Tired of Vista stalling on shutdown

So I have two Vista Home Premium boxes (toshiba laptops) both with 1 gig of memory...all updates have been performed, all is current....and most work fine....Out of the clear blue they stall / stop working during shutdown.....no drive movement, sometimes just stops and locks up...requiring the infamous power down hard.I don't like doing this....but it seems that  is the only way to shut-r-down.No it's not installing updates during this time...no drive movement, cpu's with little or no consumption...BUT I am running only 1-gig of memory...I am thinking of upgrading to 2-gig to see if that helps....based on monitoring...seems to consume about 70% memory...What can cause this system to fail to shut down... ???


Post Originated from Vista Support Forums

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:44:01 -0700, tonymazz wrote:

>So I have two Vista Home Premium boxes (toshiba laptops) both with 1 gig of memory...all updates have been performed, all is current....and most work fine....Out of the clear blue they stall / stop working during shutdown.....no drive movement, sometimes just stops and locks up...requiring the infamous power down hard.I don't like doing this....but it seems that  is the only way to shut-r-down.No it's not installing updates during this time...no drive movement, cpu's with little or no consumption...BUT I am running only 1-gig of memory...I am thinking of upgrading to 2-gig to see if that helps....based on monitoring...seems to consume about 70% memory...What can cause this system to fail to shut down... ???


It is fairly common for Windows to hang while trying to shutdown. Some
application or process is telling Windows that it is still busy and
Vista simply waits for it to finish and let go of it's memory handles.
When Vista and whatever is causing the hang aren't communicating,
Vista will just wait, and wait and wait until you get disgusted and
kill it. When you shutdown get in the habit of closing down everything
yourself BEFORE you shut down the system. Don't leave anything like
Windows Explorer open, not even on the Task Bar. CLOSE IT! Then you
rarely see this problem unless you have a problem application that
does it regardless. No surprise the biggest offenders are internal
Windows applets like Explorer.

tonymazz wrote:

> So I have two Vista Home Premium boxes (toshiba laptops) both with 1 gig
> of memory...all updates have been performed, all is current....and most
> work fine....Out of the clear blue they stall / stop working during
> shutdown.....no drive movement, sometimes just stops and locks
> up...requiring the infamous power down hard.I don't like doing this....but
> it seems that  is the only way to shut-r-down.No it's not installing
> updates during this time...no drive movement, cpu's with little or no
> consumption...BUT I am running only 1-gig of memory...I am thinking of
> upgrading to 2-gig to see if that helps....based on monitoring...seems to
> consume about 70% memory...What can cause this system to fail to shut
> down... ???

Although 1GB of memory is not really adequate for Vista, it is unlikely that
this is causing your shutdown issues. See general shutdown troubleshooting
below:

Shutdown issues are generally caused by a program and/or process that is
refusing to exit gracefully. The program and/or process can be from malware
or can be legitimate (such as an invasive antivirus like Norton or McAfee).
If you are using a Norton or McAfee product, uninstall it and replace with
a better program such as NOD32, Kasperksy, or Avast (free). The Windows
Firewall is adequate for most people. With Vista, shutdown issues can also
be caused by old/poorly written drivers so make sure all drivers are
updated. See Step B. below for general driver directions.

A.The first step is always to make sure your computer is virus/malware free.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware

B. Drivers - The First Law of Driver Updates is "if it ain't broke, don't
fix it". Normally if everything is working you want to leave things as they
are. The exception is that heavy-duty gamers will usually want to update
their video and sound drivers to squeeze every last bit of performance out
of the hardware to get the fastest frame rates. If you're not one of those
people, you don't need to update your drivers if there are no problems you
are trying to solve.

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM computer
(HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model
machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

C. If the computer is virus/malware-free, drivers are current, and no Norton
or McAfee programs are installed, then do clean-boot troubleshooting to see
which program/process is the culprit:

How to perform a clean boot in Vista and XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

D. If you need more information, here is an excellent shutdown
troubleshooter:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

Standard caveat: If troubleshooting the issue is too difficult - and there
is absolutely no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea - take the
machine to a computer repair shop. This will not be your local
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place. Get recommendations from family,
friends, colleagues.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Far as malware goes on these systems....I have webroot spysweeper with anti virius (sophos) and do not have  issues with viruses or malware as sweeps come up clean.Windows defender is clean, webrood is clean, all hardware functions perfectly....I am not in need of drivers as I think things work just fine...I wish I could see sequentically what files are being shutdown as they  being shut down


Post Originated from Vista Support Forums

tonymazz wrote:

> Far as malware goes on these systems....I have webroot spysweeper with
> anti virius (sophos) and do not have  issues with viruses or malware
> as sweeps come up clean.Windows defender is clean, webrood is clean, all
> hardware functions perfectly....I am not in need of drivers as I think
> things work just fine...I wish I could see sequentically what files are
> being shutdown as they  being shut down

You don't need to report back to me! The general shutdown troubleshooting
steps I gave you are just that - suggested steps to find out what is
causing your shutdown issue. If you go through Jim Eshelman's
troubleshooter for instance, you normally can track down the culprit. But
it takes time and patience. If you don't have these attributes - and
there's no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea - take the machine
to a professional computer shop (not a BigBox store).

You can't see "sequentically [sic]" see what is happening at shutdown the
way you can with Linux but you can do clean-boot troubleshooting as
previously suggested and that, combined with examination of the Event
Viewer, will normally pinpoint the problem software. Simply saying "I think
things work just fine" isn't doing systematic troubleshooting. Something
isn't exiting correctly and only deductive action will get you the answer.

Good luck and EOT for me.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!