You can't get yours up? I can't get mine down!

:-D
Good Morning,
My computer won't shut down (unless I press the on/off button) because windows will not shut down!
Any ideas?

 

What happens when you try to shut down?
Does Windows produce an error, or does the machine just hang?

What make and model is the computer?

 

No error, just hangs.
It' a Alienware Lightspeed desktop - 3.6 ghz, 4 mb ram.

 

How old is the computer and what version of windows are you running?

 

Does it reboot? I've seen cases (can't remember the fix though) that one can reboot the computer, but not shutdown.

Can you shutdown in safemode?

 

Hi theefool and collinsl and thanks for responding.
Yes, I can reboot but ONLY when windows does and upgrade - than it will shut down and start up again (sometimes). Otherwise I have to push the off button everytime I want/need to shut down. It actually hangs more than I would like while doing other things (like opening to many windows and trying to do to much).
My baby is about 7 years old and I'm using windows XP SP3, IE8.
Seem like I'm just having more and more problems (shutdown, external drives, etc.). I did re-install windows a couple of weeks ago but the shutdown and external drive problems did not go away.
I don't know about safe mode. I'll try that tonight.
Thanks!!!

 

My computer just hung again (trying to look at a wmv file that was in an email (incredimail - did I just hear you groan??) so I got to bring it up in safe mode. It restarted perfectly - not a problem. Is that a good clue?

 

Its 7 years old and running 3.6ghz and 4 gigs of ram?

 

Sorry, I made a mistake - just looked it up. It was Jan 2005, $2000.00 and this is what I got: (I upgraded the RAM myself)

1 | LIGHTSPEED VALUE


1 | LIGHTSPEED MINITOWER


1 | ASUS P5GD1-VMGL 915G MB


1 | P4 3.6JGHZ 1MB 800FSB LGA775


2 | ALIENWARE 512MB DDR PC3200LL


1 | BARRACUDA 160GB 8MB CACHE SERIAL ATA WITH NCQ HD


1 | LITE-ON 52/32/52 DVD/CD-RW COMBO DRIVE BLACK


1 | NEC ND-3500 16X DUAL LAYER DVD±R/W RECORDER


1 | ATECH 10 IN 1 PRO 9 MEDIA READER


1 | INTEL INTEGRATED HIGH-DEFINITION AUDIO


1 | INTEL INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR 900 FOR 915G


1 | BLACK BASIC OPTICAL MOUSE


1 | MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PRO INTEL RECOVERY CD REV 1.4


1 | MICROSOFT WINOWS XP PRO COA


1 | ALIENWARE AREA-51 SUPPORT CD VERSION 1.1


1 | SYMANTEC GHOST CORPORATE VERSION 8 (LICENSE)


1 | NERO EXPRESS CD WITH NERO VISION EXPRESS SOFTWARE V6.0.0.16C


2 | CYBERLINK POWERDVD 8 CHANNEL 7.1 XP


1 | NERO EXPRESS DVD WITH VISION EXPRESS SFT BUNDLE V6.0.0.16C


1 | ALIENWARE CORE MANUAL


1 | OWNER IDENTIFICATION CARD


1 | 36" INTERNAL TO EXTERNAL USB CABLE


1 | 1-YR 24/7 WARRANTY (NO CHARGE)


1 | ON-SITE WARRANTY


1 | ALIENWARE RESPAWN RECOVERY KIT


1 | MOVIELINK $45 COUPON


1 | MULTIMEDIA SPACE BLACK KEYBOARD


1 | PERIPHERALS


1 | ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 3.0


1 | BENQ FP731 BLACK 17" LCD MONITOR


1 | LEXMARK X2250 PRINTER


1 | CREATIVE INSPIRE T3000 2.1 29-WATT SPEAKERS


1 | VERBATIM DATALIFEPLUS 4.7GB 4X DVD+RW 10-PACK

 

I am starting to lean towards age causing the issue here, but I think we should do a little more digging before giving up.

Please download and run the ultimate boot cd and try one of the hard drive diagnostic programs that is specific to the hard drive model in your PC, which in this case is a Seagate. This is just to rule out any hard drive problems, as most hard drives are designed to last about 5 years, so yours may be nearing the end of it's life span.

If you need further instructions on how to burn the UBCD to disc, post back and I will give a more detailed guide.