XP hangs on shutdown

If this isn't the proper troubleshooting area, please move it.

I'm on Windows XP and when ever I hit "restart", my system hangs up on the "windows is shutting down" screen. I have to do a manual shutdown for it to turn off. It only does this if I click the "restart" option. If I hit "shutdown", it works fine. I'm not very good troubleshooting stuff like this so any help would be great.

 

I'd rather have a solution than a workaround but I appreciate you looking into it. On normal shutdown, I've noticed occasionally a program won't close causing it to hang so I have to hit "end program" for the shutdown sequence to commence. It's not common though. I was thinking maybe the same thing is happening when I hit "restart" and it hangs up as its shutting down but no prompt ever appears saying a program isn't responding, etc.

 

I think the (late, and missed) Karen's PT Shutdown IS the solution, not a workaround. The XP shutdown.exe just doesn't work effectively sometimes in Reboot mode. It fails to terminate all running processes successfully. Karen's Showstopper, set to reboot, will gently stop all running processes and then shut down the system itself and reboot it.

Set it up according to the instructions, with two shortcuts: one with the /reboot parameter, and one with the /poweroff parameter. (Give the shortcuts names that indicate the difference, of course.)

Then, if you wish, you can remove Windows Shutdown entirely from your Start Menu.

Wisewiz

 

I have had XP on....5 machines, 3 current. Some of them do that, sometimes.
If we knew what the program was that's hanging....
Mine have usually been Update.
The OS tries on every shutdown to update. If it cannot find the Windows server to do so, it hangs. If you've changed something in that path, it hangs.
On mine, since the MS override issue for WGA, I went to services, found Automatic Updates, clicked it, properties, found the box for "Profile" and disabled it.
It tries still, not as long by a long shot, and gives up, and shuts down.
I go the Update Log and it's always tried, fatal error, shutdown.
May not be your issue, but worked for me.
Dave

 

Hi my friend , you can use this tool :wave

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_User_Profile_Hive_Cleanup_Service_d4841.html

 

I'm a little confused as to what this does. Maybe I misread the description, but it just logs which programs hang? Does it close out everything so the system can commence the reboot process without hanging?

 

Yes , this application helps programmes which is connecting with the registry to close during shut down :wave

 

You can try this from the Run command dialog or, if this works, create a shortcut on your desktop with this command. This is a reboot command.

Code:

shutdown -f -r

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/.../xp/all/proddocs/en-us/shutdown.mspx?mfr=true

Here are a few Registry tweaks that shorten the time that Windows waits to complete some tasks.
This can be merged into the Registry and will replace the current values.
Please make a backup before you make these changes.

ERUNT

Tweaking.com - Registry Backup

I have attached the following as a .txt file.
Make a second copy of the file and rename it to faster-shutdown.reg.
Then double click the file and it should be merged into the registry.

You could make those 5000 and 4000 numbers as small as 1000, but these are the values that I use.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"
"HungAppTimeout"="4000"
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="5000"

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"HungAppTimeout"="5000"
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="1000"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="5000"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000000

 

I downloaded the ERUNT program and made a backup. So now all I have to do is copy that txt file, rename it, and double click it and it will merge itself? I'm just trying to be clear. Like I said in my OP, I'm not good with this stuff so please feel free to walk me along with baby steps. I won't be insulted at all.

 

First, please try the shutdown command.
The -f parameter forces running applications to close and the -r parameter triggers a reboot.

If that does not help your Restart problem, then you can try the registry tweaks.
Those do not apply to a Restart specifically, but both Restart and Shutdown.

After the text file is renamed with a .reg extension, Windows will by default merge the file into the registry when
you double click it, as in Windows Explorer file manager.

Or, you can right-click the file and point to Open with in the context menu and then select Registry Editor.
You will then see a confirmation prompt. Click Yes to complete the process.

This is not a guaranteed fix, but it might do the trick.
It kind of tells Windows to "clean house" more quickly at shutdown.

 

So I tried the first part and it didn't work. The system would shut down but would never boot back up. The system would be on but the screen was black. I then tried what you said do in the 2nd part with the ERUNT program and the registry edits and every thing seems to be working ok. I've ran through several times and I've had no issues. Looks like that may have done it. Thanks a lot

 

Great!
Strange behavior with the shutdown command.

Glad it worked out and Thanks for the feedback.