Applications in the background didn't or not ready yet for releasing the
Memory and not closing.
Infection sign sometimes or bad hardware drivers installed or got corrupted.
You can monitor the running processes by running the AutoRun from microsoft
or FileMon.
HTH.
nass
== www.nasstec.co.uk
Does this delay occur when the system is shut down right after a restart
without running any programs other than what starts during login? Also test
if this problem occurs in safe mode. If it doesn't occur in safe mode and
occurs when shutting down right after a reboot, then do some clean boot
troubleshooting to see what's causing the hang-up.