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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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 Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 3:35 pm Post subject: XP won't shut down |
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When I click on the "start" menu, then "shut down" then "turn off", my computer (8 out of 10 times) doesn't. The random 2 other times it does. I've tried Alt+Ctl+del and that doesn't work either. I have to shut it down manually. This problem started a couple of months ago...I THINK before I downloaded SP2 but not sure.
I have Windows XP home edition....
I've tried all the Norton check ups and fixes, and searched help sites, but I can't find anyone with a solution.
Someone? Anyone? |
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Hank Scorpio
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 3:42 pm Post subject: Re: XP won't shut down |
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| ajuma wrote: |
Someone? Anyone? |
You still have a program running somewhere that won't let the system shut down. Could be spyware, could just be something you've installed recently that runs in the background that's messing you up. Hard to say without looking at what processes are running before you shut down.
I'd recommend hitting CTL-ALT-DEL, click the "processes" tab, and shutting down everything that doesn't say "SYSTEM" in the user tab, one at a time until it lets you exit. Process of elimination should weed it out. That fails and it's time to get acquainted with your old friend, the reinstall. Make sure you back up first. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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Try to run the Startup and Shutdown Troubleshooter. To launch the troubleshooter, select Start, Help and Support in XP. Type shutdown troubleshooter, press Enter, and select "Startup and Shutdown Troubleshooter"
Next, look at the power management configuration.
http://www.sbclub.org/fhc/systems/xpcustom.htm
Perhaps ACPI is not enabled on the computer or in Windows XP. Here is how to try that out:
1: Click - Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Power Options
Tab
2: Then click APM - Enable Advanced Power Management Support
Here is a good page you could read through:
http://bucarotechelp.com/computers/98011671.asp
Hope it helps.... |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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| A bad USB driver on a cheapo mp3 player would prevent total shut down for me. Have you installed any USB hardware lately? |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 1:00 am Post subject: |
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Ok...it's 1 of 3 possible problems.
1. Possibly a bad USB. I recently installed a driver for a memory stick. How can I disable that driver?
2. Demophobe: I tried following the steps for turning off the System services files, but I get a message "terminating this program now could cause harm to the data..." etc. Should I click "Yes" when it asks "Do you want to continue"?
3. Hank Scorpio: I've run adaware with no luck. I DO keep getting a screen in my browser (IE) from Megapass. This is something new that's happened in the last couple of weeks. I can't go to my homepage until the megapass screen loads. And sometimes this takes quite some time...as much as 10 minutes. And I get this strange error message that says "refresh is not a valid integer." Any suggestions? |
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Hank Scorpio
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:28 am Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
3. Hank Scorpio: I've run adaware with no luck. I DO keep getting a screen in my browser (IE) from Megapass. This is something new that's happened in the last couple of weeks. I can't go to my homepage until the megapass screen loads. And sometimes this takes quite some time...as much as 10 minutes. And I get this strange error message that says "refresh is not a valid integer." Any suggestions? |
I've never seen one Spyware scrubber that's capable of killing everything out there. Adaware I've found to be worse than others. I'd probably give SpyBot (which can be downloaded here) a whirl, but that may still not get rid of it.
Honestly, if that doesn't work I'd reformat and reinstall. Hell, it's good to start a clean slate every now and then, gets rid of the cruft you've built up over time. In any case, if I were you I'd drop IE as your browser and pick up a copy of Firefox. That'll help with some of your spyware. Are you into P2P, and if so what do you use? Those are the two biggies on where you're picking up these things. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 5:03 am Post subject: |
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Well, before you jump on the format wagon, Iwould ask myself a few questions first.
How long has it been since you had a fresh install? Can you backup all of your data that you don't want to lose? Do you know how to format? After formatting, there is a good procedure to follow in order to maintain a clean installation (see "Washing your windows" in this forum)?
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=27521
I am not going against what Scorpio said; it's sage advice in many situations. However, unless you do it right, you will soon be in the same place as you are now.
Usually, the warnings that Windows gives are fairly harmless in reality, depending on what service you are terminating.
It's going to take a while to sift through all of the possibilities to find the culprit that is hanging your system. That is, if the pwer settings solution didn't work. You will have to terminate services one at a time, until the system restarts (or shutsdown) normally. If it does, then try the same thing again to ensure it wasn't a fluke. So, kill one, try to shutdown. If it doesn't work, then try another, then shutdown.
Did you browse the link I gave? Do any of those solutions work for you? It's a pretty exhaustive set of answers...
Yep, it's a pain. A fresh install is an attractive thing, but you gain no knowledge from doing it. It's a cut and run solution, that really should be a last-ditch, unless you really don't want to know more about computers, their problems and solutions. If you don't care to be able to solve things, then just wipe it and start again. I prefer to try answers first, then, after finding the solution, I can practice prevention more efficiently.
I will post back when my brain is functional.....been a really long day..... |
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Hank Scorpio
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 6:07 am Post subject: |
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| Demophobe wrote: |
| A fresh install is an attractive thing, but you gain no knowledge from doing it. |
Valid point. Tracking down the problem is usually preferable, but too often I've found that people who don't know how to inoculate their systems have just built up so much crap over the months/years that a slash and burn is usually preferable. 20 items in your system tray? A list of processes that never ends? The desktop completely choked with icons? No rhyme or reason to where programs are installed in the file structure because they always let the application choose? Oh, yeah, I'm tearing that sucka down.
