Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: 3/17/06 Why won't my computer shut down?

Answer:

It sounds like your computer when you power off is actually going into either Standby or Hibernate mode instead of Off. In Windows XP you can tell Windows what to do when you turn your computer off. There are the following options:

Do Nothing
Ask Me What To Do
Stand By - This doesn't actually shut the computer down, just puts it into a lower power state, so it's ready for action when you press the power button by quickly restarting as you left it, but not wasting that much electric
Hibernate - This again doesn't actually shut the computer down, but powers it to an even lower power state than Stand By. It saves more power than stand by but takes longer to start the computer up, but nowhere near as long as shutdown.
Shutdown - This mode is the most energy efficient mode. This turns all the power off your computer, but it does take a bit longer than Hibernate and Standby to restart.

To change these settings you need to go into:

"Control Panel"

Category View Control Panel (Windows Default) - Click "Performance And Maintenance", then click "Power Options"
Classic View Control Panel - Double click Power Options.

In "Power Options" go to the "Advanced" tab and in the "Power Button" section there is a drop down list to select how you'd like the computer to behave when you press the Power Button. Change this to Shutdown if you want the computer to Shutdown when you turn it off.

Submitted by: Darren F.

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Answer:

Ok, this is an easy one folks. There is an option in the power management options that ask you:

"When I press the power button on my computer" and then gives you the following options:

1. Do nothing 2. Ask me what to do 3. Stand by 4. Shut down

You have yours set on number 3. Stand by. That's why when you press the power button, your machine goes into the "standby mode" which is a low power state. You can look on the internet for more info on the term "standby mode" etc. This is why your screen goes blank but your machine is still running. To change these options just go to the Control Panel and click on "Power options," then go to the Advanced tab. This is where you will see the option to change what happens when you press the power button on your machine. If you pick option number 4, then youre all set. Keep in mind that on some machines you have to hold the power button down for a few seconds and then it will shut down (turn off). If you just push the button and let it go right away, then the machine will restart instead of shutting down. Good luck.

Submitted by: Scott D.

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Answer:

Regarding the Media Center Edition of Windows staying on, requiring a drop dead hold the power button to actually shut down, the problem is not so much the underlying operating system, but MCE is scheduled to capture some TV show or otherwise is configured to keep Windows running.

MCE 2005 is definitely the way to go, especially as it is the magical third version. In addition, MCE 2005 works well with the XBox 360. Many users consider MCE 2005 as a media server. Since the XBox 360 is high definition and 5.1 surround sound capable, all it needs is a screen and self powered speakers to become a spectacular home entertainment system.

Be very careful of there ought to be a law earlier versions of MCE portrayed on the Internet. Tiger Direct had a spectacular deal on a Microsoft remote and MCE 2005. MCE 2005 is mostly XP Professional, Service Pack 2, with greater abilities with the right hardware to integrate recording and organizing music, videos, and what have you. A radio remote is so necessary, it should be considered essential.

Well, all that might seem to not actually answer your question, but if you want the Start > Shut Down > Shut Down to actually work, you probably need to shut down the Media Center "Application."

I believe that what you are really experiencing is that the Media Center is so tightly integrated with the OS, that it and not you are controlling the shutting down.

On the other hand, you might be using one of the older and hacked MCE's, in which case unpredictable things are bound to happen.

Submitted by: Thomas D.

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Answer:

I had this exact problem and have a very simple solution. I shut down the computer and then left it for absolutely ages and eventually it shut down. After this it was back to normal. I assume the problem is a damaged file somewhere and the computer is thinking about what to do. Windows (i assume you use windows) has an advanced system for detecting and repairing system files and this is most likely what it is doing.

If this does not work there are a few alternatives:

Run scandisk at startup for hard drive errors. To do this open my computer, right click on your main hard drive and go properties. Then you must select the tools tab at the top and click check now under error checking. The computer will check the disk next time it starts up. Another idea would be to do a system restore to before the problem started. This is only available on windows XP but is a very useful tool. To use it you go to start>all programs>accessories>system tools>system restore. Then simply select restore to an earlier time and follow the onscreen instructions.

Next try starting up in safe mode, run a virus and spyware scan and then shut down. Any program interfering with your computers shutdown will not be active in safe mode and therefore you should get a smooth shutdown. If you do it will have probably fixed your problems. To run safe mode press F8 after startup at the point when you first see the windows logo and then select safe mode.

A good idea would be to see if you have recently installed any programs just before the problems. If this is the case try uninstalling them and see if that solves the problem.

