computer hangs at "computer is shutting down"

This has been happening on an intermittent basis for the past few weeks, and while I can perfectly well just turn off my power strip after that, I'm curious about what the underlying problem might be. (Scandisk never runs upon reboot, though I'm not sure it does that in XP anyway.)
I found a related item at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307274, which talks about the system hanging at "Saving your settings" - my computer obviously gets beyond that, but since I do have East Asian Language support installed (though the IME is not my default input language), I thought this fact might have some bearing on my own issue.
Last night, I thought maybe I've just been being too impatient, so when the "Computer is shutting down" message popped up, I walked away and let the computer be for an extended chunk of time. Three hours later, the screen was still there, at which time I killed the power.
In reviewing my Event Viewer this morning, under Applications, I found two Errors (Application Hang, events 1001 and 1002) at the time I'd attempted to shut down the computer. Interestingly, there's also an "Information" entry 20 minutes after that (Source: MsiInstaller, Event: 11707).
I see a whole slew of warnings and errors involving MsiInstaller in the Event Viewer (Applications) three weeks ago - timing coincides with trying to install NASA's WorldWind program (http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=49024). In that thread, Charles directed me to info about "Windows Installer Cleanup Utility ", which I was going to try after backing up my system first. But I was hoping to solve the shutdown problems before doing a backup... Could MsiInstaller be at the root of everything? Or is it not significant that that Information entry shows up after the computer attempted to shut down?

 

Thanks, Pete - here goes:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 11/18/2005
Time: 7:08:34 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MAINDESKTOP
Description:
Hanging application firefox.exe, version 1.0.7.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 11/18/2005
Time: 7:08:50 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MAINDESKTOP
Description:
Fault bucket 227224650.

 

The message from after shutdown:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11707
Date: 11/18/2005
Time: 7:27:33 PM
User: MAINDESKTOP\Rebecca
Computer: MAINDESKTOP
Description:
Product: Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2003 -- Installation operation completed successfully.

I did install the program last night, but I'd already done some experimenting with it before shutting down the computer, so I'm not sure why the installation operation wouldn't have been completed until long afterwards!

As for FireFox, as far as I can see it's always closed down before I try to turn off the computer. Once in a while FireFox will stop responding while I'm on the internet, and I have to ctrl-alt-del, end task, then open up Firefox again. Might the ctrl-alt-del instance of Firefox somehow leave an active trace of the program on the system? According to the Windows Task Manager, after I click "end task ", the problematic FireFox entry disappears, so I'd always thought that took care of it...

According to Everest Home Edition, Computer/ Summary/ Display, there is the following entry:
Field: 3D Accelerator Value: ATI Radeon X300 (RV370)
Don't know if that's of any significance with respect to the Fault bucket error...

 

Hi Rebecca,

Two questions:

When your have the problem with FF, how much memory is it using?

When you say "In that thread, Charles directed me to info about "Windows Installer Cleanup Utility ", which I was going to try after backing up my system first." what do you mean by backing up? This has nothing to do with a problem per se. I know that you have a seperate data partition, with the system on C by itself. So I'm assuming that your backing up the OS. How? System Restore? Drive Imaging?

Regards - Charles

 

The external hard drive I got with my Dell (Iomega) came with "Backup Pro ", so I've been doing backups to that.
I've been trying to make it a habit to both create a System Restore point and do a system back up prior to installing new software. Overkill, I know - call it residual paranoia from my Windows ME days, when new software installations so often resulted in subsequent problems. Some of the more "technical" things I try to run (install) end up being way over my head... I was afraid the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility might be one of those things, so I wanted to play it safe and cover my bases beforehand. But maybe just a System Restore point would be good enough. I'm reluctant to overwrite my last System Backup right now, because the shutdown problems indicate something's amiss - and my last full System backup predates the shutdown issues. The bottom line is I'm not really familiar with the whole backing up bit - the external drive has 80GB, so I know I should be able to save more than one System backup, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

In response to your other question, how does one tell how much memory FireFox is using at any given time?

 

Hi Rebecca,

I don't think using SR is overkill - very useful if you want to roll back software installs (fairly quickly or reasonably close to the install) or system settings.

You should be able to create more than one backup, either by labeling it with a specific date or a different folder labeled with the date of the backup. The same rules apply - at least two backups: father - son, as for all data backups.

I did look up Backup Pro - it's not drive imaging.

This caught my eye:
10. Under Windows XP, Backup2005 Pro is able to run the Windows restore point service and back up the hidden folder System Volume Information for more security.

http://www.backup2005.com/backup2005.html

Regards - Charles