Help - Dell 2550 XP Pro SP1 not shutting down

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steven C. Liu
  • Start date Start date
S

Steven C. Liu

I have a Dell 2550 running XP Pro SP1 that suddenly started to have a
problem shutting down. After some reasonable uptime and normal usage,
if you try to "restart" or "shutdown", the OS goes through its regular
steps of logging the user off. When it reaches the step where it is
done saving data and actually shutting down the OS, it stays like that
indefinately. We've come back from overnight to find the computer still
in that state.

When in that state, the power button doesn't work. Ctl-Alt-Del doesn't
work either. Nothing works except to pull the power cord and then
re-attaching the power cord. After that, the computer comes back up as
normal (with no apparent corruption of data).

After each time of unplugging the power cord and then re-attaching it,
the computer would operate fine. I can shutdown and restart from the
login screen as well as after I logged in.

I've opened the computer up and checking to see if it's too dusty
inside, of if something needs to be re-seated. Everything looks good to
me. HD, RAM, boards all seem reasonably clean, cool and well-positioned.

I want to mention two additional "findings" that may or may not apply to
this problem:

1. Not too long ago (just before this shutting down problem started), I
ran a full NAV scan and found 36 viruses. (This computer belongs to my
boss.)
2. Just today, I noticed that NAV wouldn't enable itself upon login.
When I tried to force it to enable, it complained about some runtime
error. After I logged out (or rebooted -- can't remember which) and
logged back in, NAV came up fine and dandy.

Please help... This is kind of a head scratcher for me. I suspect it
is a RAM issue, but ...

I don't read Netnews too often, and would appreciate replies by email
([email protected]) as well as to this thread.

TIA,

Steve
 
The folks at Dell aren't scoring big points with their advice to your Mom...

I re-ran NAV on the PC today and found one final virus. I think
(actually, hope) that the virus was trying to keep the PC up and
accessible constantly and consequently hindering the shutdown process.

The PC *seems* ok now, but time will tell.

Steve
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Back
Top