Slooooow Shutdown; Diagnostic Utility Out There????

[Phil C.]

Hi. I'm running Windows XP Pro, Sp2. All of a sudden within the last few
days the shutdown time has changed from about 15 seconds to over 4 minutes.
I have done a sfc /scannow, uninstalled any software I recently installed,
shutdown any tsr programs running, reinstalled my mouse drivers, run a few
chkdsk's, reinstalled my video drivers, looked at the bootlog file, changed
the registry settings according to Kelly's corner to tell the system to kill
applications quicker on shutdown, and basically done everything short of
standing on my head and formating my hard drive and starting from scratch.
I have reviewed via google most of the popular shutdown troubleshooting
notes. I find it extremely hard to believe that Microsoft in their infinite
wisdom and with a problem that probably has high prevalence could not create
a utility that could log shutdown events down to the last thing that doesn't
work properly.

Can anyone help???

Thanks,

Buffaloed in Boston

Patriots
Rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

 

[Rock]

Hi. I'm running Windows XP Pro, Sp2. All of a sudden within the last few
days the shutdown time has changed from about 15 seconds to over 4 minutes.
I have done a sfc /scannow, uninstalled any software I recently installed,
shutdown any tsr programs running, reinstalled my mouse drivers, run a few
chkdsk's, reinstalled my video drivers, looked at the bootlog file, changed
the registry settings according to Kelly's corner to tell the system to kill
applications quicker on shutdown, and basically done everything short of
standing on my head and formating my hard drive and starting from scratch.
I have reviewed via google most of the popular shutdown troubleshooting
notes. I find it extremely hard to believe that Microsoft in their infinite
wisdom and with a problem that probably has high prevalence could not create
a utility that could log shutdown events down to the last thing that doesn't
work properly.

Can anyone help???

Thanks,

Buffaloed in Boston

Patriots
Rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Have you tried some clean boot troubleshooting and this excellent
shutdown troubleshooter:

WINDOWS XP SHUTDOWN & RESTART TROUBLESHOOTING
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

 

[Phil C.]

Rock,

Thanks for the reply. The first link you sent is indeed the top google
match for shutdown problems, but is of little help.
Regarding the second link, I already have tried reinstalling all the
programs that start on the msconfig list. The last link is geared more
toward startup problems. I have not installed
any non verified Windows drivers in the last week, so there can be no change
there. I have the same shutdown problem shutting down from Safe Mode as I
do from regular mode.

Phil

 

[Rock]

Rock,

Thanks for the reply. The first link you sent is indeed the top google
match for shutdown problems, but is of little help.
Regarding the second link, I already have tried reinstalling all the
programs that start on the msconfig list. The last link is geared more
toward startup problems. I have not installed
any non verified Windows drivers in the last week, so there can be no change
there. I have the same shutdown problem shutting down from Safe Mode as I
do from regular mode.

Yes if you have the same problem from safe mode then it's not an issue
of a startup program.

There are only three things I can think of. One is to run the driver
verifier program. Maybe that can help pinpoint a driver that is causing
a problem:

How to Use Driver Verifier to Troubleshoot Windows Drivers
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=244617

The last two are a repair installation:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

and if that doesn't work a clean installation. Good luck.

 

[V Green]

Hi. I'm running Windows XP Pro, Sp2. All of a sudden within the last few
days the shutdown time has changed from about 15 seconds to over 4 minutes.
I have done a sfc /scannow, uninstalled any software I recently installed,
shutdown any tsr programs running, reinstalled my mouse drivers, run a few
chkdsk's, reinstalled my video drivers, looked at the bootlog file, changed
the registry settings according to Kelly's corner to tell the system to kill
applications quicker on shutdown, and basically done everything short of
standing on my head and formating my hard drive and starting from scratch.
I have reviewed via google most of the popular shutdown troubleshooting
notes. I find it extremely hard to believe that Microsoft in their infinite
wisdom and with a problem that probably has high prevalence could not create
a utility that could log shutdown events down to the last thing that doesn't
work properly.

Can anyone help???

Thanks,

Buffaloed in Boston

Patriots
Rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Are you on a network and/or hooked via NIC to your
DSL/cable modem?

If so, unplug the cable(s) to the NIC and try shutting down.

If it got better, then the system is probably screwing around
with some weird IP address resolution thing, and I'm not sure
what to tell you from here.

