MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Location: file:///C:/6457A213/WINDOWSXPshutdowmproblems.htm Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" WINDOWS XP

WINDOWS XP
SHUTDOWN & RESTART
TROUBLESHOOTING=
Version 13.7 — February 2= 7, 2005
 

 

“With its rock-solid foundation and ground-breaking new features, Windows XP Professi= onal won’t quit working, even when your workday is done.” — Microsoft
= (Did they know what they were saying?)

Shutdown problems in Windows XP can be caused by many factors, just like earlier versions of Windows. These included: a damaged exit sound file; incorrectly configured, damaged, or incompatible hardware; conflicting programs, or an incompatible, damaged, or conflicting device driver.

For a step-by-step troubleshooting method that applies to all versions of Windows 9x, see the generic Windows Sh= utdown Troubleshooter. Some of its steps may be found to apply to Windows = XP as well, though many will not.

Windows XP shutdown issues mostly center around a very few issues, especially legacy hardware and software compatibility issues.

Currently, the leading cause of Windows XP shutdown problems is hardware incompatibility, including driver issues. These are detailed below where known. However, it is impossible to list every possible hardware or driver issue individually. My best advice is: Check all drivers for all hardware devices to ensure that they are the current best for Windows XP.



REBOOT INSTEAD OF SHUTDOWN

Most Win XP shutdown problems reported thus far have been that it reboots when shutdown is attempted. This may be a global symptom emerging from several distinct causes, because= , by default, XP executes an automat= ic restart in the event of a system failure. Therefore, more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot.

Disabling the “restart on system failure” feature may permit = the exact cause to be isolated: Right-click on My Computer, click Properties, c= lick the Advanced tab. Under “Startup & Recovery,” click Settings. Under “System Failure,” uncheck the box in front of “Automatically restart.”

Here are some things that have produced this reboot-instead-of-shutdown symptom:

  • By now, the Roxio/Adeptec Easy CD / Direct CD software is well documented as being the major cause of this undesirable shutdown behavior. SOLUTION: Roxio has released new drivers (he= re) to solve this problem in both the Platinum and Basic editions of Easy = CD Creator 5. As expected, at least half of the Win XP shutdown problems = went away with the release of these patches.

    One     warning about this patch comes from correspondent Bert Smith: Be s= ure to read the directions! “Roxio Easy = CD Creator Platinum 5.0 can be a real hassle to get working under Win XP,” Bert wrote, “and there is the risk of your computer n= ot booting if you blindly go ahead and install it without first consulting the Roxio Web site.” Bert also menti= oned that Roxio’s “Take Two” = backup program (normally part of Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum) is uninstalled w= hen the Roxio patch is applied.
    • Direct CD. Many Easy CD users (b= ut not all) found that installing Easy CD 5.0 does not c= ause the shutdown problem, pro= vided they do not install the Direct CD component.
    • UDFRINST. Several people solved= this reboot-on-shutdown problem by deleting the UDFRINST file. This file is pa= rt of the Roxio CD-RW software for systems not using Direct CD.
    • CDRALW2K.SYS. Correspondent Larry <= span class=3DSpellE>Blumette identified the CDRALW2K.SYS= file (version 1.0.0.1= 048) as the Roxio file causing his shutdown pr= oblems and error conditions. When he deleted or renamed this one file, his problems went away. (Of course, you lose your CD functionality that w= ay, too.)
    • Video Pack 5. = Roxio’s Video Pack 5 causes the same problem because it contains includes the main parts of Easy CD 5. = SOLUTION: Uninstall Video Pack 5 and also delete CDRALW2K.SYS= (Tip from Christian Männchen). However, this solution may also have the side-effect of disabling acc= ess to your CD or DVD drive. = SOLUTION TO THE SIDE-EFFECT: Apply one of the repair methods in MSKB Article 270008, Code 31 Messages Occur After Removing Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.02c in Win= dows 2000 (Tip from Peter Kingsley).

