XP hanging at shut down

Hi all.
I choose shut down it says 'saving your settings' then it says 'windows is shutting down' and it just hangs.
It's happened several times.
It usually clears up when I run something like Advanced System Care or CCleaner but comes back.

I have looked in the System Tools > Event Viewer and at 11:34:32, which is when I asked it, NAY, commanded it to shut down to it just says
System = event 6006.
Security = System event 513
And that's all I can find that happened at that time.

One thing, has Avast anti virus stopped logging events?
I have no entries in Antivirus since April 2010?

 

This is the solution for windows 7 but there is no reason it will not work with XP,It comes from Microsoft so it is safe.

go to:START,RUN,and type,regedit,and hit enter,the registrybox will open, on the left side at the top of the box clic on FILE,and open the options small box,clic then on EXPORT,and save the registrybackup to documents for example,

After you backed up the reg clic on:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then SYSTEM then CURRENTCONTROLSET then CONTROL then SESSIONMANAGER then clic on MEMORYMANAGEMENT and on your right side,you'll see an key called CLEARPAGEFILEATSHUTDOWN,right clic on it and open an small box,clic on CHANGE and you'll see the key value HEXADECIMAL,if there you have 1, just change it to 0 and clic OK,close your registry and restart your pc,that's all.

 

while waiting for our geeks to answer here try going to the safe mode and see you can get through the desktop to run antivirus, memtest and chkdsk /f

hope it helps.

 

Thanks for the replies.
Already a zero BILL.

 

There are two system changes that can/may help with slow shutdown issues, in addition to the PageFile setting that BillMCC66
mentioned:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\
ClearPageFileAtShutdown 0

First make a backup of the Registry in one of these two ways:

Start -> Run -> Regedit
Highlight My Computer, (top)
File menu -> Export
Choose a backup location and name the file Full-Registry-2011-11-03, or use the current date.
Make sure Save as type is Registration Files .reg

Suggest you download and install ERUNT for Registry backups.

In Regedit, go to:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\

right click HungAppTimeout and select Properties
change Value to 5000

right click WaitToKillAppTimeout and select Properties
change Value to 1000

Another alternative is to create a new desktop shortcut for Quick Shutdown.
For Type the location of the item:, enter the following:

Code:

%windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00 -f

 

The reason i did not post any further ideas is that we have members who are far better qualified than me with XP so i will let them point you in the right direction.

I hope you get it sorted soon as i know how annoying it can be (i had it a while ago and it took days to get it right.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.
It is behaving 'normally' again now.
I used ccleaner to see what was in 'start up' and there were three strange things from itunes. (Which I presume must have to shut down as well at the end of the session)
I have deleted all but three start ups and at the moment all is well.
We shall see.

 

Ooops, spoke too soon.
The problem returns the very same evening.

mjnc, assuming your first suggestion doesn't work, what does the other bit mean?
Where do I type to create a new desktop shortcut?

 

First, Copy the command string that was posted.
Right click an empty area on the Desktop.
In the context menu that appears, choose "New", then "Shortcut"

Paste the command string in the entry box for Type the location of the item:
Enter a name for the shortut, then OK.

Be sure to Close all running applications before clicking the new shortcut.

To make a shortcut that does a Reboot, change the -s parameter to -r.

The -f parameter forces running applications to close.

 

Cheers for that.
It worked but this has been an intermitient problem so I will try it a few times.
Only thing I don't like about it is there doesn't seem to be a cancel option.
Once it is double clicked you have 30 seconds to save work.
We shall see.

BILL, no worries, it was worth a try, all help much appreciated.

 

For many years now, I've been using a "Quick Shutdown" shortcut to the normal shutdown routine.
It's just one Icon on the desktop that does the entire job. NO more going to START to Stop. (I never did understand that one)

But, having said that, it's always a good idea to close programs like word processors, data bases, etc., before you try to shut down your PC. Then I run this shortcut:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00 -f

My typical shutdown time is around 5 seconds, using this Quick Shutdown shortcut.
It has worked flawlessly in XP, Vista, Win-7 and now in Win-8.
(the syntax is a little bit different for Windows 2k, 98 or ME)

Cheers Mates and Happy Holidays!
The Shadow

 

Well, for the first time last night the shut down shortcut did exactly the same.
Got to 'Windows is shutting down' and it didn't!
This must be something so simple, but what?

 

I'm thinking it's a certain software that takes forever to finish up what it's doing.

• Do you have any backup software installed?
• Does the shut down take forever in Safe Mode too?

 

No backup software.
Don't know about safe mode as it happens 'sometimes'.
If I shut down at night and don't check that it has actually shut down it can still be on in the morning!! so I doubt it is something taking a long time to finish.
I do know it's a pain in the butt!

 

I would review this thread if you haven't already: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowshutdown.htm

BILLMCC66 mentioned the "Set ClearPageFileAtShutdown value to 0" solution. Did you try that one?

If not, I think you may have some success with User Profile Hive Cleanup Service

 

Yes I tried the 0 value. It was already set to that.
Further issues now.
I shut down last night and got a BSOD

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
STOP: )x000000D1 (0xB174D128, 0x00000005, 0x00000000, 0xB074CFD9)

Then turned on this morning, windows wants restart to load updates, I say yes, got another BSOD

STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000000, 0x00000005, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Do these give a clue?
I shall look at your links later after work.
Cheers.

 

If nothing else works reinstalling windows would do the job. This should be a last ditch effort if no one else can figure out the problem.

 

Just trying mjnc suggestion in the registry.
The first was already set to 5000.
The second was set to 20000 so changed that to 1000.
Does that just make windows stop any apps quicker?

 

A setting of 5000 is fine for both, as these values are in milliseconds.

Microsoft Technet: WaitToKillAppTimeout
How to speed up shutdown time of Windows XP and Windows Vista

Your BSOD problem may or may not be related to the shutdown issue.
Sorry I can't help with that.
The following Microsoft document about STOP 0x000000D1 refers to Windows XP Service Pack 2-based portable computer

Are you still running SP2 as your signature indicates?

Microsoft Update

 

Oh well, that didn't work either.
I've backed up just about everything in case I get the urge to reinstall xp.

mjnc, service pack 2? Are you suggesting I forgot to update my signature? :-o