Extended shutdown

I have a dell laptop with windows XP that when it is turned off, it goes to the "windows is shutting down" screen ok and then sits there for five minutes before turning off. There doesn't seem to be any viruses and there is no hard drive activity at the shut down screen. Any ideas?

 

>> I have a dell laptop with windows XP that when it is turned off, it goes to the "windows is shutting down" screen ok and then sits there for five minutes before turning off. There doesn't seem to be any viruses and there is no hard drive activity at the shut down screen. Any ideas? <<

Slow Windows XP shutdowns can be caused by a number of different factors - far too many to list here.

I recommend you visit Ramesh Srinivasan’s excellent "Troubleshooting Windows" website page called Shutdown is Very Slow - Windows XP where several tips are offered to fix this problem.

I would also recommend you visit MS-MVP James Eshelman's Shutdown troubleshooter website page Windows XP Shutdown & Restart where there are many additional tips and suggestions to resolve the various issues that will cause Windows slow shutdown problems.

Side Note: But by far, the most common cause of this problem is when the "Clear Pagefile at Shutdown" option is enabled. This clears the Windows paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process and will significantly increases the amount of time it takes to shut down your computer.

Good Luck!