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Geek Culture / Computer randomly refuses to shut down

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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 06:01
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Ok, so recently, I (most of the time) am unable to shut down my computer.
I click shut down, and it goes to the "Windows is shutting down..." screen... and just sits there. I've waited for nearly an hour before, and it doesn't move. It just sits at that screen indefinitely. Every time this happens, I end up having to hold in the power button until it powers off, then when it starts back up it does the whole "Windows recovered from an unexpected shutdown" and gives the options; "safe mode" "Safe mode with command prompt" "Start windows normally", etc...
I've checked the "Problem reports and solutions" section, and it claims that the problem is my wireless adapter. I've downloaded all the newest drivers, and made sure everything is up to date, but it still keeps freezing at the shutdown screen. It even does this occasionally when the adapter isn't plugged in.
I think that the problem is actually that I recently upgraded my processor. It never did anything like this before I upgraded. The REALLY weird thing is this: I upgraded my processor at least three months ago, and this problem has only been going on for a month at the most.

Any ideas as to why this is happening? Has anything similar happened to anyone else?

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Don Malone
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 06:14
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Think about any programs you may have recently upgraded or patched or even recently installed. I ran into this with the Spybot resident scanner (tea timer I believe). I have also had issues with the later Zone alarm releases.

I don't use the resident mode for Spybot, and I have moved away from Zone Alarm for at least a short while. I am not saying this is causing your issue, but it may be a related type of problem.


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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 06:17
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Well, since it's been a month that your problem's been going on, I guess it isn't a symptom of the Conficker C virus, though if I were you I'd be really sure to guard my computer at this time, especially since you're having this problem.

Anyway, I really don't know what to say, as I've never had a problem even similar to this. What OS are you running? XP? Vista?

Sorry I can't be of more help.


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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 06:37 Edited at: 6th Apr 2009 06:40
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@ Don Malone:
I haven't installed or patched anything for quite some time, so I don't think that's it...
Although it may be that my Avast trail period is ending in a few days... that may be causing Avast to screw up...

@ Yodaman Jer:
Yeah, I'm being careful about what I do since Conficker is back out there, but I'm fairly certain I don't have Conficker.
I'm running 64-bit Vista Home premium.

EDIT:
I'm definitely not infected with conficker, I just looked at Mcafee.com and microsoft.com. Conficker blocks access to those sites.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 06:55 Edited at: 6th Apr 2009 06:55
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Here's something of interest:

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Quote: "My problem was caused by having Roxio and Nero 8 both installed. I deleted Roxio and reinstalled Nero 8. Now Vista is executing great. Many other small problems I was having also went away."


Would you happen to have those installed on your system? This is the only thing I can find using Google. Hopefully it helps.


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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 07:50
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I'm running Windows Vista, and every time I go to shut it down I end up swearing at it, calling it special ed, and holding down the power button after 15 minutes of waiting for it to shut down. It normally does shut down, but some days it's just retarded.

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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 07:55
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No, I don't have Nero OR Roxio installed.
But based on that link, I'm thinking it is a driver issue. I'm going to disconnect all my external USB devices and shut down. If that works correctly, then I'll reattach the devices one at a time and shut down again, to see which causes the problem.

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Van B
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 09:12
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Often this can be caused by Windows not being able to close a shared drive, either because it can't reach the shared drive to close it, or because someone is using a file on one of your shared drives.

So try disabling any shared drives, maybe also check which files are open by whom, you can do this by right clicking My Computer and selecting manage. Then find the section for 'Shared Folders', and inside that is a section called 'Open Files'. Might be worth checking this before you switch off, see if it has any bearing.


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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 16:29
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@Van B:
Y'know what, that's probably it! I did recently set up my render farm, and my secondary HDD on my main machine is shared for the rendering location. I'll try disconnecting the ethernet cable and see if that helps.
Thanks!

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Paul Johnston
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 17:00
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I had a problem similar to this once, I found out it was caused by a driver setting on my network card called "WakeOnLAN From PowerOff" being set to enabled. This caused it to freeze on the "shutting down" message when connected to a network.