I stay on top of my systems, but I still like to back everything up and do a fresh reformat/install every 6 months or so. NTFS has definitely helped, compared to how often I'd do it with a FAT32 FS, but cruft is still a reality. |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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Yes I know how to re-format and re-install but I'd rather not do that if I can avoid it. I've got lots of stuff to back up and will only do it as a last resort.
I don't use P2P and I manually block cookies so I know exactly what I've allowed.
I do know where I download things and know how to find and fix most of the problems that come up. And I only download from sites that I trust and have used often in the past.
I really think that the problem is the megapass site that is displayed before anything else is allowed in IE. I've looked for the cookie/whatever that they might have put on the computer, but no luck.
I've been toying with the idea of a new computer...maybe now is the time. |
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Hank Scorpio
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
| I've looked for the cookie/whatever that they might have put on the computer, but no luck. |
I'd guess that it's not a cookie (which are usually fairly harmless anyway), it's probably a registry change. It sounds to me like you're already fairly paranoid, which is good. Next thing to do is to ditch IE for the exploit ridden hunk of crap that it is. Firefox or Opera are better browsers and less vulnerable to boot. Consider giving one of them a try. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
Yes I know how to re-format and re-install but I'd rather not do that if I can avoid it. I've got lots of stuff to back up and will only do it as a last resort.
I don't use P2P and I manually block cookies so I know exactly what I've allowed.
I do know where I download things and know how to find and fix most of the problems that come up. And I only download from sites that I trust and have used often in the past.
I really think that the problem is the megapass site that is displayed before anything else is allowed in IE. I've looked for the cookie/whatever that they might have put on the computer, but no luck.
I've been toying with the idea of a new computer...maybe now is the time. |
Reflecting on my post, it could have been seen as talking to you as if you were a novice user, which wasn't my goal and sorry if it seemed that way.
I guess you use KT....did they install any software on the computer to set up the connection? On my wife's computer, she has to use a program, and indeed, her computer occasionally hangs, though nowhere near your reported percents. I have no solution to this if it is more than coincidental; her system doesn't hang often enough for it to be called a problem.
Have you tried cleaning out all cache files and junk with a good prog like Window Waser, then changing the start page (if you must use IE) to something less intrusive?
Hmm....buying a new system...seems a bit like selling the car when the ashtray is full....please tell me there are other reasons to sell it beyond it's hanging.... 
In all honesty, I think Hank Scorpio is/was right on the money....it's a program that is causing some kind of loop. Not that you have bad software, it's just a conflict of some kind. Can you think back to the last program you ran/installed and work backwards? Uninstall it and see....?
If you do format, consider making some partitions before installing Windows. A partition can save all of your data....make one area on the hard drive for the OS and software, another for storage/saves. It makes fresh installs much less painful. I actually look forward to formats/installations now. The darn system is just so snappy afterwards....gotta love it! |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:38 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, a tad condescending...but I understand...women aren't supposed to know much about computers! 
I found (I hope!) a solution (well, temporary, anyway) to my problem. If I leave the browser window open when I click "shut down" it does. It's worked twice already...
A question about partitioning, though. Won't saving things in a partition cause the same problems later? I admit that I never have done a partition. I'll have to look into it a little more closely.
Oh, and about my homepage: I have yahoo set as my homepage, but the KT site ALWAYS comes up first! |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:43 am Post subject: |
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| Oh, one more thing: I have AD-SPIDER, a Korean spyware tool...but I'm not sure how to use it, since I have an English OS and the directions are in Korean, so they come up as gobbledygook... Anyone out there use it on a Korean OS and can tell me what each of the options are? |
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hellofaniceguy
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: On your computer screen!
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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I had a few problems with Windows XP as well...shutting down was one of them. Had it fixed yesterday. A simple enough fix. Cost me 30.000 Won to have it done at the computer store....a waste of money if I had only read the help instructions first! Anyway....
go to system restore on XP...pull up the calander and click on what date you want the system restored to.
That same XP calander shows/highlights the dates that downloads were done. If your problem jusy started a week ago...click on the date you think the problem started. It'll restore your system to it's original state prior to the problem. Clicking system restore takes about 15 minutes.
Go to the start button and then search and click on files or folders. The page comes up and will prompt you for "what do you want to search for?"
Click it and type in system restore. When that comes up, click on that..wait a few moments until the system restore page comes up and then follow the instructions.
You won't lose recent work or saved documents. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
A question about partitioning, though. Won't saving things in a partition cause the same problems later? I admit that I never have done a partition. I'll have to look into it a little more closely.
Oh, and about my homepage: I have yahoo set as my homepage, but the KT site ALWAYS comes up first! |
A partition basically divides tha hard drive into 2 (or more) spaces which will be seen in Windows as separate drives. For all purposes, they will be separate drives. If you make a smaller partition (say 10GB) for the operating system, and leave the rest for storage, if you do format again, Windows will only wipe out the partition you choose (the smaller one) and leave the other one alone. The data on the second partition will remain intact.
Saving data on a second partition makes it a separate entity from the OS. It's like actually having a physically separate drive. It's the only way to go for this reason, as well as smaller drives are easier to maintain. Defrags take less time and seek times are faster overall.
I use Partition Magic to do this dividing. It's not free, though I am sure there are some freeware programs. I think PM does have a trial period, which may be all you need....I mean, this only needs to be done once.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Partition-Magic-Download-2118.html
As far as the homepage thing, download "Hijack this!", a small program that will serch your computer for things that take over browsers and change their behavior. It's free.
www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html |
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