PC won't shut down properly

Every time I hit "Shut Down" in Windows, I get that screen saying "Saving your settings" and "Windows is shutting down." Then, my hard drive spins down, but that blue screen just hangs there indefinitely with the "Windows is shutting down" message still visible. It’s super frustrating because nothing happens, so I end up having to hold down the power button for about four seconds just to force it off. I have another PC where something similar happens, but once the drive stops, it actually shows a black screen that says "It is now safe to turn off your computer," which is how it should work on this one too. Does anyone know how I can fix this?😕

Hey, throw some more info my way—what kind of Windows are you running? Did you mess around with any BIOS settings or install some new software recently? Also, let me know if you’re seeing any specific error messages while the system is booting up...

e.gor_the_master said:Whenever I hit "Shut Down" in Windows, I get that screen saying "Saving your settings" and "Windows is shutting down." Then, the hard drive spins down, but that blue screen just sits there frozen, still claiming "Windows is shutting down." At that point, everything is stuck, and I have no choice but to hold down the physical power button for about four seconds just to force the whole thing off.

Man, honestly, my go-to fix for issues like this has always been a full format...
it’s a pretty common headache to deal with, unfortunately.

Taylor Sullivan74 said:Can you give us a bit more detail? Like which version of Windows you're running, if you've messed with any BIOS settings lately, or if you installed any new software? Also, let us know if you're seeing any specific error messages during bootup...

I haven't touched the BIOS at all. Is there any way to fix this through the registry?

Windows XP Pro
No errors during startup...

Please tell me I don't actually have to wipe my C: drive again!

Look, I can't give you a silver bullet fix because I don't know what triggered this—and let's be real, there’s *always* a cause. Something happened right before things went south; hardware doesn't just decide to act up for no reason. It could be some nasty spyware or something similar lurking in the background. Definitely run a scan to make sure you aren't dealing with a virus or some other malicious junk (Norton is a solid choice for that). Try popping open regedit and navigating to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon]. Once you're there, look for the [PowerOffAfterShutdown] value on the right side and switch it to 1. If you don't see it at all, just create a new [String] value and name it that. It might also be a case of incompatible drivers. Head over to the Control Panel, hit up System, go to the Advanced tab, and click Settings inside the Startup and Recovery section. Uncheck the box for "Automatically restart" and just hit OK on all the pop-ups. Give the machine a shutdown attempt after that—it’ll likely spit out an error message telling you exactly which device, driver, or program is causing the headache. If it points a finger at something, just swap out the drivers or uninstall the buggy software. You could also try using System Restore to roll back to a point before the chaos started. Honestly, don't bother formatting the whole drive yet; if we find the culprit, this should be a relatively easy fix. Worst-case scenario? Your motherboard might be toast.

Forget about the motherboard... we're looking at a software issue here...

It could be some spyware, a trojan, or perhaps just some underlying issue within the registry itself. I suppose I dealt with a somewhat similar situation recently while helping out a friend. In that instance, Norton managed to clear everything right up.

Trust me when I say this—I actually run my own computer repair shop. There’s a slim chance we're looking at a motherboard issue, but honestly? I've seen it happen before.

briskraven30 said:It's spyware, a Trojan, or just some junk in the registry. I had to deal with something similar for a buddy recently. Running Norton fixed it right up.

Yeah, it's a virus. Pretty sure it's called Win32/Winad or maybe Morti, but it's definitely a virus.👍 👍 👍

Taylor Sullivan74 said:I know exactly what I'm talking about—I actually run my own computer repair shop. While there's a slim chance it isn't the motherboard, I've definitely seen cases just like this before.

Every single case I've dealt with so far ended up being fixed by a simple format, so it wasn't the motherboard at all... maybe you've run into this specific issue, but I haven't... I'm speaking from direct experience here.

http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,116038,00.asp

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy...07/426475.aspx

If that doesn't fix it, then we're screwed.

I’m going to give some of this a shot and let you know how it goes.
By the way, I tried fixing it myself, but now instead of actually shutting down, it just keeps rebooting.😕
I haven't even turned the thing on for a few days, but I'll try again tomorrow.

Maybe you've got your BIOS set to turn off the hard drive automatically? I've dealt with the exact same thing before...

cosmicpilot said:Maybe your BIOS is set to power down the hard drive? I ran into the same headache once...

Can you just tell me exactly what the BIOS setting says regarding disk power management?

http://xp-antispy.org/index.php?opti...sellang&iso=en

Check out this little utility. Just make sure you enable the ENABLE FAST SHUTDOWN option in there. That should take care of all your headaches. (Plus, there are about a million other settings in there that could help you out.) Let me know if that actually fixes the issue. 😁

(And seriously, where is the setting to turn off the hard drive in the BIOS? Is it even there? :S)

Look, I don't even know what BIOS you're running, and honestly, I couldn't tell you where the setting is on my Dell anyway.🙂

Resident evil said:http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,116038,00.asp

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy...07/426475.aspx

Well, if that doesn't fix it, I guess we're just out of luck then.

I’ve actually been dealing with something pretty similar myself lately. It feels like my system starts dragging its feet—and honestly, sometimes it just completely freezes up on me😠—especially after I’ve spent some time running more intensive applications or heavy games.
It really seemed like I was running into the exact same issue that this guy over at blogs.msdn.com was talking about, but I’m a bit hesitant because I'm not entirely sure how much I should be messing with the waitTokillServica setting...???