Dell Inspiron 8600

Hi ppl, My girlfriend just got this laptop and all is great apart from very very slow shutdown speeds. I have disabled loads of things from starting up etc via msconfig but it still takes ages to shutdown.

She has Mcafee AV and firewall running which came with it msn and the usuall WIFI stuff. Not sure why it takes so long to shut down but its really annoying start up goes lovely and quick just shutdown is the problem.

Hope u guys can help

Many thanks
Paul

 

can we have a spec of it please??

 

Year sure sorry forgot to post them

Intel Centrino 1.6
512mb Ram
40gig
15.4"
Cdrw/dvdrw
Winxp home with sp2

If you need more i will be happy to post them

Cheers
Paul

 

hmmm ok, it has plenty of ram so thats not a problem. did it take ages to shutdown as soon as you got it, or did you install some software first and then it took ages to shut down?

 

Oh yeah it also has 9600 ATI 128mb graphics...

She just told me its only recent that its doing it. She has recently installed msn etc but thats not the problem as i have disabled it and checked things like MS office etc all is well with them. As i say startup is fine and goes pretty quick its just the shutdown. Only other things we installed really are AdAware and Spybot.

Saying that it could have been from the start its been shutting down slow but she may not remember have done recent virus scans, AdAware and spybot found a few lil things but everything was fine really just the usuall clutter u get

Thanks for ur help IF u can think of anything else that may cause it we would be very happy to try anything

Thanks
Paul

 

hmmm, i don't see why it would take so long to shut down if it runs fine during bootup and when running normally...
have you ran memtest at all on it? can be found in MG downloads.

 

Will have a look at that in a min. What i will do is download it run it and then come back with the results.

My girlfriend says thanks for the help

Cheers
Paul

 

Make sure you install a firewall. Even use XP XP2's firewall for the moment. The fact that you have found some stuff indicates that you/her may not have a firewall installed.

Here's a couple. Check MG for more, free and shareware. I use ZA, for years now.

Sygate Personal Firewall http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3356.html
Zone Alarm http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=388

Bazza

===

 

Hi again, Ran mem test for a lil while and all was fine. I sure i did say that she had Mcafee firewall and AV running. This come with her laptop which is new. Strange thing is my laptop which is 2800 celeron 512 30gig shuts down and loads up faster than her.

I always make sure to check it etc and keep it clean for her she hardly goes on the net if she does its for ebay or hotmail or wanadoo chat and thats about it or just some online banking.

Still unsure whats causing it though just she aint too impressed that its behaving like it.

Many Thanks
Paul

 

p5o5,

Does it hang at the “Windows is shutting down” screen? There is a process, (GEARSEC.EXE), it enables programs like iTunes for Windows to read and burn CDs, sometimes it will cause long shutdowns ( 20-30 seconds ).

Should be able to check Task Manager and see if it is running.

Steve

 

Yeah it hangs like hell on "Windows is shutting down" I just had a look and there is nothing in there called GEARSEC.EXE Tried everything i can think of so far and its annoying to say the least lol

At first i thought it might be Mcafee slowing it down but im not sure its a bugger trying to find out what is causing it... Think my best bet might be to end all process's and see if it shuts down quicker then if so only end one at a time and go from there will take time but its all i can think of.

Any other ideas i will try!

Cheers for ur help
Paul

 

Try and boot up with diagnostic startup

Start -> Run ->msconfig
select Diagnostic Startup from here. Restart the computer and it will load up. Then shut it down and see if the shutdown is faster.

If it is faster then you will know that it is a problem with something running.

 

p505, I haven't used McAfee for many years so I am out of touch. Does McAfee come with a firewall, or just an AV? Can't remember anyone using McAfee firewall, in thousands of posts here on MG. The main 2 mentioned are, as I posted earlier.

Sygate Personal Firewall http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3356.html
Zone Alarm http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=388

Bazza

===

 

Hi again, Sagem tried what u said and what a difference! Shut down speedy as hell 4 times. At the mo i cant get onto her laptop so im gonna need to manually stop things and go from there when i can but the info u gave was so much help many thanks!

Bigbazza what she has is something called Mcaffee security centre it has a firewall and antivirus personally i hate it but she wants to keep it as it come with it lol typical women! Personally i use norton 2oo5 AV and use windows firewall as i have had loads of probs with firewalls plus the fact that if some1 wanted to hack me then they can go ahead i have nothing on here of interest!

Trying to convince her to get rid of Mcafee so if i can will try the 2 u suggested

Many thanks for ur help guys
Paul