long shutdown delay with XP Home (SP2)

[newsrider3]

This has just started happening in the last month or so. Now when I want to
reboot my computer, it sits on the "shutting down windows" screen for 30
seconds before it goes ahead to complete the job. I don't remember exactly
what the delay was previously, but it was too short to take notice, probably
5 seconds at most. So is one of the new windows updates doing this, or what?
I haven't installed any special software nor done any tweaking recently that
should affect it. Baffled, and would welcome a fix.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Shutdown delays are always running tasks cleaning up. I could show you a script that would turn the thing off like a light bulb, but
I doubt you would like the data loss you might sometimes get.

--lightsOut.vbs--
Set oSer = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate,(Shutdown)}\\.\root\cimv2")
Set colOS = oSer.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem")
For Each oS in colOS
oS.Win32Shutdown(5)
Next
-cut--

..

 

[newsrider3]

Thanks. Scripts are way over my head. I'm not a programmer. Maybe someday.

I did some testing and believe it's caused by a new printer I installed
recently, a Lexmark Z600. If I kill those driver processes LEXBCES.EXE and
LEXPPS.EXE then I can get windows to shut down "normally", about a 10
seconds delay vs a 30 seconds delay. I didn't run complete tests, so it's
just a hunch, but it might be an interaction between those printer drivers
and my firewall ZoneAlarm(?). Guess I'll either have to live with it or
disable my printer... (or maybe go looking for later printer drivers?).