Computer gets stuck while rebooting

[Marshall Bennett]

Every couple weeks it seems when I reboot my computer (HP Desktop) it gets stuck when it says "shutting down". I then have to turn off power and turn back on to restart it. Is there anything that may be running that causes this or could it simply be age (6 years)? O/S is Vista home edition.
Thanks anyone !!
Also, I still have tons of free space so doubt that could be an issue.

[DJofSD]

I can not recall if Vista will present a pop up window telling you what process is still running and which is preventing the shut down from continuing.

First, make sure you are current with all of the patches via the Windows Update app.

Next, I would run chkdsk from an elevated priviledge DOS command prompt window (console) enter: chkdsk /f . When prompted reply with the letter y for yes. Then try to restart the PC via the same process used to shut down except pick restart. If it does not hang, it will stop the OS, reboot and before it loads Windows, it will run the utility to examine the file system. It might take a while -- let it run. When it is done, it will give you a summary then reboot -- ya gotta look quickly. Try to catch any messages about repairing bad sectors, if any. If there were some bad sectors, using the "/f" switch instructed the app to repair them. Hopefully, the repair, if needed, worked.

If the shutdown to restart does hang, let it sit for a little while then take it down via the power switch by pressing and continuing to hold the button down. This should result in the PC eventually stopping. You will need to use the power button to restart the PC and it should enter into the check disk utility.

[johnhannibalsmith]

The last desktop that I retired a few years ago would do that and is probably would got me in the habit of shutting down very rarely.

What I noticed was that the vast majority of the time when I restarted, it would not complain about the nature of the shutdown - that is to say, it seemingly had run through the entire shutdown except the part that says "okay, it's all good, turn the power off now."

So really, I didn't worry much at that time and wound up replacing it anyway not long after. But, I always figured the fact that it didn't hang up at a point that would cause it to yell at me for improper shutdown and threaten to check everything probably meant something that would be the clue to solving where the problem was.

I'm not sure if this is any help, other than if this sounds familiar then maybe one of the smarter guys will know right away.

And then I will finally know too.

[JustRalph]

something is not "unloading" usually that means an older piece of hardware is not communicating with the system. used to see this with older printers.

I wouldn't worry about it, as long as you wait to shut it down/restart via power. it's probably no big deal. you could try doing a shut down after booting up in safe mode and if it works, it's probably an old driver. If you want to really get to the bottom of it, disconnect all the extra hardware, printers etc and see if it shuts down ok. shut it down. disconnect hardware, boot up and then immediately try a shut down

[Marshall Bennett]

Thanks guys. I'll just live with it since it seldom happens. Was just curious more than it being a real nuisance. I'm afraid if I try doing anything to correct it I'll screw something else up and be much worse off.

[HUSKER55]

In the past I have notice that the computer will do things that defy explanation. OK...OK...it does stuff I don't understand.

I have found that if you reload office in the repair section, clear out the history and other caches from your browser and internet settings that sometimes it makes the computer work better.

I have always left my computer on but the new repair guy I have said to shut them off at night. They need to cool down and something about memory resetting itself. Again, that is beyond me...but it seems to work.

Another thing he told me was that unless you have to, [HAVE TO], have ms office that you would be better of with a free version. I guess even google has a version but I have not checked this out .

It seems that MS has a bunch of laws, proprietary stuff and on and on that eats up memory and slows the system down. That is funny cause I don't move that fast,...but.

I don't know if any of this will help you but I thought I would pass the info along for your consideration.

GL

[wilderness]

Older computers (HP and otherwise) are notorious for the capacitors going bad, whether leaking or bulging.

Here some pics of bad capacitors

Eventually, one will leak enough that it fries other components (i. e., a motherbaord)

[MJC922]

Originally Posted by Marshall Bennett

Every couple weeks it seems when I reboot my computer (HP Desktop) it gets stuck when it says "shutting down". I then have to turn off power and turn back on to restart it. Is there anything that may be running that causes this or could it simply be age (6 years)? O/S is Vista home edition.
Thanks anyone !!
Also, I still have tons of free space so doubt that could be an issue.

