Freezing up on shutdown

[History Fan]

I have a desktop PC running Windows XP SP2. DSL connection. Pentium D
processor at 3.0GHz, 2GB of RAM.

I'd say about 2-3 times a month, my computer will freeze up at
shutdown. The 'Windows is shutting down' screen will appear, and then stay
there. The only way to unlock the computer is to turn off the power to the
surge protector.

Can anything be done about this? Or is it just a common glitch with
most Windows-based computers?

 

[Newbie Coder]

History Fan,

Normally the shutdown process is flushing the caches to disk, but what
applications are open in the System Tray when shutting down? Are there any
regular things you have done when it freezes? Example: just been using an
application...

 

[History Fan]

History Fan,

Normally the shutdown process is flushing the caches to disk, but what
applications are open in the System Tray when shutting down? Are there any
regular things you have done when it freezes? Example: just been using an
application...

I can't think of any specific action I have done when this glitch
occurs. I usually turn my PC on around 7am, and turn it off around 7pm. I
gets a fair amount of use during that time, mostly Internet browsing. I
have Firefox, my default browser, configured to clear cache when the browser
is closed. And I have CCleaner configured to clean out the system at
bootup.

Programs running when I shut down Windows: Windows Defender, AVG Free
Antivirus, WinPatrol, WeatherBug, Yahoo Widgets, Google Desktop.

 

[Unknown]

Just a clue ----when the hang occurs have you tried holding in the power on
button for 4-5 seconds?

 

[History Fan]

Just a clue ----when the hang occurs have you tried holding in the power
on button for 4-5 seconds?

I pressed the power button at least once, but I don't believe I
held it down that long.