Very slow shutdown

[JClark]

Hello group:

OS: W2KP/SP4
System: Supermicro, PIII, SCSI HD (2)
Problem: Shutdown takes about 4 minutes, only about 45 seconds of the
total is during the "shutting down" screeen phase. There does not seem
to have been any precipitating event, such as new software or hardware
installation. Here's what I've tried:

1. Gone through task manager and shut down most of the programs, a
handful at a time. Then go to restart. No help...4 min shutdown time.

2. Boot to safe mode, then shutdown. Same 4 minute delay.

3. Installed the uphclean program, even though I did not get the error
message in event viewer which is associated with this problem (I am
desperate!). No help.

4. Updated all the drivers I can find, including the NVidia display
adapter. No help.

5. Uninstalled the Q329170 Hotfix, which some have reported as a cause
of this problem. No change.

I have considered the "paralell installation" recommended by
microsoft, but I think it might be just as easy to format the drive,
reinstall win2k, get updates, and then reinstall the programs from
scratch ...ugh! (I have copies of all the data files on a second HD,
so I wouldn't lose anything but time.) I also have a sector copy
(Ghost) on the second HD, but I don't see much sense in using that,
since it will restore the system just the way it is now, with the
painfully slow shutdown.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

Jack

 

[Wouter]

Hello group:

OS: W2KP/SP4
System: Supermicro, PIII, SCSI HD (2)
Problem: Shutdown takes about 4 minutes, only about 45
seconds of the total is during the "shutting down" screeen
phase. There does not seem to have been any precipitating
event, such as new software or hardware installation. Here's
what I've tried:

1. Gone through task manager and shut down most of the
programs, a handful at a time. Then go to restart. No
help...4 min shutdown time.

2. Boot to safe mode, then shutdown. Same 4 minute delay.

3. Installed the uphclean program, even though I did not get
the error message in event viewer which is associated with
this problem (I am desperate!). No help.

4. Updated all the drivers I can find, including the NVidia
display adapter. No help.

5. Uninstalled the Q329170 Hotfix, which some have reported
as a cause of this problem. No change.

I have considered the "paralell installation" recommended by
microsoft, but I think it might be just as easy to format
the drive, reinstall win2k, get updates, and then reinstall
the programs from scratch ...ugh! (I have copies of all the
data files on a second HD, so I wouldn't lose anything but
time.) I also have a sector copy (Ghost) on the second HD,
but I don't see much sense in using that, since it will
restore the system just the way it is now, with the
painfully slow shutdown.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

Jack

I assume the UPHClean service is installed correctly and shows
at least a "started" event in the Application Event log at
startup of the PC
I also assume you got the latest UPHClean version, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=837115

The trick that worked for me for some time (W2K SP4 fixed this
problem for me) was to stop the Spooler (Command Prompt):
net stop spooler /y
Then do the Shutdown.
After Startup, start the Spooler again (Command Prompt):
net start spooler

You can try these command "manually" from the Command Prompt.
If they work, you can use a logoff and logon script to automate
these stop and start tasks.

 

[David]

Wouter wrote

You can try these command "manually" from the Command Prompt.
If they work, you can use a logoff and logon script to automate
these stop and start tasks.

Since I now successfully use UPHClean on our workplace systems, I ask this
only to satisfy my curiousity:

Can this be done with multi-profiles with different privileges?

I ran into problems logging off one power user and logging onto another
with more limited privileges. i.e., got an 'unable to start spooler' msg.
IOW, Stop worked, but Start didn't.

 

[JClark]

I assume the UPHClean service is installed correctly and shows
at least a "started" event in the Application Event log at
startup of the PC
I also assume you got the latest UPHClean version, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=837115

The trick that worked for me for some time (W2K SP4 fixed this
problem for me) was to stop the Spooler (Command Prompt):
net stop spooler /y
Then do the Shutdown.
After Startup, start the Spooler again (Command Prompt):
net start spooler

You can try these command "manually" from the Command Prompt.
If they work, you can use a logoff and logon script to automate
these stop and start tasks.

Wouter:

Yes, I did use the latest UPHClean version from MS and my eventlog
shows that it started.

I tried disabling the spoiler service, but it did not help.

I then went through the "services" list and disabled many of them that
did not apply to my system such as alerter, messenger, wireless, etc.
I also polished up some of the firewall entries which were in "ask"
mode (Sygate). So.........after all of that, the shutdown time has
decreased from almost four minutes, to just under two. Maybe I should
consider that a bargain.

I really appreciate your suggestions, as with past problems.

Jack

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Jack - You've evidently already tried some of this, but here's the full
"list" for you JIC:

You might want to check and see if you've installed Hotfix Q329170. If so,
and unless you're sure you need it, it apparently causes major slowdowns on
shutdown and should be removed. See here to decide about whether you need
this hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329170. There's been a lot
of discussion about this in microsoft.public.win2000.general nws gp
recently. If you decide to remove it, go to your Control Panel|Add/Remove
Programs and see if Q329170 is listed as installed and, if so, remove it.

