Windows XP not shutting down

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Ryland

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Nov 19, 2004
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The system in my sig has started to not shutdown. I have checked the event viewer which isn't of any use because I do see the "The Event log service was stopped."

It just sits at the "Windows is shutting down" screen.

any ideas on how to track this down?
 
I have tracked it down to either:

Trillian
Google Desktop
Palm Hotsync Manager
Game Jackal
Event Reminder

by exiting them all down then doing a shutdown and my machine shutdown in about 10-20 seconds.
 
Ryland said:
I have tracked it down to either:

Trillian
Google Desktop
Palm Hotsync Manager
Game Jackal
Event Reminder

by exiting them all down then doing a shutdown and my machine shutdown in about 10-20 seconds.
Click to expand...

Trillian<--- should log itself off and then exit.. (1-3 sec)
Google Desktop <---- This is Beta and take ALOT of resources (could be this)
Palm <--- nothing special
Game Jackal <-- ???
Event Reminder <--- havn't run it since Win98

Try running optimize in Bootvis by Microsoft.. it can detect startup apps and stuck drivers, you might get lucky.
 
Im guessing it is Google Desktop. I tried multiple shutdowns a few days ago around 9pm and my machine shut right down but last night around 11pm it didn't. Its possible the Google Desktop might be doing something then. I will try shutting it down tonight before shutting the computer down and see if that helps. I will have to look at bootvis, thanks!
 
I'm putting my money on trillian.

I had the same problem tell I switched to GAIM.
 
It wasn't GoogleDesktop. My machine didn't shutdown with that not running. Trillian is next.
 
I'm guessing someone was tweaking their bios and changed the power options to suspend instead of shut down.
 
I'm guessing it's the one that when shut down manually will allow the PC to shutdown normally. ;)

What do you need us for, you have the answer in front of you. ;)

Test and tell us what it was.
 
If I had the bios set to suspend then it would suspend, not jsut say "Windows is shutting down".

I am going through each of the running programs but since it doesn't always happen it gets tricky figuring out WHICH is the culprit. Last night I tried both Google Desktop and Trillian but it still hung.
 
Just try shutting them down one at a time, then shutdown the OS. It's just a matter of 4-5 boot cycles to figure it out.
 
Phoenix86 said:
Just try shutting them down one at a time, then shutdown the OS. It's just a matter of 4-5 boot cycles to figure it out.
Click to expand...

I agree. The problem is that it sometimes shuts down fine so I need to try multiple times for a particular piece of software to see if its the culprit. I will play with it more tonight and exit out of other programs to see if I can nail it.

Archer75 said:
Push the power off button. Works every time.
Click to expand...

Yup. I end up holding the power button in for 5 seconds for it to turn off. Just annoying is all.

mattjw916 said:
get rid of all the 1337 software you've got on there ;)
Click to expand...
I would rather deal with a machine that won't shutoff then pissing my wife off by removing what are mostly her apps.
 
Ryland said:
I would rather deal with a machine that won't shutoff then pissing my wife off by removing what are mostly her apps.
Click to expand...
I'd uninstall Wife 1.0 and install Girlfriend 0.1 beta personally. ;)
 
mattjw916 said:
I'd uninstall Wife 1.0 and install Girlfriend 0.1 beta personally. ;)
Click to expand...

One of the problems with doing that is that I would then have to install Alimony 1.0 which would subsequently destroy my computer, house, car, etc. A few apps is a small price to pay.
 
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but have you tried updating all of the hardware drivers?
 
djnes said:
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but have you tried updating all of the hardware drivers?
Click to expand...

It hasn't been mentioned but I did just build the machine about a month ago using all of the latest drivers. I have the 6.70 nforce4 drivers installed...
 
How about any USB devices, aside from a mouse and keyboard, like a scanner or a printer. If so, disconnect them and then try shutting down. My fiancee's computer wouldn't shut down unless I disconnected her Canon scanner first.
 
I think I found the culprit but it is going to take a bit more time to verify it. It looks like my wifes Tungsten Palm sync software is the culprit and its a USB device.


Update:
Its not the palm software. I exited it before a subsequent shutdown and it still didn't fully shutoff.
 
Its really starting to look like it is Diskeeper 9 Home. Twice now I have killed the DKSERVICE task and my machine shutdown.
 
Its not Diskeeper. At this point Im stumped. The 2 times that killing the DKSERVICE.EXE task worked seems to have been an annomily.

Any other ideas?
 
It won't pinpoint your problem but it should help in allowing your machine to shutdown:
User Profile Hive Cleanup

It forces any open sessions that are running to close. BTW, Diskeeper would sometimes make my shutdowns take awhile until I updated to the newest version. They probably fixed their code where it cataloged files that are used constantly before shutting down in order to better optimize defragging.
 
I am currently running Diskeeper Home 9 with the latest build. The main reason I don't think that Diskkeeper is the culprit is that my machine usually still doesn't shtudown if i kill DKSERVICE.EXE.

I will try the hive idea. Thanks
 
Have you tried booting into safe mode and then doing a Start->Shutdown->Shutdown? If it works, then problem is most likely a running service/software. You might already believe so but this will be definitive proof. You can start uninstalling software (and re-installing software when the culprit is found) and start disabling (and re-enabling when the culprit is found).

If the machine still refuses to shutdown in safe mode, then issue may be with the OS itself. In which case re-installing the newest drivers from each manufacturer's website and installing any critical and software updates from Microsoft would be beneficial. If you have Norton SystemsWorks laying around you can run WinDoctor from the CD to clean out messed up registry entries or you can download EasyCleaner which does the same thing for free. This may help in your troubleshooting endeavours.

By the way, you're not overclocking or anything are you? If so, reset everything to default and see if that helps.
 
My machine shuts down extremely quickly in safemode. I have been guessing at a running service/app but haven't been able to track down which one.

I really wish there was some way to log what is happening because it hangs after the Error Log service is shutdown.

Nothing is overclocked. This is a "new" build (OS was installed in November but maybe I do need to do a registry clean...that sounds like a "good" next option.
 
The only software I know that can log item file accesses and registry access when shutting down/starting up is Filemon/Regmon Enterprise editions inside the WinInternals Administrators Pack ($$$). The freeware versions at the Sysinternals website do not have that function.

The last thing I can think of is for you to install and run Autoruns from the Sysinternals website. What this will allow you to do is only worry about services and startup registry entries that could be causing you problems. When you run Autoruns, click "view" on the toolbar and check "Show Services" and "Hide Signed Microsoft Entries". This will narrow down all things that startup with your machine that are not installed by a default Windows installation. If you uncheck the items under "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services" they will not run on next boot. The entries under "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services" will have to be manually set to "manual/disabled" under your Windows Services snap-in. Disable all items that are questionable, reboot, log-in and then wait a minute or so, then shutdown. Keep disabling until you are able to shutdown normally.

Maybe someone else can chime in if this last suggestion does not work. Oh, Creative and Nvidia recently released updated sound and videocard (respectively) drivers recently. The Creative applications do give some users problems.
 
CrapCleaner didn't make a difference besides tremendously speeding up my boottime.

I will have to look at your latest suggestion. I don't have the Creative applications installed, only the drivers and the same with Nvidia (only the drivers installed).

I will try out Autoruns and see what that shows me.
 
Autoruns isn't showing anything out of the ordinary either (there was one service that didn't need to be running but that didn't change anything either). It is starting to sound like Im stuck with XP not shutting down on this box.
 
I finally figured out what was causing windows to not shut down by uninstalling Norton Ghost 9. Once I did that windows now shuts down every time.
 
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