Finally if all of the above fail you could try a more drastic approach. Look for the system disk that came in your computer and put it into your drive. Then startup your computer and enter bios (refer to your manual) by most likely pressing F2 or del. Once there change the boot order of your drives and put cd drive first (each computer has different bios depending on the manufacturer so i can offer little help here). Then save settings and exit. The computer will restart and boot from the cd. This will open the disk up and allow you to reinstall windows. Simply follow the instructions and go through the process. If possible try doing a repair installation which will keep all your files and simply reinstall altered system files. Make sure before you do this that you make a good reliable backup (preferably 2) of all files that cannot be replaced. Also remember to back up things like saved games as these can usually just be dropped back into the save folder of the game and you will have all your progress back.

If finally reinstalling did not solve the problem then there is a problem with your motherboard and you will have to get it replaced or fixed.

Submitted by: Konrad N.

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Answer:

I recently had the same problem with a shutdown issue with a Win 98 OS computer. Microsoft has a troubleshooting wizard that can be accessed through their web site at support.microsoft.com. However I did not use the wizard, I decided to try their suggestions to cure what ailed this computer. What worked for me was disabling the fast shutdown in the configuration utility. You click on Start, then accessories, system tools, system information. After you are in system information you have to go to the tools menu in order to find the system configuration utility.

On the general tab, click advanced, click to select Disable Fast Shutdown, click yes when prompted to restart the computer. It worked for me. I had decided to try the easy things first before getting into too much drama. Hope that helps!

Submitted by: Mona P.

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Answer:

I just recovered (I hope), from the same kind of situation. I don't know what kind of desktop you have; but I was at the point of considering buying a new motherboard and/or processor. If you are a novice, maybe you won't want to try some of the suggestions that I am going to offer. Use a good anti-virus for a starter. A lot of problems can come from something that you downloaded ( if you are on the internet.)

Next, try using a good spyware program. Then you might want to run the "checkdisk" options that will check for errors, and try to repair them. Run the scan for bad sectors. Then, you should run your defrag option. If you are still having problems, you can try running in safe mode (if you can get there). If you still are having trouble, find diagnostics from the hard drive manufacturer, and run them. No luck?

Go in, and start (with the power off), removing components, either one at a time, or just take all the "cards" out and even replace the IDE cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard. Then reseat each card, all at once, or one at a time, checking to see if the problem still exists after each component.

If you are STILL having problems, borrow (if you dare) from another computer, or find someone who has a hard drive sitting around (that works), put it in and see if the problem persists. All of these things take a lot of time and patience, so take your time. If you have tried all these things, and are not getting anywhere, Get Help, whether it be a friend, or repair tech.

Submitted by: John M.

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Answer:

I have had the exact problem before. The cause was spyware for me. In Microsoft's beta 1 it found it. After starting up in safe mode it found the item known as power reg scheduler (or something like that). I cant remember the exact name. I have upgraded to beta 2 so I lost the file that gives information on the item that was removed. The name sounds innocent but it is not. My computer could not shut down, it would hang at Windows is now shutting down. After waiting a 1/2 hour. So be careful. Enter safe mode and run the following, Microsoft's Windows defender 2 and Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy. If they don't find anything, look for it manually. It likes to hide in with Microsoft Works 7.0 if you have it installed. I had it installed and the files description hides along with the real file in Microsoft Works 7.0. All I know is that after I removed it, my computer could shut down. And Microsoft Works still worked ok, so it obviously wasn't with the program. Also, look for another file in the startup command called Run-msconfig. It is called nwiz. This is another file that causes problems with startup and shut down. Just uncheck it and youre good.

Hope my suggestions work. Good luck, something tells me youre going to need it.

Submitted by: Andrew

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Answer:

Scott,

This could be a myriad of things, from a stubborn background process that will not go away, to a case of items shutting down too quickly before the computer is ready to shut down.

Run full diagnostics, clean/fix your computer registry, defrag, scan for adware and run your anti-virus. Basically, run everything you have in your arsenal (and do it regularly) to keep your system refreshed and clean as possible.

That said, even my old system would have this problem. The easiest way around it is to open your Windows Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DELETE), if you version of Windows has it. The task manager contains a Shut Down Tab, giving you options for Stand By, Hibernate, Restart, Shutdown, Logoff, and Switch User. Running this once may even get your computer to shut down the old way after a successful shutdown.

Submitted by: Bill V. of Trenton, MI

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Answer:

The most likely cause of this is the video card not being recognized by the BIOS, or the card not being properly installed. Other causes can be loose memory or a CPU that needs to be reseated. Overclocking or improper memory selection can also cause this.

