Trouble shutting down

[Joe McGuire]

I am trying to figure out why my computer (XP/SP3) seems to have trouble
shutting down from time to time. Several days ago I shut it down. Or
thought I did. Obviously I was in a hurry and did not sit watching it for
the usual long time the shut down usually takes. Came back to restart it
today and at first I thought it had read my mind and started up on its own.
Then I realized it had never finished shutting down. Apparently a program
was not responding and Windows was asking me what did I want to do? A
question like this is probably even more inane of the things Windows may
ask. Did it notice the shut down command? What are the odds that, given my
command to shut down, I would want to abort the process because something
was not responding? Well, as far as I know there are only two options: (1)
Wait around for a few hours in the vain hope that the dud program somehow
revives itself--and then, what, the computer resumes shutting down? of (2)
End the program and let the shutdown proceed. Even if option #1 were
technically feasible, it would be utter nonsense. There is no practical
choice here.
And in the end, after clicking to End the program, the machine did not shut
down anyway. Instead it stopped at an "empty" desktop, i.e., there was my
desktop picture but without any icons, toolbars, systray, etc.
Any idea what this is all about?
I am a PC and I'm trying to figure out how do what I think I am supposed to
without giving the guy at the keyboard heartburn!

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]]

I am trying to figure out why my computer (XP/SP3) seems to have trouble

shutting down from time to time. Several days ago I shut it down. Or
thought I did. Obviously I was in a hurry and did not sit watching it for
the usual long time the shut down usually takes. Came back to restart it
today and at first I thought it had read my mind and started up on its own.
Then I realized it had never finished shutting down. Apparently a program
was not responding and Windows was asking me what did I want to do? A
question like this is probably even more inane of the things Windows may
ask. Did it notice the shut down command? What are the odds that, given my
command to shut down, I would want to abort the process because something
was not responding? Well, as far as I know there are only two options: (1)
Wait around for a few hours in the vain hope that the dud program somehow
revives itself--and then, what, the computer resumes shutting down? of (2)
End the program and let the shutdown proceed. Even if option #1 were
technically feasible, it would be utter nonsense. There is no practical
choice here.
And in the end, after clicking to End the program, the machine did not shut
down anyway. Instead it stopped at an "empty" desktop, i.e., there was my
desktop picture but without any icons, toolbars, systray, etc.
Any idea what this is all about?
I am a PC and I'm trying to figure out how do what I think I am supposed to
without giving the guy at the keyboard heartburn!

Start > Run > type in REGEDIT and press Enter. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop and, on the right side
window, locate AutoEndTasks. By default it is 0. Double-click it,
change it to 1, click OK. Reboot. Next time you shut down tasks will
automatically be ended for you.

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

 

[db]

you don't have to wait
for a few hours to test
your power features.

simply go to the power
control panel and temporarily
set them for a lesser time
to shut down.

for example, set the shut
down for 15 minutes and
analyze the issue.

also test the hibernation
feature as well.

the hibernation feature is
a good alternative to the
shut down mode.

--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com
- nntp Postologist
~ "share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Jose]

I am trying to figure out why my computer (XP/SP3) seems to have trouble
shutting down from time to time.  Several days ago I shut it down.  Or
thought I did.  Obviously I was in a hurry and did not sit watching it for
the usual long time the shut down usually takes.  Came back to restart it
today and at first I thought it had read my mind and started up on its own.
Then I realized it had never finished shutting down.  Apparently a program
was not responding and Windows was asking me what did I want to do?  A
question like this is probably even more inane of the things Windows may
ask.  Did it notice the shut down command?  What are the odds that, given my
command to shut down, I would want to abort the process  because something
was not responding?  Well, as far as I know there are only two options1)
Wait around for a few hours in the vain hope that the dud program somehow
revives itself--and then, what, the computer resumes shutting down?  of(2)
End the program and let the shutdown proceed.  Even if option #1 were
technically feasible, it would be utter nonsense.  There is no practical
choice here.
And in the end, after clicking to End the program, the machine did not shut
down anyway.  Instead it stopped at an "empty" desktop, i.e., there wasmy
desktop picture but without any icons, toolbars, systray, etc.
Any idea what this is all about?
I am a PC and I'm trying to figure out how do what I think I am supposed to
without giving the guy at the keyboard heartburn!

Have you any other clues? I have seen that message before and there
is usually a program name or something associated with it. Sometimes,
it will still shutdown on it's own eventually when it gets tired of
waiting...

It is almost as annoying as coming back after lunch and seeing the
"Click OK to begin scanning your C drive" message.

A program not responding? What program?

You should not have to edit the registry to change the way shutdown
operates - that is not fixing the problem but fixing the symptom of
the problem.

The "create a desktop shortcut to a batch file" solution may be soon
to follow.

You may also get the idea to run the Windows User Profile Hive Cleanup
Service, which will not hurt anything to try it if it applies to your
environment, but it does add extra overhead to your system in the form
of an Automatic Service you may not really need.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en

Something is wrong and you can fix it. You should not have to wait
hours (usually) for a proper shutdown to finish the job.

Can you think of any hardware/software updates or installations since
the last time the system shutdown properly?

Is it reproducible?

Have you checked the event log for clues?

Look in the Event Viewer for clues around the time of the incident.

Here is a method to post the specific information about individual
events.

To see the Event Viewer logs, click Start, Settings, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.

A shortcut to Event Viewer is to click Start, Run and in the box
enter:

%SystemRoot%\system32\eventvwr.msc /s

Click OK to launch the Event Viewer.

The most interesting logs are usually the Application and System.
Some logs may be almost or completely empty.
Not every event is a problem, some are informational messages that
things are working okay and some are warnings.
No event should defy reasonable explanation.

Each event is sorted by Date and Time. Errors will have red Xs,
Warnings will have yellow !s.
Information messages have white is. Not every Error or Warning event
means there is a serious issue.
Some are excusable at startup time when Windows is booting. Try to
find just the events at the date
and time around your problem.

If you double click an event, it will open a Properties windows with
more information. On the right are
black up and down arrow buttons to scroll through the open events. The
third button that looks like
two pages on top of each other is used to copy the event details to
your Windows clipboard.

When you find an interesting event that occurred around the time of
your issue, click the third button
under the up and down arrows to copy the details and then you can
paste the details (right click, Paste
or CTRL-V) the detail text back here for analysis.

To get a fresh start on any Event Viewer log, you can choose to clear
the log (backing up the log is offered),
then reproduce your issue, then look at just the events around the
time of your issue.