WinXP Pro hangs in shutdown nearly all of the time. And hangs at other times as well.

[R.S.Lynn]

Situation: Either by going through Task Manager or Start/Turn Off Computer,
I request a Shutdown. The desktop screen color desaturates quite a bit for
a second or so, then resaturates, most of the times. If apps are open, they
are closed. A screen says that I am being logged off. a subsequent screen
says that Windows is shutting down. If I leave the room at this point and
come back much later, or even in the middle of the night, the same screen is
still displayed. (Curious that no power saving turn-off of the screen
happens) Nearly all of the time this is what happens. I depress the power
button on my computer, and in maybe one second the screen is extinguished.
I know that it is not good practice to shutdown the computer this way, but I
don't know of any alternative.

At other times, the OS hangs when I am in any of a large number of apps,
including MS apps. Often, Task Manager will not come up with ctrl-alt-del,
and I resort to the power button thing.

I have Norton SW, and run its virus check very often, along with Windows
Defender, and other spyware utilities.

Some future day, I will go to Vista, which just possible could be more
robust with respect to hanging, but I am not ready for the problems that I
anticipate will result from that. I have some apps that are not
Vista-compatible.

I would pay reasonable $$ for a utility that could solve the hanging
problems, but I would need to have totally complete confidence that it would
solve my problems or money back. I have never ever heard of a money-back
guarantee in this business.

I will try just about any fix that is offered, except 1. going to Vista at
this time 2. paying for a utility that might not work.

 

[Brian A.]

Situation: Either by going through Task Manager or Start/Turn Off Computer, I
request a Shutdown. The desktop screen color desaturates quite a bit for a second
or so, then resaturates, most of the times. If apps are open, they are closed. A
screen says that I am being logged off. a subsequent screen says that Windows is
shutting down. If I leave the room at this point and come back much later, or even
in the middle of the night, the same screen is still displayed. (Curious that no
power saving turn-off of the screen happens) Nearly all of the time this is what
happens. I depress the power button on my computer, and in maybe one second the
screen is extinguished. I know that it is not good practice to shutdown the
computer this way, but I don't know of any alternative.

At other times, the OS hangs when I am in any of a large number of apps, including
MS apps. Often, Task Manager will not come up with ctrl-alt-del, and I resort to
the power button thing.

I have Norton SW, and run its virus check very often, along with Windows Defender,
and other spyware utilities.

Some future day, I will go to Vista, which just possible could be more robust with
respect to hanging, but I am not ready for the problems that I anticipate will
result from that. I have some apps that are not Vista-compatible.

I would pay reasonable $$ for a utility that could solve the hanging problems,
but I would need to have totally complete confidence that it would solve my
problems or money back. I have never ever heard of a money-back guarantee in this
business.

I will try just about any fix that is offered, except 1. going to Vista at this
time 2. paying for a utility that might not work.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434/en-us

How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560/en-us

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Brian A.]

Situation: Either by going through Task Manager or Start/Turn Off Computer, I
request a Shutdown. The desktop screen color desaturates quite a bit for a second
or so, then resaturates, most of the times. If apps are open, they are closed. A
screen says that I am being logged off. a subsequent screen says that Windows is
shutting down. If I leave the room at this point and come back much later, or even
in the middle of the night, the same screen is still displayed. (Curious that no
power saving turn-off of the screen happens) Nearly all of the time this is what
happens. I depress the power button on my computer, and in maybe one second the
screen is extinguished. I know that it is not good practice to shutdown the
computer this way, but I don't know of any alternative.

At other times, the OS hangs when I am in any of a large number of apps, including
MS apps. Often, Task Manager will not come up with ctrl-alt-del, and I resort to
the power button thing.

I have Norton SW, and run its virus check very often, along with Windows Defender,
and other spyware utilities.

Some future day, I will go to Vista, which just possible could be more robust with
respect to hanging, but I am not ready for the problems that I anticipate will
result from that. I have some apps that are not Vista-compatible.

I would pay reasonable $$ for a utility that could solve the hanging problems,
but I would need to have totally complete confidence that it would solve my
problems or money back. I have never ever heard of a money-back guarantee in this
business.

I will try just about any fix that is offered, except 1. going to Vista at this
time 2. paying for a utility that might not work.

Also see:
Windows XP Shutdown & Restart Troubleshooting
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Norman Swartz]

Situation: Either by going through Task Manager or Start/Turn Off
Computer, I request a Shutdown. The desktop screen color desaturates
quite a bit for a second or so, then resaturates, most of the times.
If apps are open, they are closed. A screen says that I am being
logged off. a subsequent screen says that Windows is shutting down.
If I leave the room at this point and come back much later, or even in
the middle of the night, the same screen is still displayed. (Curious
that no power saving turn-off of the screen happens) Nearly all of
the time this is what happens. I depress the power button on my
computer, and in maybe one second the screen is extinguished. I know
that it is not good practice to shutdown the computer this way, but I
don't know of any alternative.

I was unable to shutdown my computer in the normal fashion until I
uninstalled Norton's GoBack. Shutdown now works as it should.

 

[Poprivet]

Excellent advice here:
Windows XP Shutdown & Restart Troubleshooting
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

The shutdown problems are often centered around accounts that won't close
down cleanly. UPHClean from Microsoft is a Registry Hive cleaner that will
clean things up and often helps. About an 85% success rate in my
experience. Ymmv of course.

That said, you might also try downloading bootviz from Microsoft (be sure to
get the one for XP) and running it. It has a Registry "Optimize" feature
that sometimes can help in unexpected ways. It'll also show you a timeline
of the boot process where you can see things that take excessively long
times to happen should you have startup problems.

Neither of the above "change" the registry: They simply rearrange
sequencing and timing issues. UPHClean stops accounts from having problems
shutting down, and Bootiz optimizes/rearranges the registry hives.

HTH
Pop`