These things can be difficult to pin down and seeing that it's an old machine I would probably just live with it for now. One thing you can take a look at though is the windows event viewer, type eventvwr.msc at a command prompt, from in there you can look at the application and system logs, noting any possible errors that occur with a timestamp during the shutdown sequence. As others have said this can be due to a whole lot of things, external USB hard drives, buggy device drivers, stuff left over from old software etc. I've even had many hangs like this occur after installing Windows updates. Not a huge issue typically but an annoyance. The only risk is if the disk is actually still writing at the time you do a hard shutdown, there's some risk of creating errors on the disk. Someone mentioned running chkdsk which again can be done from the command prompt, that might clear it up. Good luck.

[senortout]

Do you make an effort to close running programs before shutting down, or, rather let the shutdown process do this for you? I would try consciously shutting down running programs before issuing computer shutdown commands. If a running program does not shut down, this can be seen too. Shut down each running program, then open task manager and see what's still running that should not be still 'live'. Of course, not everything shown in task manager is a program you are using, and should be left alone. Its easy enough to recognize stuff you use however, right?

Originally Posted by Marshall Bennett

Every couple weeks it seems when I reboot my computer (HP Desktop) it gets stuck when it says "shutting down". I then have to turn off power and turn back on to restart it. Is there anything that may be running that causes this or could it simply be age (6 years)? O/S is Vista home edition.
Thanks anyone !!
Also, I still have tons of free space so doubt that could be an issue.

[DJofSD]

Originally Posted by MJC922

Someone mentioned running chkdsk which again can be done from the command prompt, that might clear it up. Good luck.

My suggestion.

First, tracking down the root cause of problems which are hard to duplicate can be frustrating especially if they are hard to reproduce. But not impossible.

Next, the unstated theory behind my suggestion was there could be a place on the drive that is causing a problem and is only in use on the odd occasion. Running a chkdsk to repair any possible flaky sectors and taking them out of play would eliminate that as a possible reason. Also, the problem is discovered b/c the system will not shut down as expected, however, it does not necessarily mean the problem actually started when the system was requested to stop -- it could but until some other information is discovered (like reading the logs) you can not say for sure.

Yes the better approach is to try to locate what is still in the system preventing it from terminating but sometimes you end up doing some elimination of likely reasons/sources then with whatever is remaining as possible causes iterating through the list again. Not the best way but sometimes you're without a clue.

Back to El Classico.

[headhawg]

Here's a LINK that might help. The information could be totally irrelevant to your specific issue, but then again maybe not. Be advised that if you are not at all comfortable with registry editing then DON'T do it.

[DJofSD]

Originally Posted by headhawg

Here's a LINK that might help. The information could be totally irrelevant to your specific issue, but then again maybe not. Be advised that if you are not at all comfortable with registry editing then DON'T do it.

Good list.

I remember there was an option introduced a long time ago. It was to enhance security by erasing/overwriting pages in the swap file. As I recall, it was an option you had to opt-in to use. I have no idea if that is still an option or perhaps in the interim if MSFT has flipped it around to an opt-out or perhaps flat out just making it the normal course of action during a shutdown. In any event, it will take the shutdown a bit longer to complete if that activity is present.

[headhawg]

DJ,

I'm pretty sure that the secure pagefile option is disabled by default. It's a local security policy setting, so a person would have to delve into that MMC to make the change.

[DJofSD]

OK, thanks.

I did a quick search and the first hit is: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...e-disable.html

If I understand what's now being done, the contents of the swap file are encrypted before being written then decrypted after being read. Makes me think the swap file is not sanitized as a part of the shutdown. Yes?

[headhawg]

That's a different setting than the "Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile" one that I thought that you were referring to.