 

  • Whether or not APM is e= nabled makes a difference = 212; but the effect could go two ways. Some users report that XP reboots on shutdown if APM is enabled, but shuts Windows down just fine if APM is disabled. Other users report exactly the opposite behavior. According = to Jack Dunne, this is similar to a known Windows 2000 problem. The issue seems related to the computer’s specific hardware or BIOS — so, as with all NT operating systems, stick to the Hardware Compatibil= ity List where possible.
  • USB Connections<= /strong> As can be seen from re= marks in the Misc. Hardware Issues section below, several different USB-related issues can impact shutdown. One of the most concrete examples was a “reboot on shutdown” problem contributed by correspondent = Rick Bross. If his several USB devices (PDA cra= dle, flash card reader, etc) were plugged into the motherboard’s USB ports, his computer would reboot on an attempted shutdown; but when, instead, he plugged them into an external USB 2.0 hub, shutdown went j= ust fine. (This was with Win XP Professional SP1 on a Supermicro X5DAE dual Xeon motherboard. The same devices plugged into an Asus A7M-266D dual AMD 2000MP system on the same OS worked without problem.= )
  • “Wake on” p= ower settings Power-management settings that have the computer “wake” on LAN, USB, modem, or (for that matter) probably anything else may also trigger a restart after shutdown. Correspondent Simon Wei provided this tip after a friend of his found an old old Logitech USB mouse would trigger “wake on USB” after every Windows shutdown. Their solution was to remove that particular mouse a= nd all worked fine. The principle is much more far-reaching than this one example.
  • Hidden “wake on&#= 8221; power settings If you have an Ethernet card inte= grated into your motherboard, you may have hidden “wake on” settings that are harder to find. Site visitor J= im Porter found that his Asus P5GDC-V Deluxe motherboard had a “wake on” setting in Device Manager | Properties | Advanced<= /span> rather than in the BIO= S or Power Management settings. (The Asus P5AD2 and P5GD2 boards have this also.)
  • Y-SB3 Logitech Internet Keyboard can also cause this problem. If you use it as a simple generic keyboar= d, there’s no problem; but, if you install the Key Commander softwa= re that drives the special Internet functions, Win XP will restart instea= d of shut down. Unfortunately, Logitech has decided that they will not be updating this driver for this keyboard. (Tip from Jan K. Haak.)<= /span>
  • Logitech MouseWare 8.6. Windows reboots when shutdown is attempted. The software caused a BSOD with KBDCLASS.SYS. Removing the software solved the BSOD the problem. = (Tip from Pablo Cheng.) MouseWare 9.0 and 9.1 also have b= een linked to reboot-instead-of-shutdown in Win XP. Removing the software resolves the problem. (Tip fro= m Aswin Kindts, Greg W= illiams, and others)
  • Webstar= DPX USB cable modem. In the one case known = to me, the problem was solved by switching the modem’s connector from t= he USB 1.1 port on the motherboard to the USB 2.0 PCI card. (The modem was provided by Telewest Broadband, manufactur= ed by Scientific Atlanta.) (Tip from= Ann L. Goonan.) =

 

SHUTDOWN HANGS ON “SAVING YOUR SETTINGS”

During shutdown or reboot, Win XP may hang (stop responding) at the “saving your settings” screen. During such a hang, there is no response to Ctrl+Alt+Del; the mouse may or may n= ot work. The problem may be intermittent.

This is a known bug in Windows XP, for which Microsoft has a supported f= ix. To learn how to get this patch, see M= SKB 307274, “Windows XP Stops Responding (Hangs) During Windows Shutdown.” = The necessary patch is included in Windows XP Service Pack 1, and also is now available on the Windows Update site under “Recommended Updates” for Win XP Professional, titled “Restarting Windows XP.” However, to find = it, you may need to reconfigure how Windows Update appears for you, by enabling= the Windows Update Catalog as follows: At the Windows Update page, click Personalize Windows Update at the= left, and then Enable= the Windows Update Catalog. Save= your settings. This adds the Windows Upd= ate Catalog link in the left box. Click this link, then click Find updates for Microsoft Wi= ndows systems. Pick Windows XP in the drop-down list, click Search, t= ake Recommended Updates, and find the “Restarting Windows XP” patch which references Q307274.

As a workaround, newsgroup correspondent “lou= ” resolved this problem by dismantling the Windows XP logon Welcome screen. In the Control Panel, click User Accounts, then cli= ck “Change the way users log on or off.” Uncheck the box that says “Use the Welcome screen.” This removes the initial logon screen with individual icons for each user and, instead, pops up the classic logon prompt that requires each user to type a user name and password.=

 

SBLive: DEVLDR32.EXE PROBLEMS

In the early days of Win ME, one of the biggest culprits for shutdown is= sue was the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live. History repeated itself in the Beta ph= ase of Win XP. SOLUTION: The SBLive drivers in the released version of W= in XP solved the shutdown problem for most (but not all) SBL= ive users.

Here’s the commonly re= ported problem scenario people encountered: On attempting shutdown, nothing at all appears to happen for a prolonged period of time. Eventually= , an “End Task” window appears, wanting to terminate DEVLDR32.EXE. No matter what one does, one ultimately is locked out of shutting down other t= han by a power switch shutoff. (NOTE: This problem exists with the SBLive in Windows 2000 also.)

