Windows hangs on "Windows is shutting down" message

My system for some reason hangs during shutdown. I have had several very slow shutdown but very few no shutdowns. Now everytime I shutdown, XP eventually goes through its routine but when it displays the message, "Windows is shutting down" nothing happens forcing me to do a force shutdown by holding in the power buttom. This problem just recently started. The only changes made to my system were: Installed cable modem, installed Zone Alarm (firewall) and enabled my ethernet card. Anyone have any thoughts.

Bob

 

Have you tried doing a system restore to a time prior to when you noticed this problem occurring?

 

Check to make sure there are no conflicts, ! or ? signs in the device manager, particularly for the cable modem and NIC, but also other hardware and check their sites for the latest XP drivers as some NIC's and possibly cable modems? can cause XP to hang.

 

Windows XP Stops Responding During Windows Shutdown