The first thing to do to correct this is to clear the bios by jumping the clear CMOS jumper on the mother board. (Remember the computer must be turned off and power un plugged for this)

Once this is done you should be able to bott into the bios and set the correct selections.

If clearing the BIOS does not work try reseating the memory and video card the last thing to try is to reseat the CPU and CPU cooler.

Submitted by: Jerald B. of Saint Paul, MN

This doesn't work for me!!

When I type in "misconfig" i get a message saying windows can't find misconfig!

I'm using XP and occasionally but not always have the same problem where My PC will not shut down by normal means but will do so ONLY if I hold in the power button on the tower

Try msconfig..... LEAVE OUT THE"I"
HTH,Paul

This is a common problem on older machines running win2k and winxp, to solve the problem "NT apm/Legacy support" must be properly installed in device manager. To check go to start; settings; control panel; system; Hardware; Device manager; view; click on show hidden devices.

Answer:

This could happen if you have some wrong driver installed. If you had reinstalled your Windows, or your PC is a new clone, try to install the set of drivers that came with your motherboard. If this doesn't work, try downloading an updated set of drivers for your components. Another test is to shut down without any USB devices attached to your PC. This must help to determine which device is the problem. This kind of problem, usually is about Windows not shutting down any process.

Submitted by: Carlos B.

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Answer:

I have had similar problems in the past with Windows XP and before Windows 98 refusing to shut down unless I held the power button for a while. What seemed to cure that problem every time was either a new hard drive or completelly reformatting the hard drive. I think what happens is that too much software that you download or install always ends up being in your start menu and uses up RAM so not enough is left for the simple shut off command.

Submitted by: Mark H.

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Answer:

I used to have the same problem using Windows ME. Are there any external peripherals turned on that might be causing it? I would literally have to shutdown any USB devices before I could shutdown the computer or it would always stay on. I have both an external dvd and external harddrive that would be shutdown with the Shutdown/Remove icon on my taskbar before it would go off. Occasionally had the same issues using XP Pro.

Submitted by: J.S.

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Answer:

I've had the same problem but only with my computer running Windows 98. My Windows XP computers are not afflicted with the shutdown problem bug. As far as I can tell, the shutdown program fails to operate because of a conflict with one or more of the start up programs running in the background. In my case it was the Zone Alarm firewall application. I reluctantly removed the program and shutdown is clean and smooth.

Submitted by: David F.

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Answer:

I had exactly the same problem with my pc. I bought my pc as a custom build and I found out that it was the cpu oveheating which was stopping it from restarting properly. I had a look at the heatsink and it was wobbly and the guy had also put on the wrong fan, so I changed the fan for the right one (I also changed the heatsink) and now it restarts beautifully. You could try doing this. If you dont want to check it yourself you could always get someone else who knows what they are doing to do it for you. Hope this works for you.

Submitted by: Anonymous

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Answer:

It sounds like one of your drivers or programs are not shutting down. What you need to do is uncheck one of the program in your start up in system configuration ( by going to start menu and then to run and type msconfig ) until you find out which program is holding up your system. Then all you need to do is uninstall it and recheck the other programs that you had unchecked. The mostly culprit will be one of the last programs that were installed.

Submitted by: Jim S. of Ronkonkoma, NY

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Answer:

I had that problem with win98 se. It is your win.ini one of the files could be missing or damaged. You will have to either format the drive and reinstall windows back in or go to the web site and see what it could be thanks

Submitted by: Mark W.

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Answer:

Have you installed any new Software lately? Sometimes software just doesn't install correctly, and simply uninstalling it, and reinstalling it will fix the problem. Also you can just hit CTRL., ALT., and Delete in exactly that order but hold down at the same time and that should turn your PC off without you having to take all those other steps, until you can find and properly fix the problem.

Spyware, Malware, etc. can also cause a lot of crazy things to happen. You can actually get a free Ad-Aware Software download from a Microsoft download site in case you don't already have one.

Just a couple of thoughts. Best Regards!

Submitted by: Annetta G.

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Answer:

You might check out your hard drive it might be failing, My daughters computer was doing that and then her hard drive failed. Also have you added new memory if you have it might not be accepting it.

Submitted by: Dan M.

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Answer:

I had exactly the same problem with one of my machines. It turned out to be the keyboard. I forget all the technical reasons, but it was holding one of the pins high. I traded types of keyboards and sure enough, the problem disappeared.

Submitted by: Stan T.