You may have to do a couple of extra steps to get rid of old files so th= at the new drivers will install correctly (especially if you installed the fin= al version of Win XP on top of one of the Beta versions), or to remove trouble= some support software. Correspondent Sean Caldwell summarized his steps: Shutdown Windows. Remove the Creative card. Reboot in Safe Mode. In the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder, delete the DEVLDR file. Fully shutdown the computer before rebooting.

Some users report that the D= EVLDR problem continues to plague them even with the new drivers.= If installing the new drivers doesn’t solve your shutdown problem, try t= hese solutions:

  • Correspondent Martin Sladek wrote: “I’ve run into the ver= y same problem with SBLive Value drivers. The pro= blem was so severe I ran without the software all together. Since then, SBLive 5.1 came out, and I had installed the 5.1 version of the software in Windows 2000 Pro. I’ve not had a sing= le problem since.”
  • But updating your drivers in Win XP may no= t be as easy as one would hope. Some problems especially appear where multi= ple users are enabled on the system and one switches between users during a single Windows session. There may be numerous files with the same name (but different version numbers!) variously located in the I386, SYSTEM= 32, and SYSTEM32\REINSTALLBACKUPS\0000 folders. These may conflict with ea= ch other. If you rename DEVLDR32 (ver 1.0.0.2= 2) in SYSTEM32, another one will replace it. (First, you need to press Ctrl+Alt+= Del and end DEVLDR in Task Manager). But if you use DEVLDR32 (ver 1.0= .0.17) from the I386 folder, this problem doesn’t occur. Reboot when finished to reinaugurate the disabled serv= ice. (Tip from Terence S= hortt, aka tbone8200 on dell= Talk.)

 

MISC. HARDWARE ISSUES

In addition to hardware issues mentioned under other specialized topics = on this page, many users have written identifying specific hardware as at the = root of the Windows XP shutdown issue. Here’s what they have reported:

  • CD-ROM DRIVE: Samsung 24x. Correspondent Y. Leroux has identified the culprit in his shutdown problem, but doesn’t yet have a permanent solution. If his Samsu= ng CD-ROM drive is empty, Win XP hangs on shutdown. To work around the problem, he either leaves a CD-ROM in the drive, or leaves the drive d= oor open. He wanted to share this tip with others (thanks, Y.). Does anyone have a permanent solution for this one?
  • DVD-RW DRIVE: Pioneer DVR-106 or DV= R-108. Correspondent L. Frank= enberg traced his shutdown problem to this hardware. Correspondent Bob Berberick found the same for the DVR-108, and re= ported that a firmware update for the DVR-108 now avail= able from Pioneer resolved his problem. It would probably be worth trying t= he firmware update for the DVR-106 as well, = though I have no reports from anyone as to whether this solves the shutdown problem.
  • MODEMS: Intel Ambient <= span class=3DSpellE>HaM Modem. Causes Win XP to hang at shutdown. Previously, t= his was only resolved by disabling the modem. SOLUTION: Intel subsequently issued updated drivers that resolve this issue. They can be downloaded here. (Tip from Mark Gillespie.) However, a new problem with the Ambi= ent Ham was introduced in Windows XP SP1, detailed below= .

NOTE: The same problem has been reported for the= Creatix V.90 Ham PCI Modem. Correspo= ndent Gert Verheyen wrote that = Creatix has an updated driver and, more importantly, detailed instructions about manual removal of the old one and installation = of the new one. Go to the Creatix support pag= e and click on V.90 HAM (internal) at right. The removal of the old driver first seems to have been the critic= al detail.

