XP won't shut down...*NOT* the usual power management question that's always getting posted here...

[Homer J. Simpson]

I have an XP machine that's recently been reformatted/reinstalled clean.

After a few days of normal use the machine now refuses to initiate any of
the shut down commands from the Start menu. When selecting any of the
options, the shutdown command is ignored entirely. Not a single running
application prompts the user to 'save changes' as they normally would do
when receiving a WM_QUERYENDSESSION message. It's like the message is never
sent in the first place.

I made a bunch of shortcuts on the desktop to XP's shutdown.exe with the
appropriate commands (shut down, power off, restart, etc)--these work,
however it'd be nice to have, y'know, the menu options do what they're
supposed to be doing.

<edit>
After a few more days, the situation got even worse: even my
shutdown/restart icons stopped working; now I have to use my logoff icon
first (which points to shutdown.exe with the -l parameter), and *then* at
the login screen use the shutdown options presented there.
</edit>

Any idea?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

If this is a relatively recent issue, you might try using System Restore to
take you back to a time when this worked properly. If that doesn't resolve
it, try the information below.

The following assumes you have an actual XP CD as opposed to a restore CD or
restore partition supplied by your PC manufacturer.

Go to Start, type sfc /scannow in the run box and press enter. Note, there
is a space between sfc and the forward slash. You will be asked for your XP
CD. Be aware, upon inserting the CD the XP setup screen may appear, this is
not a part of sfc /scannow, rather it is being invoked by autorun. Simply
minimize the screen and allow sfc to continue.

If the above fails to resolve the issue, try a repair install as follows:



Be sure you are well backed up in case there is a problem from which you are
unable to recover. NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data
files intact, if something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be
forced to start over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your
data backed up, you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.



Boot from the CD. If your system is set to be able to boot from the CD, it
should detect the disk and give a brief message, during the boot up, if you
wish to boot from the CD press any key.



Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.



Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.



The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

If this is a relatively recent issue, you might try using System Restore to
take you back to a time when this worked properly. If that doesn't resolve
it, try the information below.

Actually, it's not my machine...the problem started a good while ago and I
decided to post it here only after a few months of nagging. That
pretty much rules out System Restore.

[much snipped]
Whoah. I know all about SFC and the installer's Repair options. But thanks
for the step-by-step instructions.

I gave some thought to both options already, but either method will pretty
much undo all the updates that have been applied since (or at least leave
the system in a rather interesting state)...so they'd all have to be
redownloaded...and the person using that machine is on dial-up. I'd think
it's not really worth the hassle.

Since you brought it up...That's actually something I'm not sure of with
Windows Update and SFC or the installer's Repair function. Say you have a
machine, use it for some period of time, and you regularly keep up with the
available updates...if you then run SFC (or the installer's Repair), system
files from the original CD are copied back, potentially overwriting system
files installed by updates and patches...however (and this is where I'm not
sure) afterwards, according to the Uninstall entries in the registry (which
is what, I believe, Windows Update uses to determine what patches you need)
the updates *have* been installed (SFC and the installer's Repair option
don't remove those entries) and the system is left in a state where it'll
think the files are up to date (they're obviously not) and Windows Update
would then fail to list any of the updates...so I'd rather not go down that
road.

Am I right in my understanding of how SFC/Repair and Windows Update (don't)
interact intelligently?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

The repair install will send the system back to a time prior to the updates.
If a person has installed SP1, SFC works with that because installation
files are copied to a special folder on the hard drive. SP1 is a roll up of
all updates up to the time it was released. SFC will work with SP1 because
the SP1 files if not included on the original XP CD from which XP was
installed, places the installation files in a folder on the hard drive, but
any updates done after the SP1 installation would have to be redone.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

If this is a relatively recent issue, you might try using System Restore to
take you back to a time when this worked properly. If that doesn't resolve
it, try the information below.

Actually, it's not my machine...the problem started a good while ago and I
decided to post it here only after a few months of nagging. That
pretty much rules out System Restore.

[much snipped]
Whoah. I know all about SFC and the installer's Repair options. But thanks
for the step-by-step instructions.

I gave some thought to both options already, but either method will pretty
much undo all the updates that have been applied since (or at least leave
the system in a rather interesting state)...so they'd all have to be
redownloaded...and the person using that machine is on dial-up. I'd think
it's not really worth the hassle.

Since you brought it up...That's actually something I'm not sure of with
Windows Update and SFC or the installer's Repair function. Say you have a
machine, use it for some period of time, and you regularly keep up with the
available updates...if you then run SFC (or the installer's Repair), system
files from the original CD are copied back, potentially overwriting system
files installed by updates and patches...however (and this is where I'm not
sure) afterwards, according to the Uninstall entries in the registry (which
is what, I believe, Windows Update uses to determine what patches you need)
the updates *have* been installed (SFC and the installer's Repair option
don't remove those entries) and the system is left in a state where it'll
think the files are up to date (they're obviously not) and Windows Update
would then fail to list any of the updates...so I'd rather not go down that
road.

Am I right in my understanding of how SFC/Repair and Windows Update (don't)
interact intelligently?

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

The repair install will send the system back to a time prior to the updates.
If a person has installed SP1, SFC works with that because installation
files are copied to a special folder on the hard drive. SP1 is a roll up of
all updates up to the time it was released. SFC will work with SP1 because
the SP1 files if not included on the original XP CD from which XP was
installed, places the installation files in a folder on the hard drive, but
any updates done after the SP1 installation would have to be redone.

Right.

This still leaves me uncertain and post-SP1 hotfixes. Would Windows Update
"see" that the system files, despite what the registry says, have reverted
back to older versions?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Windows Update should detect whatever updates are no longer installed. I
don't believe it goes into the registry anyway. Most of the updates are
listed in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel as "Hotfixes." There are
some which are not but I believe Windows Update checks something at system
level to determine what is installed and what isn't.

Our advice after doing a repair install or using SFC is to return to Windows
Update to download and install whatever updates have been removed. Hence,
it will detect that.