Hello
My wifes netbook won't shut down unless we hold down the power button. Basically the shutdown window appears as normal but after hitting shut down the window shuts then nothing happens at all. I have tried shut down from task manager but no joy.

acer one
xp sp2

if you need any more info, please let me know.

Regards
Dave

Hi Dave.

What happens if you boot to Safe mode with Networking then try a shutdown? Does it work? If yes then something is running that is causing the shutdown to hang. Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem.

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP or Vista:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot normally and see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, boot to Safe Mode again, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system.
Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

Something else that might help is to install UPHC (User Profile Hive Cleanup) from Microsoft.

Along with the above by Ztruker;

In case you wanted to try a one click shutdown;

Start>Run> %windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 0

If that works for you, create a shortcut with the above command. This will stop all processes and turn off the machine.

Please don't shut down by power off else it may lead to a hard drive crash and ultimately to a data loss situation.

The same happened to me. Thanks to god that I had Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery software v4.2 to get my data back from there.

davison4,

Can you explain, or give a reason, for your statement? In my experience, I've never seen or experienced, your supplied scenario.

Thanks for all the info, as always the help is much appreciated.

A quick fix was a system restore back to an insignificant date. Im sure no updates were installed since that restore point as it was the last system check point.

It does mean we can safely shut down but its not right as it takes a while. I will endevour to look into this when i can prize it out of the hands of my teenage daughter.

will post back with an update soon

thanks again

Dave

Originally Posted by Dan Penny

davison4,

Can you explain, or give a reason, for your statement? In my experience, I've never seen or experienced, your supplied scenario.

When we shut down the system in a proper manner the head of hard drive (after closing all the applications) moves to a safer location. And if you are just switching the power off, the head remains at the same location and at next start up it gets a jerk which can cause scratch at your hard disk.

I hope I have put my words
Thanks

The shutdown method I described performs a normal shutdown of the O/S and hardware. The only difference is it is performed with one click. Look at the code/command I outlined. All elements are there for a normal shutdown.

Update

disabled all the startup bits, not resolved
disabled all services, better but kept getting the following



would not shutdown after hitting 'end now'.

Also we encountered bsod today and the event viewer gave us this. probably not related but thought i would report it anyway.



In addition we are getting this in task manager processes when trying to shutdown - system idol process - system - value between 90 and 95.

sorry if im sounding a bit vague but thats due to lack of technical ability.

Tried the code as written by Dan. The command prompt window opens for a split second then nothing - user error? Could do with a step by step guide on this one.

regards
Dave

Continue to follow Ztruker's advice. I just dropped in to suggest a possible fix, and it not working provides further info to your situation.