  • MODEMS: Billion BIPAC P= CI Passive ISDN-card. Reboot instead of shutdown issue conjoined with = BSOD error message STOP 0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in f= ile SERIAL.SYS. Previously, this was only resolved by disabling the Billion ISDN card.= SOLUTION: Billion has now released a new driver 3.24 that solves this problem, available here. (Tip from Leo Foederer.)
  • MOTHERBOARDS: Asus P2B-= F, P2B-VM, or P2L97. Causes a shutdown problem because Win XP Setup doesn’t enable ACPI by default. SO= LUTION: Manually enable ACPI during a Win XP install or reinstall. Corresponde= nt Bill Anderson (based on a solution by “Willy”) gave a leng= thy description of how to do this, edited a little for space reasons. = (Thanks also to correspondents Ward from Belgium & Tony Gray.)
    1. Boot the computer from= the Win XP CD-ROM.
    2. Win XP Setup says it&#= 8217;s checking hardware. Soon after, at the bottom of the screen, it offers= the opportunity to press F5. (If offered the chance to press F6, press F5 instead! – Tip from Mick Stone) Do this at once, and cross your fingers! [Various users report difficulty with th= is. Apparently, sometimes it works; sometimes not. It may be in the timin= g of exactly when you press the key. You may have to try repeatedly, or try pressing F5 and F6 repeatedly. – JAE] When successf= ul, you’ll see a two-paragraph instruction that begins, “To specify additional SCSI or other mass storage devices.” Press <ENTER> to brings up a small window that appears to contain only two options, but, in fact, contains more (use the arrow keys to scroll up= ). If this windows doesn’t appear at th= is point, you need to start over and do more pressing of F5! =
    3. When the small window = does appear, use the up-arrow to choose “Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI).” (It’s the third from the top of = the list.)
    4. Next, you may see that two-paragraph SCSI/mass storage instruction again. If so, press <ENTER>. Many drivers will load, then you should see the Win XP installation screen. If you are running this af= ter Win XP is already installed, choose the Repair option.

 

  • MOUSE: Logitech.= If you have a Logitech mouse, and an outdated version of the MouseWare software installed, you may receive the following error message on a b= lue screen at shutdown: STOP 0x000000D1, (0x0000002b, 0x0000000= 2, 0x00000000, 0xEEEE1b01) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Kb= dclass.sys. SOLUTION: Update the Log= itech MouseWare software. (Reference & more information: MSKB 810980.)
  • VIDEO CARDS: Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 and all other video cards based on the = Kyro II video chip. Causes r= estart and shutdown issues (or, in some cases, only restart issues) until the video adapter is removed. = SOLUTION: New XP-specific drivers are now available from Hercules. At present, t= hey remain uncertified (PowerVR, who makes the= Kyro II chip, is working on that), but they repo= rtedly work just fine. Download the Kyro II drive= rs her= e. (Tip from MS-MVP Don Lebow.)
  • USB Devices. If you have one or mor= e USB devices attached to your computer, you may receive the following error message on a blue screen at shutdown: Stop 0x000000= D1 (0x00000040, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xfc96a9dc). SOLUTION: Upgrade to the latest Win XP service pack. (R= eference & more information: MSKB 317326.)
  • USB: Keyboard or Mouse + Selective Suspend. Some USB input devices (such as a USB keyboard or mouse) do not support the Selective Suspend power management feature. = When these devices are used with Selective Suspend turned on, the computer = may hang during shutdown, or otherwise not shutdown correctly. WORK-AROUND: Disable pow= er management for your USB hub: Open Device Manager (click Start, click R= un, type DEVMGMT.MSC, click OK). Double-click to expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Double-click USB Root Hub. Cl= ick Power Management. Uncheck the box “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” OK your way out. NOTE:<= /strong> Doing this may signifi= cantly reduce laptop battery life. (R= eference & more information: MSKB 315664.)
  • USB: Lexar Media Combo Digital Film Reader (USB). There is a problem wit= h the SAUSB.SYS file, apparently part of the Win98 SE driver set for this device, retained during an upgrade to Win XP. Deleting the file solved= the problem. The newer version 4.3 SAUSB.SYS driver from Lexar’s Web site works perfectly, and does not cause a shutdown problem. <= span style=3D'font-family:Verdana'>(Tip from correspondent Eric Brown.) Though one correspondent reported that the even newer version 4.5 driv= er (SAUSBI.SYS) also can be used in Win XP , <= span class=3DSpellE>Lexar says this driver doesn’t work on XP.= One correspondent has confirmed that this matches his experience in trying (unsuccessfully) to use 4.5 on both Widows 2000 and XP.

 

“STOP” ERROR MESSAGES AT SHUTDOWN

Some users, when attempting either to shutdown or restart Win XP, get an error message similar to the following: STOP 0x0000009F: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE=

Stop Messages literally means that Windows has stopped. (Which isn’t the same as saying it has shutdown!) See Knowledge Base Lin= ks: STOP MESSAGES for much more information that the brief remarks below. Mo= st Stop Messages indicate hardware issues; some are caused by troublesome soft= ware or a system service problem. The links page just mentioned provides a 10-st= ep approach to troubleshooting STOP Messages in general, then itemized analysi= s on the most common of these. (STOP messages are identified by an 8-digit hexadecimal number, but also commonly written in a shorthand notation; e.g.= , a STOP 0x0000000A may also be written Stop 0xA.)

