PC Hangs on "Windows is Shutting Down"

[copperwire93]

As stated on topic, my old PC always hangs when shutting down. To be specific, at "Windows is shutting down" message. It won't power down even after 30 mins. I have no idea what causes this, I haven't install any new software, this problem just happened (or perhaps I didn't remember what I did). I already googled for the answers, but still can't solve this. Anyone can help me with this? I don't want to shut down my PC by slam the electric switch just like that, it will harm my PC sooner or later.

 

My specs in case needed:

AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core Processor 2.4Ghz

2.5 Gigs of RAM

512MB Nvidia 9500GT GPU

Realtek Onboard Sound

Windows XP Professional Edition ( I know it's old )

[Star-Lord]

Many claim the problem is related with the registry being corrupted. Due to orphan entries left behind by previously uninstalled programs. You can try cleaning out the registry using CCleaner.

 

However, from my past experiences it's been a program or process that is stuck and won't remove itself from memory. Next time you tried to shutdown, make sure you manually exit all running programs, then shutdown. When you see the context box saying windows is shutting down (but in a standstill) - hit cancel and press Crtl & Alt & Del - check your processes. One of them might be saying something like "Not responding" when you find one like that... highlight it and right-click - end process. You should be able to shutdown now as normal. Find out to what program the process belongs to and either uninstall the program or find an updated version.

 

 

 

 

[AmyJones]

Many claim the problem is related with the registry being corrupted. Due to orphan entries left behind by previously uninstalled programs. You can try cleaning out the registry using CCleaner.

 

However, from my past experiences it's been a program or process that is stuck and won't remove itself from memory. Next time you tried to shutdown, make sure you manually exit all running programs, then shutdown. When you see the context box saying windows is shutting down (but in a standstill) - hit cancel and press Crtl & Alt & Del - check your processes. One of them might be saying something like "Not responding" when you find one like that... highlight it and right-click - end process. You should be able to shutdown now as normal. Find out to what program the process belongs to and either uninstall the program or find an updated version.

That and any anti-virus that runs constantly. Ad-aware pro did that to me sometimes.

[copperwire93]

Thanks, I will try to end explorer.exe process whenever I want to shut down. As for CCleaner stuff, that's what I did every week, so I don't think registry is the one who affected my PC. Just a side note, this problem only occurred when my PC is on for long hours, like 12 hours or so ( I have a lot of works ). Now I'm using it, I will try to shut down with explorer.exe terminated when I finish my job, if it works, then no doubt one (maybe more) of my software is the problem. I suspect my McAfee, its really sh*tty after the upgrade.

[AmyJones]

Thats my thing about any virus scanning programs esp when they want to scan for problems full time. I only use or utilize any in safe mode.