I can't Shutdown Windows Sometimes

Every now and then after I install some new software (MSI CoreCenter and a usb driver for my camera so far) I can't shut windows down. I will go to start>shutdown. The menu will come up and I will select "restart" the menu will then disappear and nothing will happen. A few seconds go by and the menu appears like magic in the middle of the screen. i will hit restart and nothing happens. A few more seconds and the menu reappears. This goes on until I manually turn the computer off.

Here's my equipment
A64 3400
MSI Neo Plat 754
1 Gig of Corsair at 2.7 (two unmatched sticks. one is LL and the other is XLL. Running at 2.5-3-11-3)
SATA Maxtor 120 Gb drive
X800 Pro
OCZ Modstream 520
Audigy 2

What's going on with this? I just did a reformat so everything should be okay. I ran Prime and Memtest86 as well as loops of 3dMark

All that random information and you never even tell us what OS you're having problems with.

XP SP2. And I wouldn't call the info random. I'm just trying to get some help and I thought giving my system specs would help

Don't mind him, he just loves the juice. I've seen the same occassionaly. Try opening up task manager and choosing shutdown or restart from there. You'd think itd be the same, but I've had that work when the start menu one doesn't sometimes. Maybe it was just timing, I don't know. Never got around to troubleshooting it because it happens so rarely for me.

Thanks. I've done that but it's just annoying. I want to have a rock stable system and it's taking me forever. I just realized that my BSOD problem (not related to this) was from teh Nvidia Network Manager software. Once I removed that, bsods stopped. This is my last bug and then I'm set!!!