Here are a few that may affect Win XP shutdown and restart. Stop 0x9F and Stop 0x8E are two o= f the most common of these at shutdown, and generally point to a bad driver. Stop 0x7B on restar= ting means Win XP lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process, due to a bad device driver, boot sector virus, resource conflict, boot volume corruption, or other problem listed h= ere. Stop 0xC000021A can when on restart after a system administrator has modified permissions so that the SYSTEM account no longer has adequate permissions to access system files and folders.

MS-MVP Jim Pickering advises the following as one approach to these problems: Restart the computer. Press F8 during the restart and select “ Last Known Good Configuration.” If you c= atch the problem when it first occurs (meaning you likely have installed only on= e or two drivers or new service), this will return you to a previous working condition. System Restore provides an alternate approach, especially if you need to go back further than the last known good configuration, and Device Manager provides a tool for rolling back to an earlier driver.

 

SHUTDOWN WORKS, BUT IT’S REAL SLOW

  1. If it appears that Win = XP is not shutting down, give it some time. Some users report a minute or lo= nger for shutdown to visibly start. Generally, this is a consequence of software that is running when shutdown is attempted. It also may have something to do with particular hardware. If you experience this probl= em, be sure to close all running programs before attempting shutdown and s= ee if this solves your problem. If so, then you can determine, by trial a= nd error, which program(s) are involved.
  2. Newsgroup correspondent “Sarah” provided one specific solution for this. In Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services, stop the Nvidia = Driver Helper service. (You can also get this by launching SERVICES.MSC<= /span> from a Run box.) Many = other newsgroup participants quickly confirmed that this solved this “extremely slow shutdown” problem for them (it’s the most successful solution for this problem to date). According to correspondent Gan Ming Teik, downloading and installing the new version 23.11 = Nvidia driver also solves this problem.
  3. Correspondent Ron Spruell found that disabling the Terminal Servic= es service reduced his shutdown time from over 2 minutes (hanging at the “Windows is shutting down” screen) to about 10 seconds. To disable Terminal Services, follow the steps in the prior paragraph for launching SERVICES.MSC. Please note that Terminal Services is required = in Windows XP for running Remote Assistance, Fast User Switching, and (in= XP Pro) Remote Desktop.
  4. Correspondent Graeme J.= W. Smith reported a more obscure cause of slow shutdown: In Win XP Professional, the Group Policy Editor has a security option to clear t= he pagefile at system shutdown. The same setting al= so forces the hibernation file to be wiped at shutdown. These processes t= ake long enough that users may think that shutdown has hung. To change the setting, click Start | Run= , type GPEDIT.MSC, click OK. Drill down to Computer Configuration | Windows Setting= s | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options.= In the right pane, find “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile.” NOTE: Since someone actually has to have set = this policy, the problem will be pretty rare, but is worth mentioning. Howe= ver, Forum participant “roadrunner” reported that the personal security app Privacy Erase= r automatically enables “Clear virtual memory pagefile,” and, therefore, may be the cause of a slow shutdown.=
  5. The Gear Software Secur= ity Service (GEARSEC.EXE), which enables iTunes for Windows to read and= burn CDs, has been reported by many users to cause Windows XP to hang at the “Windows is shutting down” screen for as long as 20-30 seconds. WORK-AROUND: Stop the service prior to shutdown. One way to to= this (suggested by “Thornburgh”) is to create a batch file with the one line net stop gearsecurity. You can either launch= this batch file manually, or (in Win XP Professional) use GPEDIT.MSC) to specify this batch= file as the shutdown script (under Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Scripts | Shutdown). Gear Software’s forum has a thread on this issue here. (Tip from correspondent “Andy”)
  6. MS-MVP Gary Thorn discovered that the Event Log can slow down Win XP shutdown. Disabling event logging removed the slowdown. If this works for you, then the real troubleshooting begins: finding out, by trial and error, what item that is being logged is causing the actual slowdown. (In Gary’s case, the Tele= phony service was causing the problem.) To disable the Event Log, launch the Services console as detailed in No. 2 above, and disable Event Log (right-click on Event Log, click Properties, under Startup Type select “Disabled”).

 

POWERDOWN ISSUES

“Powerdown issues” are quite distinctive from “shutdown issues.” I define a shutdown problem= as one wherein Windows doesn’t make it at least to the “OK to shut= off your computer” screen. If Windows gets that far, or farther, then it = has shut down correctly. However, the computer may not powerdown correctly af= ter that. This is a different problem, and I encourage people reporting these issues to make a clear distinction in their labeling.

