Windows not shutting down properly

[TomcaT]

Tonight I went to sort out a mate's PC, it is an AMD XP2000+ with 512mb DDR ram with a 40gb HD and has XP professional.

His main problem was Hotbar and TONS of pop ups, got rid of this lot with the usual Adaware and Spybot.

However when I came to re-boot it would not do so..... Windows goes through the motion of saving settings... the HD led flickers then nothing..... at first I waited 10 minutes but nothing, so I powered it down and restarted the machine.

Upon re-boot XP did not say there had been any serious problems etc and worked fine (minus pop-ups).

The computer will not restart, go into standby or shutdown without me switching it off manually.

I asked him how long it has been happening and he said about a month, he has not installed anything or added any new hardware (he normally asks me to do that).

I am assuming that it is an XP problem.... does anyone have an idea? All suggestions greatly received.....

Thanks.....

[Exodia]

Format the drive and do a clean install, that will take care of all your problems.

I know i know, thats the easy way out, im just being silly.

But seriously, it may come to that. A clean install is whats best for a machine thats been overrun with spy/ad ware.

[pnjboyzz]

is he using NVDIA?

it's possiblity that a networking is causing some problem.

i had a prob on my pc also, it was shutting down without my instruction. i was using XP pro tat time.

try loggin on compaq, or HP site for looking some help. i m quit sure they have the ans for ur Q

take care

[TomcaT]

Format the drive and do a clean install, that will take care of all your problems. 

I know i know, thats the easy way out, im just being silly.

But seriously, it may come to that. A clean install is whats best for a machine thats been overrun with spy/ad ware.

That was my original thoughts! so it was not so silly!!

This machine was raped big style.....

Anyone got other ideas??

Cheers.........

[R600]

My machine sometimes sits idle saying 'saving user settings' or something like that. Doesn't happen all the time, and have not had any serious errors found either.

[rik]

Kill everything in startup using MSCONFIG. Disable all startup items and non MS services and try it then. Also disconnect anything from the system aside from KB mouse, and monitor.

And as an afterthought, is he running NAV?

[HyDeNCiTy]

Before you shut down take a look at the processes and see if there's anything hogging the resources. Then like Rik said, kill all the startup processes and see if it reboots. When it comes back reset the one by one to narrow it down, of course start by re-setting the important ones first, cause most likely it maybe one of them that's causing the prob.

[TomcaT]

And as an afterthought, is he running NAV?

Yes he is...... and I don't think it is a "legal" copy.... and no he did not get that from me either!

Thanks for the input guys, I will give it a go and see if I can solve it.

[TomcaT]

Okay, Had another go at this machine....... I have discovered that when you unplug the cable modem..... it shuts downs!!! It is a USB modem and is a ALWAYS on connection, I have checked the hardware properties for the USB hubs and ensured that they are able to power down.

Reinstalled the drivers.... still the same issue. I also stopped ALL non-MS services and this had no effect at all.

Any ideas... As the ISP says it is not there hardware! (don't believe them as they are NTL!!!)

[Aaron]

Does he have the USB 1.1 and 2.0 Update installed?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;822603

It will be listed as Windows XP Hotfix - 822603 in Add/Remove if its installed.

[FthrJACK]

roxio?

[TomcaT]

Roxio is not installed..... thanks.

I am going back on Monday, so will check for this update.

Thanks for the input guys.

[rik]

Is the modem USB only? If not try using the ethernet connection and remove the usb driver for it.