It might be worth checking if you have something similar. Right click My Computer, select Manage, go to Device Manger and double click on your network card. The settings are under the Advanced tab.
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mamaji4
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 17:32 Edited at: 6th Apr 2009 17:33
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The basic principle of troubleshooting is not to determine the SIMILARITIES in the system before and after the problem occoured, but to look for the DIFFERENCES. I say this from experience, because one of my colleagues was troubleshooting a circuit and he kept saying "I'm using the same IC as the one I had put in previously into the circuit and this problem has come up." He was looking at the SIMILARITIES in the system before and after the problem occoured and trying to debug. So I told him, the IC number is the same. But what's DIFFERENT in the two ICs. So we checked up the data book and there was a marginal increase in the gate delay of the new IC which was causing a race condition(because he had used an IC by a different manufacturer)

In your case, the processor change creates two states. One with the old processor and the other with the new processor. If the processor is the problem the system would behave DIFFERENTLY the minute you changed it to the new one. If it didn't behave differently the moment you went from state one to state two, then the processor is not the culprit.
Similarly, go back through your entire history of all hardware and software changes, after which the symptom started occouring. If it started occouring two months back I would check for all hardware or software changes I had made approximately two months back.
Then again, if the system change occoured without your knowledge, due to a virus or other unknown event you might not be able to determine the problem unless you use a trial and error approach.

So yes. I would say that if you know you recently made the change to your shared drive, then Van B is right about that being the cause.
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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 6th Apr 2009 19:29
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@Everyone:
Pretty sure that Van B was right. I turned off the sharing on that secondary drive this morning and it shut down just fine. It may be too early to know for sure, but it looks like that solved it.

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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 9th Apr 2009 19:33
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Ok, un-sharing the network drive worked once, and it seems to not be screwing up as much, but it still does it sometimes. Any other ideas as to why it may be doing this?

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 9th Apr 2009 19:35
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Drivers. That's all I can come up with.


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Van B
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Posted: 9th Apr 2009 19:46
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It's not just shared network drives that can cause this though, if you have a USB device, like anything that allows file access, it can cause this too. Have you added any USB drive type devices?


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AlexI
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Posted: 9th Apr 2009 22:44 Edited at: 9th Apr 2009 22:45
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Try booting into safe mode, see if it lets you turn it off then.

If it does its a service/startup program preventing it.

If this is the case goto start->run type msconfig trying disabling some of the startup items, if this fails go through the services.


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Benjamin
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Posted: 9th Apr 2009 23:18
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I used to have a similar problem where it would get to "Windows is shutting down..." and then it would just randomly restart itself. It turned out the broken CD writer was causing it, as I found out once I unplugged it.

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Omega gamer 89
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Posted: 10th Apr 2009 02:37
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Well, I've checked for new drivers, and didn't find any. I also don't have any USB devices other than my wireless adapter. maybe if I just unplug the ethernet cables altogether...
BTW, I don't think its the CD drive, cause that still works. Used it yesterday.

I'll try the safe mode, though. Thanks.

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bitJericho
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Posted: 11th Apr 2009 02:45
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Quote: ". I also don't have any USB devices other than my wireless adapter. "


Did you try removing it?

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 11th Apr 2009 03:01
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Sometimes the Eee's ACPI software dives (talking once in eight months) and won't close in the processes manager, won't open again, and the system won't shut down until it has closed.

Idiots.

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 11th Apr 2009 03:08
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Nex, who are you calling idiots?


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Michael P
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Posted: 11th Apr 2009 10:09 Edited at: 11th Apr 2009 10:10
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I normally use XP but when I try to shut down vista...

They have moved the 'turn off computer' button and replaced it with hibernate; without thinking I always accidentally hibernate, have to wait for it to start-up again and then click shut down. A real pain

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 11th Apr 2009 13:29
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Quote: "who are you calling idiots?"


The idiots who write software that when crashed cannot close. That's immense stupidity.

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James H
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Posted: 11th Apr 2009 16:46
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Quote: "They have moved the 'turn off computer' button and replaced it with hibernate; without thinking I always accidentally hibernate, have to wait for it to start-up again and then click shut down. A real pain"

There is an option for that in power options

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