When Windows XP won’t powerdown automatically, the APM/NT Legacy Power Node may not be enabled. To enable t= his, right-click on the My Computer icon, click Properties | Hardware | Device Manager | View. Che= ck the box labeled “Show Hidden Devices.” If it’s available = on your computer, there will be a red X on the APM/NT Legacy Node. Try enabling it and= see if this resolves the powerdown problem (Tip from Terri Stratton). Or, to= check the other side of the APM/ACPI coin, open the Power Options applet in Control Panel. If there is= an APM tab, make sure the “Enable Advanced Power Management Support̶= 1; box is checked. (MSKB 313290)

This should resolve the powerdown issue in m= ost cases. However, other factors can sometimes interfere with correct powerdown functioning. In that case, consider the fol= lowing tips:

  •  
  • Try some of the solutio= ns on my = Shutdown & Restart Shortcuts page. If you really have a hardware inability to powerdown, these won’t = solve it; but for some other underlying causes of power= down failures, they just might.
  • If you change the defau= lt power settings in the BIOS, it can lead to a powe= rdown problem. Restoring all BIOS power settings to default will likely fix = it. (Tip from Kelly The= riot)
  • Sometimes, not all appropriate Registry settings are made when you enable all the right p= ower management settings in Windows. You can force the critical Registry setting with the “ShutNTdown” Registry patch. Please follow sensible Registry editing protocol. Backup your Registry before the change (or run System Restore to create a restore point). After installing it, te= st Windows shutdown. If the fix doesn’t work for you, remove it by restoring the Registry to its prior state. (For those who want more background information, the fix provided by this patch is based on information contained in MS Knowledge Base article 155117 for Windows NT 4.0.)
  • On some hardware, power management features simply don’t work right. This is exceedingly rare on Windows XP when compared to any earlier version of Windows but= , on some machines, especially if no BIOS upgrade is available, there seems= no conclusion to reach except, “Yes, you’re right, it doesn’t work, so don’t use that feature.” Accordingl= y, several correspondents have noted that their Win XP computers will not= powerdown correctly unless they have Turn Off Mo= nitor, Turn Off Hard Disks, and System Standby all set to “Never”= in Control Panel | Power Options. (Tip from Dan Mitchell & o= thers)
  • How old is your power s= upply? Correspondent Andrew Walsh had a computer that wouldn’t power do= wn after a Win XP shutdown until he replaced the power supply that was a = few years old. Presto! His problem was gone.
  • Correspondent “Snake” restored powerdown functioning by disabling his CD-ROM’s AutoR= un feature. The fastest way to do this is with the “Disable AutoRun” Registry patch that you can downl= oad here.<= /o:p>
  • If you have Office XP installed, the culprit may be CTFMON.EXE. This module provides the Alternate Language= Bar and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative = user input technologies. When you close all Office programs, this module st= ays active. Removing it can cause serious problems with your Office XP products, but you can effectively disable it by setting the installati= on state to Not Available in Office XP Setup. This isn’t as easy as it sounds though ̵= 2; several steps are involved. For full instructions, plus more informati= on on the file and its function, see What Is CTFMON and What Does It Do?= (Tip from Jay Jones)
  • VIA Apollo Pro 133 motherboards have a “USB Keyboard support” BIOS setting that can interf= ere with proper power management function if it is enabled — especia= lly with respect to preventing powerdown during attempted shutdown, and also preventing the computer from waking from Stand-by. SOLUTION: Disable it. This was originally reported on= the Chaintech 6ATA2, and confirmed on other VIA Apollo Pro 133 boards. (Tips f= rom “Zef,” The = Netherlands, & Robert Lin)
  • Toshiba laptop (model n= ot specified). Problems of Windows XP not powering off nor going into standyby were solved by uninstalling (then reinstalling) the Toshiba Power Saver software and Toshiba Hotkey for Display Devices. After doing this and a reboot, the problem was gone. = (Tip from David Flitterman)

 

NEW PROBLEMS INTRODUCED BY SERVICE PACK 1 (SP1)

Some new shutdown and powerdown issues have = arisen in Windows XP SP1. Here are the ones I know about:

