twice delete all it finds, always run this before AdAware

AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/downloads.html
Delete all it finds

BHO Demon http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
This program runs stand alone no install is required post me the items it finds
_______________________________________________

Registry and System cleaners

RegCleaner http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml
Look in first 2 cols for programs you thought you uninstalled or removed, these are the dregs left by the uninstaller. Also tag and remove any that you are POSITIVE are not supposed to be on your computer. After removing these go to the top Tools-Registry Cleanup-Do them all. Delete all it finds.

EasyClean1.7 http://gswi.com/downloads.htm
Run only unnecessary files and registry clean delete all it finds

Most likely your problen is Spy/Adware (see SpyBot and Adaware)
but the Registry cleaners will gey what add/remove left and other things from the past that were not removed properly.

Mike