XP Pro startup and shutdown

I have a friend whose computer won't shutdown with XP. It just sits there and says Windows is shutting down and never does go off unless you use the power button and force it to shutdown. It also says "Cannot open volume for direct access" When the computer starts and runs scandisk and then goes ahead and starts up fine and runs Windows OK. No hardware has been changed in a long time so it seems to be a software problem. Any help would be appreciated.

 

currently no resolution for the direct access issue in XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823439

check event logs for error on or about the time of shut down to see if any program is hanging on you. When that happens to me, usually go through my processes one by one and try shutting down after I terminate them to see which (if any) may be causing the problem.

 

Usually you can go into msconfig and start shutting down programs from there. I had the same problem awhile back and found out there was some kind of shareware running in the background. Just try shutting down one or two programs at a time until it fixes the problem. If there is a program you need running (like virus protection), you can alway re-check the box.
Just in case....

For WinXP
start>search (all files and folders)>double click "msconfig">start up (upper right corner); then choose your programs from there

For Win 98, 2000, etc
start>run>type in "msconfig">; same as above

You also might want to send a shortcut of msconfig to your desktop.
Hope this helps.
Al

 

No one has the answers?

 

Can he shutdown normally from Safe Mode?