Hello CC friends:

I just bought a Dell 1520 laptop and got rid of the crappy Vista install and went to XP Media Center.

All is perfect and it's working great, minus two things:

1. The computer takes 4-5 minutes to shut down. After clicking "shut down" it hangs on the background image. The icons, taskbar, etc. all disappear, and it sits on the background image for 4-5 minutes until it goes to "logging off" and "shutting down". It starts up VERY quickly. It goes in/out of Standby very quickly. There are no driver issues that I can see in the device manager & all programs, etc. run perfectly. I haven't even connected it to the internet yet so there are no viruses/spyware.

2. The only other issue is (even though I DID select in in the task bar), the computer won't hide inactive icons next to the clock?

Any ideas on how to fix these?

Thanks,
Sean

Try these:

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

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308029&Product=winxp

Hello k027:

Thank you for your reply. I did try the steps above but wasn't able to resolve the issue.

Item #2 above seems to have fixed itself, but the shut down issue is still persisting.

Specifically:

1. Standby works & starting up is lightning fast
2. When I click "Shut down" it hangs on the background screen for exactly 9 minutes before it goes to logging off/shutting down.

I'm not sure how to proceed!

What if you try to shut down in Safe Mode?

Thanks guys--

We have narrowed it down:

It only takes 15 seconds when shut down or restarted in Safe Mode.

Also, I noticed the issue existed prior to installing software, so I'm assuming it's driver/hardware related?

Thanks again in advance

Do you have a great number of startup items? Download, install, and run Startup Inspector; use 'Consult' to get info on the individual startup items. Remove (uncheck) the items you don't need. Check back here if you are unsure about any items. (I have unchecked about 50% of all startup items.)

Hello:
I have eliminated about 50% of all startup items (updaters, QuickTime, Adobe updates, etc., etc.).

I configured this machine identically to my older laptop but am still having 10min shutdowns! Safe mode = 30 second shutdowns... ?

I'm trying quite a few things from the links above & nothing has worked yet

Since Safe mode runs with a default set of drivers, along with a minimal set of services, it's a sure bet that it is either a driver or a service (perhaps from any particular anti-malware product you have installed) that is causing the long shutdown.

Out of curiosity, have you enabled pagefile clearing during shutdown? That will add some time to shutdown as well, although 10 minutes is still a bit extreme.

You are correct.

Given that the issue occurred after installing the OS and all drivers (prior to software/anti-spyware installations AND before connecting to the internet), I'm sure it's a driver!

However, all drivers appear to be operating normally and none of the items in the device manager show errors or problems...

How can I track down the source of the issue?

PS: I haven't enabled file clearing...

Did you check Event Viewer logs? There may be a sign of which driver has problems:

Go to Start > Run. In the box, type eventvwr. Look at the System and Application log files and report any that are red and/or at the time you shut down. We need to know the Event ID and Source. If there are a lot of them please post at least three.

Good call John B. I found multiple errors:

Application:

- X Error: Event System (Category 50) - Event 4609
- X Error: Application Error - Event 1000
- Warning Userenv - Events 1517 and 1524
- Error - LoadPerf - Events 3001 and 3011
- Error - Application Hang (Category 101) - Event 1002
- Error - MsiInstaller - Event 1013


System:

- Error: IPNATHLP - Event 32003
- Error: Service Control Mgr - Event 7001

- Then, there are about 50 of these Warnings per day!!

---- Warning - PlugPlayManager - Event 256



Thanks again,
Sean

I also just got an error that has come up once or twice before..not sure if it's related to the shutdown issue:

"Windows System Error - Minimum Virtual Memory Too Low". I followed a step via Google in an attempt to adjust the numbers to 1.5x the GB of Ram...2.00GB RAM = 3000MB Minimum. I changed it, but I'm still getting the error message.

Hi,

What service pack do you have? Are all those logs made at a time when you shut down the computer?

Greets, John.

Hello:

I have XP SP2. I've heard bad things about SP3...

Those logs are from the past 10 days total...nothing seems to be specific to shutting down.

But maybe it has to do with the virtual memory error?