If you're not running a NIC of any kind, never mind...

And even though you didn't say, I'm assuming you looked
at your Event logs (not the same at BOOTLOG).

 

[V Green]

Something else occurred to me...
this type of crap can be caused by Roaming Profiles
when you don't really need them...

Google on them and see what you come up with.

 

[Phil C.]

Thanks again Rock,

I've always had trouble understanding how to use the driver verifier, so I
could never get it to run properly. The instructions are very poor.

The in-place restore is an option, I've done it before, though only as a
last resort.
Maybe there is a Win32 programmer out there that might tell me how to do
this......

 

[Phil C.]

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I can't see anything unusual in the Event
Viewer at all, unfortunately.

Phil

 

[Rock]

Thanks again Rock,

I've always had trouble understanding how to use the driver verifier, so I
could never get it to run properly. The instructions are very poor.

The in-place restore is an option, I've done it before, though only as a
last resort.

I agree on the verifier - a bit confusing. I have used it once - with
default settings - just recently, and it did help out. It pinpointed
one unsigned driver with an IO verification error. Turns out disabling
this driver solved a long standing problem of not being able to enter
standby. I haven't tried uninstalling /reinstalling that device and
software yet to see if that's all it will need or if it needs a driver
update or if one is even available.

 

[Phil C.]

I finally got a break in my headache here. A half hour ago I was rebooting,
and the desktop hung in appearing, when it came up and I tried to explore
files, the searchlight sat there forever. A check in the event log found
the message that "The WIA (Windows Image Aquisition) hung on startup".
I disabled the WIA service in the service manager and voila, the computer
shuts down in 4 seconds.

It turns out this week I installed new drivers for my Microtek ScanMaker
Flatbed scanner. When I was diagnosing the slow hung shutdown, I
uninstalled the Microtek drivers, but this did not fix the shutdown.

Today, googling the above error message I found three Microsoft Articles:
Long delay before files appear in My Computer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819017&Product=winxp

The most important Article:
Some Programs May Not Work with a Scanner or a Camera When You Upgrade to
Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300462

and finally:
Windows XP: List of Scanners That Are Supported by Windows Image Acquisition

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q293356

It turns out that apparently the Microtek software installs some TWAIN
drivers that do the job of the WIA, and the WIA does not work with my
scanner as per the last article.
Unistalling the Microtek software apparently left the TWAIN drivers intact,
which is why
my shutdown problem persisted.

When I reinstalled the Microtek software, apparently there is some conflict
where the WIA and the TWAIN driver fight each other and cause startup and
shutdown problems.

So the solution is to disable the WIA service or remove the WIA driver for
the device as described in the second article above and reinstall your
scanner or camera software.

 

[Rock]

I finally got a break in my headache here. A half hour ago I was rebooting,
and the desktop hung in appearing, when it came up and I tried to explore
files, the searchlight sat there forever. A check in the event log found
the message that "The WIA (Windows Image Aquisition) hung on startup".
I disabled the WIA service in the service manager and voila, the computer
shuts down in 4 seconds.

It turns out this week I installed new drivers for my Microtek ScanMaker
Flatbed scanner. When I was diagnosing the slow hung shutdown, I
uninstalled the Microtek drivers, but this did not fix the shutdown.

Today, googling the above error message I found three Microsoft Articles:
Long delay before files appear in My Computer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819017&Product=winxp

The most important Article:
Some Programs May Not Work with a Scanner or a Camera When You Upgrade to
Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300462

and finally:
Windows XP: List of Scanners That Are Supported by Windows Image Acquisition

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q293356

It turns out that apparently the Microtek software installs some TWAIN
drivers that do the job of the WIA, and the WIA does not work with my
scanner as per the last article.
Unistalling the Microtek software apparently left the TWAIN drivers intact,
which is why
my shutdown problem persisted.

When I reinstalled the Microtek software, apparently there is some conflict
where the WIA and the TWAIN driver fight each other and cause startup and
shutdown problems.

So the solution is to disable the WIA service or remove the WIA driver for
the device as described in the second article above and reinstall your
scanner or camera software.

Great Phil, glad you got it working and thanks for posting back. I do
think clean boot troubleshooting by disabling windows services could
have pinpointed this for you. I'm not sure if you just did the startup
programs, but you can also disable services. Anyway, I know it feels
godo to have it resolved.