  • HIBERNATION/= STANDY PROBLEM WITH NERO SOFTWARE. If you have Nero CD-burning software (versions 5.0-5.5) installed on your computer, and invoke Standby or Hibernation modes more than once in a Windows session, the computer will hang on t= he “Preparing to...” screen and not go into Standby or Hibernation. SOLUTION: Uninstall Nero completely, and keep your eyes open for a new version of the program down the road. (Reference: MSKB 331506.)
  • WITH SP1, DON’T REMOVE SCSI ADAPTER WHILE IN STANDBY. Service Pack 1 for Win= dows XP introduced a new (but pleasingly rare) shutdown problem: If you rem= ove certain kinds of SCSI adapter while the computer is in Standby, the computer may not shut down properly. There is a “hot fix” = for this available from Microsoft. (Reference: MSKB 330172.)
  • SP1 + AMBIEN= T HAM MODEM + POSSIBLE IRQ ISSUE. Site visitor Mike Redman wrote that, after installing SP1, his computer would hang on the shutdown screen. Neither the mouse nor Ctrl+Alt+Del would respond. Either uninstalling SP1 = or removing his Intel Ambient Ham 50.sys (unsigned driver) internal modem would solve the problem. F= INAL SOLUTION: Moving the modem from PCI slot 4 to slot 5 a= nd reinstalling the drivers. He wrote, ”= This may be an IRQ problem which SP1 was supposed to fix.”=

 

NEW PROBLEMS INTRODUCED BY SERVICE PACK 2 (SP2)

Some new issues have arisen in Windows XP SP2. Here are the ones I know about:

  • AUTOMATIC WI= NDOWS UPDATE INSTALLATION. Windows XP SP2 checks at shutdown for any Windows Updates have been downloaded and not installed, then offers to install them as part of the shutdown process. Understandably, this can cause a very slow shutdown on that one occassion a= nd, if something goes wrong, can even hang shutdown completely. To see if your shutdown problem is caused by this issue, look for error 0x80248011 in= any of the Windows Update log files, particularly %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log= . If present, this indi= cates a corrupt local metadata store for Windows Update. SOLUTION: Click Start, c= lick Run, type SERVICES.MSC, click OK. Stop the Automatic Updates service. Rename the c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder to c:\Windows\So= ftwareDistribution.old. Restart the Automatic Updates service. (Tip from MS-= MVP Bill Castner.)
  • REBOOT ON SH= UTDOWN WITH HARDWARE-ENFORCE DATA EXECUTION PREVENTION. If your computer uses hardware-enforced DEP, as the 64-bit AMD processors do, and you instal= led hardware that requires the MPEGPORT.SYS driver, there is a conflict. At shutdown, the driver tries to run from the same memory space DEP monit= ors. A 0xFC Stop message occurs. If your computer is set to automatically reboot on a system failure, it will simply reboot instead. The solutio= n is a new driver. Microsoft provides a work-around in MSKB 878474.

 

OTHER KNOWN ISSUES & HINTS...

