Windows not shutting down

[thewolfe]

Windows not shutting down

Sounds like a famaliar problem.

A friend updated his XP2 from his MS update utility and when it had to restart to complete install, it got to the "Shutting down" screen and then he would have to do a hard shutdown. (Think the Windows update not being able to complete messed every thing up.

Also he has a "Windows Installer" window that pops up and says "Preparing to install" and then that window disappears and what ever he clicked on opens.

Tried Sys Restore but couldn't complete because it hangs up at shutdown.

Ck'd the "Add & Remove" and didn't see any updates even though I had the box ck'd.

A little afraid to try the "Last known good configuration". At least his computer works using a hard shutdown.

The "shutdown" problem will have to be fixed, I think, before we can proceed with the other problem.

Also, he is unable to get to the MS "update" site although he can get on the web.

What say you?

[karthik]

Well you can try some basics,
1) Clear Temp
2) Remove unwanted programs that run in background.
3) Defrag the drives
4) Clear the recycle bin
5) Run clean anti-virus programe at the startup.
Make sure that the active drive has more free space that other drives.

[Sylvander]

If he has an image backup of C: he should restore that. :)

If not...
XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option (http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897) will take him back to his original WinXP without losing any data files, then he'd need to re-apply any Windows updates.
But this time...
As he moves forward in time building his software, he should make image backups [of C: at the very least] at key points, but only when all is well.
The backup program should load from a bootable disk [e.g. floppy or CD] and work outside of Windows, and be able to save to and restore from USB "devices" [a USB2 HDD is a great place to save the image files].
Then if he hits ANY kind of software problem, he should just restore a recent good image that's to his liking. :D :cool:

[thewolfe]

Going to give the "Non-reformat a try this morning. I'll report back.

[thewolfe]

Sylvander,

All is well. The XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option worked like a champ.

Thanks for your input.

[Sylvander]

Don't you just LOVE IT when things work? :D :cool:

[thewolfe]

I love it when a plan comes together. One final not, when he started "Windows updating", all was well with all updates until he got to SP2 and then he had trouble shutting down again. When I left all was going well and SP2 was still installing.

So...since he was a good student and paid attenetion to what I had done, he "repaired" again and installed all updates except SP2

I have a utility from Intel, I think, that will ck your computer to see if it's compatible with SP2. I'm going to ck that out today.

[david eaton]

Before trying to install SP2 again, Run some scans for spyware trojans etc. To check, please post a HiJack This log for checking Hijack this can be downloadedhere (http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip).

[thewolfe]

I'll try that.

[thewolfe]

Can't get it to act up now so I'm going to wait and see what she do.