Windows XP wont shut down sometimes

Every once in awhile when I shut windows xp down it stops on the blue screen that says windows is shutting down, I end up having to unplug the computer, other then that I dont seem to be having any trouble. thanks for any help.

 

That generally means that the system is having a problem closing down some program that you have running. You may want to check what you have running and eliminate any unnecessary ones. That might just take care of your problem.

However, I have seen some systems that just have a problem shutting down for no apparent reason.

Rather than unplugging your computer, just hold the on/off power button and it will force a shut down for you.

 

But thats not really good for your computer is it? And its not really solving the problem. Im having the very same problem.

 

The MS version:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308029&sd=RMVP

Lots of possible areas

See if Windows shuts down correctly in Safe Mode.
Investigate updating/reinstalling drivers. Start with the motherboard/chipset drivers. Everest in my signature may help identify or locate hardware manufacturers.
Look in Device Manager for any problems.
Run chkdsk (file system error checking). Edit: a simple way to run error checking is to open My Computer, right-click on your Windows drive (although it should be run on any other drives on your hard disk as well). Select Properties. Go to the tools tab. Use "automatic" and check for bad sectors.

Matt

 

I meant that to be the method used in the mean time since unplugging may be more traumatic. As for it being hard on the computer, that's a moot point since you're hung and must do something. Generally the worst thing that will happen is you'll lose any unsaved work in any program that you left open. Most folks don't do that so...

Good luck finding the cause, there are many to glean through.

 

Hi, Amber.

Event Viewer might help identify the cause of your system hanging during shutdown.

Note the time you initiate a shutdown. Then force the hung shutdown (i.e., by holding the power button until the computer powers off), wait 5 minutes or so (so you can easily identify which events occurred during shutdown when looking at the timestamps in Event Viewer), and reboot. After rebooting, open Event Viewer to see if it shows any problems at or shortly after the time you noted.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer

or

Start > Run > [FONT= "Courier New"][SIZE= "3"]eventvwr.msc[/SIZE][/FONT] > OK button

If there is a problem listed at or shortly after the time you initiated the shutdown, you can double-click on the event (or right-click on the event and select "Properties ") and then use the button below the up/down arrows to copy the information to your clipboard for pasting here in the forum.

I have attached an image of the "copy" button to use in the "Event Properties" window.

When you're ready to paste the Event Properties information into a forum message, hold down your Ctrl key and press your V key to paste the information. Alternatively, you can right-click in the message editing field and select "Paste ".


EDIT: By the way, how long were you waiting before unplugging your computer? Perhaps the shutdown would have completed if you had allowed several minutes for the shutdown to complete.

I used to have a similar problem with my machine taking a long time to shut down (and occasionally hanging, if I recall correctly). I think I fixed it by downloading and installing Microsoft's User Profile Hive Cleanup Service.