XP pro cannot shut down

not really related to usual topic but: HELP!

[henry0]

for no reasons XP Pro at shut down is hanging forever
never had a problem with it before
forced a scan and found nothing
any input?
thanks
regards

[martinibuster]

Maybe your computer needs a nite cap.

May I suggest a shot of scotch, neat? ;) Y

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[jim_w]

I've seen that before. What happened to me was something on my taskbar was crashing when XP was closing. I used powertoys for XP and took each item out one at a time till it didn't happen, and I had my culprit. I uninstalled and reinstalled the offending program, and the problem went away.

[edit]
looking through some notes, are you running an HP by any chance?
[/edit]

[henry0]

thanks Jim-W
no I do not run an HP
that one is home made with a pent 4 and many horses
XP pro on one HDD and Linux for dev purpose on the second HDD
running without a glitch since 18 months
the only HP I have hooked to is a printer
that actually recently gave me some trouble
I had to call HP for help
found some one in the tech dpt that started to mess around with MS config before I stopped her in her devastating process! and fixed it myself
possible I have a problem in ms config?
in XP what is the min to keep in "general"
and in "services" tab

regards

Henry

[jim_w]

>in XP what is the min to keep in "general" and in "services" tab

I think Microsoft has a page on their support site..

[support.microsoft.com...]

That indicates how to troubleshoot Windows XP.

There are no real good ways to answer than becasue each machine can be configured differently, with different software, DLLs, services, etc.. Start with the ones you know are not needed. i.e. Video, anit-virus. It can also deal with the order the software was installed.

You could also load Dr. Watson, make sure his file log is clean, then shut down. Look at the last program in the log that failed. There isn't an ecaxt science to doing it. It's kind of 'hunt-n-peck' till you find it. However, you should not have more than a few items on your taskbar to look at. Also check you startup folder in the start menu to see if something is loading in that way. Make a filder called oldstartup and move the items into it before rebooting.

If you can restart your machine OK and it only happens when you shut down, then it may be deeper.

[Macro]

Henry0, Windows XP needs to shut down all programs running in the background before Windows itself can terminate. Using MS Config does help. You can turn off all the programs that are starting automatically. With all those programs turned off if the problem disappears then it's a matter of trial and error.

If that doesn't work you can start turning off services. Do make a note of which services you are turning off and do them one at a time. Exert caution though: There are some services that when turned off won't allow you to boot normally... and you don't want to troubleshoot in DOS Mode ;-)

[jim_w]

Agree with Marco, but would not go to that extreme until you are sure it is not something loading higher. I believe mine was actually Norton Antivirus and the HP program that allows you to use CD-RW’s. I took out the CD-RW program, that was installed before Norton, and the problem stopped. I then reinstalled it, and the problem went away for good.

[henry0]

thanks MAcro
I found a great tutorial
that every one should review
regarding what's a safe move and what's not a safe move
if anyone needsit I will mail it to you