Abnormally long shutdown latency

[whitesmith]

Hi all,

When I shutdown my PC, Windows displays a sequence ending with
"Windows is shutting down." After that message goes away I am greeted
with a beautiful blue (and totally empty) screen for exactly 6 minutes
before the PC powers off or restarts.

Here's what I've done so far to try to correct the problem: Installed
latest drivers for my video card, installed latest drivers for my
monitor, ran "chkdsk c: /f /r" and used Registry Mechanic. Taking
these steps reduced the latency time from 10 minutes down to 6 -- but
that's absurdly long for a PC to tuck itself in for the night. Can
anyone *please* offer me a suggestion as to how to reduce shutdown
latency?

My system uses XP Pro with SP3 (automagically updated with latest M$
patches) and has 1.5 GB RAM plus a 320 GB IDE drive (about 20%
filled). This drive is defragmented several times daily with
Diskeeper. Both the Cookies and TIF directories are regularly emptied,
as is the recycle bin. I use Outlook for mail and Firefox 3.0.3 as my
UA. There's no strange software aboard.

Thanks to those who reply.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Stay away from Registry Mechanic and all other so-called registry
cleaners if you value the integrity of your computer.

Your most likely solution is below. The accompanying ReadMe file
explains in excruciating detail. There's also a blog, if you fancy
yourself geek-esque.

"User Profile Hive Cleanup Service "
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en

 

[db.·.. >]

could be a number of
things:

like clearing out the
pagefile or

problem writing to
the registry or

unable to disable/shut
down devices.

you might want to boot
into safemode(s) and
test the issue.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces

 

[Ken Blake]

Hi all,

When I shutdown my PC, Windows displays a sequence ending with
"Windows is shutting down." After that message goes away I am greeted
with a beautiful blue (and totally empty) screen for exactly 6 minutes
before the PC powers off or restarts.

Here's what I've done so far to try to correct the problem: Installed
latest drivers for my video card, installed latest drivers for my
monitor, ran "chkdsk c: /f /r" and used Registry Mechanic.

Ugh! Registry Mechanic, or any other registry cleaning program should be
avoided. My very strong advice is to stay *far* away from all registry
cleaners. Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and don't
use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and
what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of, having
unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit it may
have.

 

[whitesmith]

Stay away from Registry Mechanic and all other so-called registry
cleaners if you value the integrity of your computer.

Your most likely solution is below. The accompanying ReadMe file
explains in excruciating detail. There's also a blog, if you fancy
yourself geek-esque.

"User Profile Hive Cleanup Service "http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B286E6D-891...
---
Leonard Grey
Errare Humanum Est

[snip]

Many thanks to you and the others who replied. I'll check out all this
info at length. I failed to mention that the system event log shuts
down at the exact moment the empty blue screen appears, so there's no
way to troubleshoot via log-reading. Nuts!

 

[John M]

Hey Blake and Leoanard

excuse my interuption whitesmith....
never heard the bad news on reg cleaners. I use 2 of them and yes my laptop
has inexplicable issues which you have kindly assisted me with in this forum.

I have heard that de-fraging too often is not good also. I note that you,
witesmith do it daily.

JohnM
--

 

[Ken Blake]

Hey Blake and Leoanard

excuse my interuption whitesmith....
never heard the bad news on reg cleaners.

In that case, I'm glad that you learned the bad news here. They are useless
and dangerous.

I use 2 of them and yes my laptop
has inexplicable issues which you have kindly assisted me with in this
forum.

I have heard that de-fraging too often is not good also. I note that you,
witesmith do it daily.

My view is different. I don't think that doing it tooo often is dangerous,
but it's simply a waste of time and effort.

How often it should be done depends on the user and what his pattern of use
is. For most people, once is month is enough, and even that often may not be
needed. For the enormous majority of people, daily is *much* more often than
is needed.

 

[db.·.. >]

firstly, i think that the o.p.
owns his thread and deserves
our attention and assistance.

secondly, it is unclear how or
why registry cleaning was
quantified into the issue at
hand.

thirdly, microsoft has a
formula that establishes
a threshold for performing
defragmentation.

it is best not to rely on
personal preferences when
it comes to maintaining the
system and instead utilize
the recommendations that
microsoft provides for it's
operating system.

clearly, if people maintain
their computer systems as
they do with their personal
health, the system would
be bloated, dirty and
dysfunctional.

just because no one will be
smelling butts' doesn't mean
it doesn't need cleaning.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces

 

[Marianne]

firstly, i think that the o.p.
owns his thread and deserves
our attention and assistance.

secondly, it is unclear how or
why registry cleaning was
quantified into the issue at
hand.

thirdly, microsoft has a
formula that establishes
a threshold for performing
defragmentation.

it is best not to rely on
personal preferences when
it comes to maintaining the
system and instead utilize
the recommendations that
microsoft provides for it's
operating system.

clearly, if people maintain
their computer systems as
they do with their personal
health, the system would
be bloated, dirty and
dysfunctional.

just because no one will be
smelling butts' doesn't mean
it doesn't need cleaning.

If there was anyone left here who hadn't yet figured out how much of an
ignorant moron you are this last post of yours will certainly rectify
that situation and set the record straight.

M

 

[db.·.. >]

the thread belongs
to the o.p..

if you have something
to start, create a new
thread for you and yours.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces

 

[Bill in Co.]

If there was anyone left here who hadn't yet figured out how much of an
ignorant moron you are this last post of yours will certainly rectify
that situation and set the record straight.

M

LOL. And I keep trying to remind him that we've moved beyond using EDLIN
to write posts, but still he doesn't get it.

 

[Twayne]

LOL. And I keep trying to remind him that we've moved beyond using
EDLIN to write posts, but still he doesn't get it.

Why not Edlin? It still comes with XP, interestingly enough.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Twayne, you're still missing some attributions, as Marianne didn't write all
of this. At this point I assume you are not using OE, because OE doesn't
have that problem.

 

[Twayne]

BICo,

Hmm, you're right. Yes, I am using OE/IE7 but also have OEQuoteFix
running.
I'll look into that; thanks. I have a feeling this one might be
improper sig use of the "--(sp)" though. Can't hurt to check!

Edlin; long live the VAX and Tymnet!

Twayne

 

[Bill in Co.]

I'm also using OE-QuoteFix, but in conjunction with OE6. (As for OE/IE7,
thanks, but no thanks, I'll pass on that .