This "hotfix" is also installed as part of SP4, and thus can't be removed
separately if you've installed that.

If you decide that you do need to keep it, or you have SP4 installed, an
alternative that's been proposed that will allow you to be able to exit
normally even with the hotfix is to run "net stop spooler" (without the
quotes) from a cmd window before shutdown. You might want to consider
adding that to a logout script that stops the spooler at shutdown, and kept
the hotfix in that case. (I've verified that this works, BTW.)

MS has a fix available if you phone them. See:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;814770


plus (Courtesy of Steve Parry)

start > run > gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration> Administrative Template
System > Logon > Maximum retries to unload and update user profile ... set
enabled and to say 5 ... default if not configured is 60!!

and then (added by me) set waittokillservicetimeout at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

to 5000 ms instead of the default 20000.

(I can verify that these last two make a HUGH difference in shutdown times.)

Then, courtesy of Torgeir Bakken, MVP, you might want to try this:

User Profile Hive Cleanup Service
A service to help with slow log off and unreconciled profile problems.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en


Two last areas to check. Unless you actually use them, it has been reported
that unchecking Enable Offline Files in Folder Options|Offline Files tab
substantially decreases the shutdown time (presumtively by eliminating the
"Synchronize all offline files" step). And check and be sure that you don't
unintentionally have Clear the Windows Paging File turned on. See here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314834


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[JClark]

Hi Jack - You've evidently already tried some of this, but here's the full
"list" for you JIC:

You might want to check and see if you've installed Hotfix Q329170. If so,
and unless you're sure you need it, it apparently causes major slowdowns on
shutdown and should be removed. See here to decide about whether you need
this hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329170. There's been a lot
of discussion about this in microsoft.public.win2000.general nws gp
recently. If you decide to remove it, go to your Control Panel|Add/Remove
Programs and see if Q329170 is listed as installed and, if so, remove it.

This "hotfix" is also installed as part of SP4, and thus can't be removed
separately if you've installed that.

If you decide that you do need to keep it, or you have SP4 installed, an
alternative that's been proposed that will allow you to be able to exit
normally even with the hotfix is to run "net stop spooler" (without the
quotes) from a cmd window before shutdown. You might want to consider
adding that to a logout script that stops the spooler at shutdown, and kept
the hotfix in that case. (I've verified that this works, BTW.)

MS has a fix available if you phone them. See:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;814770


plus (Courtesy of Steve Parry)

start > run > gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration> Administrative Template
System > Logon > Maximum retries to unload and update user profile ... set
enabled and to say 5 ... default if not configured is 60!!

and then (added by me) set waittokillservicetimeout at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

to 5000 ms instead of the default 20000.

(I can verify that these last two make a HUGH difference in shutdown times.)

Then, courtesy of Torgeir Bakken, MVP, you might want to try this:

User Profile Hive Cleanup Service
A service to help with slow log off and unreconciled profile problems.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en


Two last areas to check. Unless you actually use them, it has been reported
that unchecking Enable Offline Files in Folder Options|Offline Files tab
substantially decreases the shutdown time (presumtively by eliminating the
"Synchronize all offline files" step). And check and be sure that you don't
unintentionally have Clear the Windows Paging File turned on. See here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314834

Jim:
I appreciate receiving the "complete list", which I have copied and
saved. With regard to the specifics, I had already tried to uninstall
the hotfix Q329170, which was on my add-remove programs list. But I do
have SP4, so as you point out, it may not have uninstalled. Disabling
spooler, as suggested by Wouter, didn't help either.

I do clear the paging file at shutdown (a bit of paranoia) but the
system has worked fine that way since way before the slow shutdown
began.

With regard to the number of attempts to unload user profile, I
thought this might be taken care of with the UPHClean program. But I
may try this if I decide to tweak it. Likewise re: the waittokill
change you advised. I wonder if there is any potential downside to
these two changes?

I did disable the "enable offline files" in folder options. Nice
suggestion.

Now my shutdown time has been reduced from nearly 4 minutes to about
one minute....certainly acceptable, and again, I may try to tweak it a
bit more with the other suggestions.

I'm very grateful. I was thinking I would have to reinstall Windows
and all those programs.

Jack

 

[Vance Green]

See inline response:



Actually it doesn't (quite) and here's why:

You need to stop the spooler BEFORE the "Saving your settings"
modeless dialog appears, and shutdown scripts run AFTER your
settings are saved. The delay occurs at the "saving your settings"
dialog, BEFORE the shutdown script runs. So, the delay, if caused
by the spooler prob., does not go away.

Catch-22.

I worked around this by creating a batch file and placing a shortcut
to it on my desktop. I have to double-click it before initiating a
shutdown.

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Jack - Glad you found it useful.

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In