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Answer:

I'd check out the BIOS settings first of all, to see what the machine is looking for and where.

Submitted by: Peter S.

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Answer:

One program is not shut down, you need to clean up the registry.

Submitted by: Patrick D.

I thought the same thing when I read the answer...

The winning answer doesn't answer the question at all.

He didn't ask about pressing the power button on the front of the machine.

I've had the same kind of thing happen with my XP laptop...it's a software issue, probably hiding within a program that likes to hang during shutdown.

For me, it had something to do with my network connection (probably a program trying to phone out but being stopped by my software firewall), since within seconds of disabling the wireless adapter altogether, everything shut down nicely.

Absolutely. Another way you may capture that information is to press Cntl/Alt/Delete for the Task Manager window. When you click on the applications tab, it will usually list the application causing the issue ('not responding' is the common message). You can then click on the line in the window and select to cancel it.

Regards,

ProsEZpcs

Yes I agree. The question as I understand it deals with the shutdown procedure on the computer screen, not the actual power button.

John H. O'Kelly

I read through several other answers that had radically different solutions, but many (perhaps all) were addressing the same (wrong) issue. I was about to go back and re-read the question (thinking maybe I'd missread it) when I saw your subject line. This is the same problem that I run into when I call, chat online or email support personnel; they just don't listen/read closely. They jump on a couple of words and deal with that instead of trying to understand the real issue. That said, it's really scary to see how many people have had similar symptoms (albeit not this one, really) and how many different solutions there were- something radically different worked for each person answering. Reinforces my belief that computers & the Windows OS are WAY too complicated and patchwork.

Just like you say that did not answer the question at all. It is a sofware problem of a program not allowing windows to close it.

C/net has always been much better than that. This winning answer choice really disappoints me.

If the shutdown seems to hang, it could be something in your task tray - for example, an application called "sswizard.exe" has to be stopped manually before my WinXP or Win2k box will shutdown remaining running tasks and proceed to a clean shutdown.

The BIOS settings can also need tweaking to fully shut down without needing to use the power-off button on the front of the PC itself - my old Gateway needed a BIOS upgrade before Win2k would shut the box completely down from the software-initiated "shutdown" dialog.

Another thing can be to make sure you've been to Windows Update and applied the particular vendor patches for your power/monitor subsystems...

Some good tips from others here too, especially as the more recent Windows releases and current manufacturer's drivers increasingly mean most tweaks can be applied from within Windows without the need to go into the BIOS at all.

I was thinking the same thing when I read this ''winning'' answer. It doesn't address the problem at all. I think the confusion lies in the original post. The buttons he's referring to aren't physical buttons, they're dialog box buttons.

And unfortunately like most of these questions, there's not enough information to give a useful answer. For example, it sounds like the computer does begin the shutdown process but doesn't finish it. We need to know how far it gets. The fact that the monitor actually goes into power saving mode could be an important clue. This should happen when the monitor loses its signal from the PC. But that should only happen if the PC has actually shut down. But if Windows hasn't shut down properly, it could be Windows' own power saving routines turning the monitor off.

I can't believe nobody else has suggested this but IMHO the first place to look whenever you're troubleshooting Windows is the event log. Looking at the system log would make it easy to see if Windows is shutting down properly. And if it's some service or application that's hanging on shutdown that should show up too.

My guess, like most other contributors, is is that some virus/spyware is preventing Windows from shutting down properly. But without more information, that's all it is, a guess.

Thank you for all the accolades. I was stating the obvious, of course. I happened to catch this forum when no replies had been posted.

It is disappointing, though, that the editor decided this was the winning answer. This begs the question of how the winning answer is decided. This case was obviously not the answer to the question but what when it's less obvious? How can they really decide always what's the best answer? (Specially if they can't see when the answer is irrelevant to the question.)

I have occasionally had the same issue with prolonged shutdown times or no shut down at all.
1- Shutdown can be prolonged if you have a large swap file and your system is set to wipe the swap file before shutdown, this can take several minutes on slower machines.
2- Microsoft Windows is so stable it likes to amuse it's users by occasionally altering settings within the registry or elsewhwere! I have found that using RegMechanic has resolved this issue on a few occasions.
3- Note: If you switch off manually during shutdown you run the risk of saving a corrupt registry and having a failed restart. Please keep a backup of your registry... you never know.
4- Do use the event viewer, you will often find there are errors, some just slow the machine down, others cause it to hang. These entries may give clues as to the cause of this or other unrelated problems.
5- And yes... the winning answer was for the wrong question!