Problem with powering off after shutdown

[cyberpop]

I have been having a problem when trying to shut down my computer. It goes through all the motions, says "Windows is shutting down," and then it just hangs -- and does not power off like it used to. I have to hold the power button in for 5 seconds to power it off. Any suggestions? By the way, in checking my System Drivers, I noticed my ISAPNP driver has a "critical" error control, as does my PCI bus driver. Is this related to my problem or is it a separate issue?

My OS is Windows XP Media Center Edition, SP2, a Dell Dimension 8400 with Pentium 4, 2 gb of RAM.

 

[cavillas]

Have you installed any new hardware? If so did this occur after the installation? If you have post the details, it could be helpful.

It could be a sound file problem. Do you have windows sounds turned on? If you have try turning them off and see if it will shut down then

 

[cyberpop]

Happy New Year. I have tried uninstalling some of the programs and hardware that I may have installed recently (it's hard to recall). But the PC still does not power off completely. Actually, even before uninstalling those things, sometimes it would power off properly, and sometimes it wouldn't. That's what I find confusing. I did try to turn off my sound file (SB audigy), and it seemed to power off OK, but after 2 more times of powering on and off, it hung up again even with the sound file off.
I would try System Restore, but I can't go back far enough to before the problem began (around September), and then I would be afraid that I might have to reinstall some applications and files that were installed after that time.