  • BIOS UPGRADE= . As with every new oper= ating system that comes along — especially one that is as much of a “step up” as Windows XP is from Windows 9x — the recommendation= is made to be sure your BIOS is updated. Many people have reported that t= his has solved their shutdown problems (and had other advantages) with Win= XP, just as it has in earlier versions of Windows.
  • “ShutNTdown” REGISTRY PATCH. Download the “ShutNTdown” Registry patch mention= ed above under powerdown issues. Please follow sensible Registry editing protocol. Backup your Registry before the change (<= span class=3DSpellE>e.g= , run System Restore to crea= te a restore point). After installing, test Windows shutdown. If the fix doesn’t work for you, remove it by restoring the Registry to its prior state. This is not the appropriate shutdown fix for most machine= s, but does help some users with Windows shutdown pro= blems, and not just with powerdown issues as one = might suspect.
  • UNSIGNED DEV= ICE DRIVERS. Some users have found that Windows XP won’t shutdown properly if unsigned device drivers are used. This is simply a variation of the br= oader device driver issue: Hardware manufactures have not yet released all necessary device drivers for Win XP. This will continue to be a problem for the next few months; it already has been reduced to a very minor c= ause of Win XP shutdown problems.
  • SIGNED DEVICE DRIVERS ON TOP OF UNSIGNED ONES. Good advice on a variation of the above c= omes from correspondent Attila Szabadkai. For h= is SBLive 1024 sound card he had originally install= ed non-XP drivers, then updated these with dig= itally signed XP drivers downloaded from Creative Labs. Result: He got a 0x0A= Stop Messag= e at shutdown. SOLUTION: He removed all drivers, and put back only the digitally signed one.
  • PROGRAMS HAN= G / BECOME UNRESPONSIVE. Sometimes programs don’t close down correc= tly, or hang for some other reason during the Windows shutdown process. This freezes up, or at least significantly delays, Windows shutdown. For example, a few people have reported an error message that EXPLORER.EXE= has become unresponsive during shutdown when they have used Win XP’s native CD-burning capabilities during that Windows session. If Windows= is hanging because it can’t force a program to terminate, one solut= ion is to disable the automatic end task logic (AutoE= ndTask). Use this registry patch to force that setting change. (Be sure to back up the Registry first.)
  • PACE INTERLOK ANTI-PIRACY SOFTWARE. According to the MS Knowledge Base article Computer Hangs During Shutdown Because of Resource Conflict, PACE InterLok anti-piracy software installs a driver (TPKD.SYS) that uses the same IRQ as the Standard Floppy Disk Controller device. This can cause Win XP to hang = at a blank screen (with mouse and keyboard nonresponsi= ve) when you try to shutdown or restart. Additional symptoms may be that t= he floppy drive doesn’t show in My Computer; the Standard Floppy Di= sk Controller device in Device Manager may display the error status “This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)”; and/or when trying to shutdown from Safe Mode you get the error message, STOP 0x0000009F Dr= iver_Power_State_Failure. The solution is to get= the updated TPKD.SYS file from PACE.
  • QUICK-SWITCH= ING USER ACCOUNTS. One reported quirk affecting shutdown is the three-account shuffle. W= indows XP gives the ability to rapidly bounce between user accounts, with Win+L. If at least three user accounts exist, an= d you quick-switch through all three, and then log off all three in reverse order — “backing out” in an orderly way — then= the machine may hang on shutdown. There may be other variations of account shuffling that cause this, but this one, clear example was provided by newsgroup correspondent John Ward. Microsoft has now identified someth= ing similar as a bug, in MSKB 320008, “You May Not Be Able t= o Shut Down Your Windows XP Computer.” The situation they describe is that only one user is logged on, quick-switching is used, and “Windows is under heavy stress.R= 21; A supported patch is available; see the article for details.
  • USING SHUTDO= WN SCRIPTS & 802.1x AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOL. This combination can c= ause Win XP to take in excess of 10 minutes to shutdown normally. (IEEE 802= .1x is an authentication standard for both wireless networks and wired Ethernet networks.) Here’s how the dominoes fall: The 802.1x authentication protocol stops after the user logs off. Shutdown scripts run after = the user logs off. If the script is on a network share and the connection = is no longer available (since authentication has terminated), the script = can’t run. The default time-out for shutdown scripts is 10 minutes. So the computer sits there 10 minutes before continuing with its shutdown. (Reference: MSKB 311787.)
  • MISMATCHED R= AM. Correspondent Morten Bech reported= that a combination of PC-100 and PC-133 RAM was the source of his shutdown problem. When he resolved the mismatch (by removing the PC-100 RAM), he also resolved the shutdown problem. A general reminder of a great gene= ral tip: You will get the best results if all RAM in a particular computer matc= hes in all respects!
  • CHANGE NTFS = TO FAT32? MOVE THE PAGEFILE? Correspondent “Curief= leas” wrote that his reboot-on-shutdown problem was solved when he used a th= ird party partitioning program to convert his NTFS partition to FAT32. It isn’t clear why this would be the case, but the tip was worth passing along. In a possibly related vein, other correspondents have reported a shutdown problem in XP either being caused by, or resolved = by, relocating the pagefile! Is there some com= mon issue involving substantial moving of the hard drive’s contents? These two hints intrigued me in light of a seemingly dissociated shutd= own problem reportedly occurring in Win ME only immediately after a defrag. These all ma= y be unrelated to each other — or not. I list them here as part of the ongoing data collection.
  • SHUTDOWN PRO= BLEMS IN WINDOWS NT/2000. In researching known causes of shutdown problems= in earlier versions of NT-family operating systems, most of what I found referred to problems that were resolved in later versions. There is no reason to suspect their recurrence. For example, there were quite a few shutdown issues identified in NT 3.x that didn’t survive to NT 4.0. Very predictable causes were invo= lved most often, especially dif= ficulty with some 16-bit applications or specific hardware incompatibilities. Very few shutdown failure scenarios are documented for Windows 2000. A= ll that I found were conflict= s with specific software, specific hardware, or drivers. While these three frame a wide set of possibiliti= es, they are sufficiently narrow to be very encouraging when joined with what we are seeing with Win XP. If approv= ed compatible hardware and software are used, including XP-specific drive= rs, we see almost no shutdown problems at all. If other hardware or softwa= re is used... well, that gives us a starting place to focus our investigations.
  • SHUTDOWN PRO= BLEMS IN WINDOWS 9x. As stated at the begin= ning, I recommend that, if nothing above resolves your Win XP shutdown probl= em, try those troubleshooting steps that have worked for Windows 9x operating systems to help us establish a track record of exactly what does and does not apply, from that protocol, to the emergent scenarios in Windows XP.