Windows XP requiring 2-3 attempts to shutdown/restart

TomL · 22 Apr 2007 at 20:57

Riddle me this chaps, why when I try to either shutdown or restart my machine does it simply stop. The machine won't freeze, it will just stop exiting all active programs and remain turned on. The 2nd attempt usually gets it. I hear the floppy drive make a noise as if it wants to turn off, and it closes a few icons in the taskbar, but then decides it feels better turned on.

It's been doing this without fail for quite awhile now, could it be something to do with what I've got running at the time of shutting down? Or maybe it's due to the time Windows is allocated for stuck programs to be terminated? Open to suggestions.

Durzel · 22 Apr 2007 at 21:16

What happens if you do: shutdown -f -s from the command line (add -t 10 if you want a 10 second countdown)... does everything shutdown then?

marc2003 · 22 Apr 2007 at 21:28

try this.

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

TomL · 22 Apr 2007 at 22:15

Durzel said:
What happens if you do: shutdown -f -s from the command line (add -t 10 if you want a 10 second countdown)... does everything shutdown then?

It shutdown fine using that.

marc2003 said:
try this.

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

I checked my event viewer and the ID codes that service is relevant to don't exist, I've installed the service anyway though.

Durzel · 22 Apr 2007 at 22:17

TomL said:
It shutdown fine using that.

Sounds like something isn't shutting down gracefully then

The "-f" switch on that command forces applications to shut down.

That doesn't really help you a great deal - the only thing you can really do is try shutting down with all of your systray apps already closed and see if it shuts down ok then, and if it does work out which one is causing problems by a process of elimination.

marc2003 · 22 Apr 2007 at 22:52

have a look at the apps running in your systray. try closing them manually and then shutting down to try and elimate which (if any) program is causing the problem.