Windows Shutdown

[djwhite]

My dad has a problem with his computer that I can't fix, so I thought I'd ask you guys. Anyway, whenever he tells his computer to shutdown the message comes up about saving his settings or something and then it goes to a blank desktop with no icons or taskbar and just sits there for 10-15 minutes. Anyone know what could be causing this.
He's running Windows XP Home and apparently this starting happening about 3 weeks ago, so I don't know if he installed anything bad beforehand.

 

[Enyo]

Lots of disk activity during this period of blankness or none?

Easy CD Creators not installed is it Number one cause of shutdown issues and hangs in XP.

Find out whats running in the background its possible one app is hanging or causing an issue.

Try the WaitToKill hack so that hung processes are killed faster (mind u they would not be going for 15mins)

The reason i ask about the disk activity is page file clearing??? Again that would not take 15mins! Possible though

 

[djwhite]

Hard disk light blinks every 10 seconds
Easy CD Creator not installed

 

[XP Abuser]

could it be a service hanging

 

[djwhite]

Have shut down all apps running in the background, no change.
The WaitToKill thingy, no change.
How do I find out if the page file is clearing?

 

[Enyo]

Check this Reg Key:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management
Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

1 would mean it is clearing 0 would mean it is not

I doubt its that because of the time taken but check it anyway

Check the system event log for errors from servive control manager that may indicate an hanging service.

 

[djwhite]

Thanks, I'll check it out tomorrow, it's late now.