my windows xp takes a long time to shut down

[OMGLIEKWTFBBQ]

Why is it from the time I hit "shut down".... it takes like 2 minutes for my computer to turn off? I have a P4 2.0 ghz with 1GB ram and windows XP SP1..... and my dad's computer which has Windows 2k pro.... and a P3 500 mhz.... his only takes less than 10 seconds? :confused:

I dont get it..... someone help me figure out why my computer takes so long to shut down! :mad:

Is it because I'm running norton antivurus... or what?

[Iain]

Yes, its true that such progs do slow down ur pc, can you be more spesific on how long each part of the shutdown takes, EG: from hitting shutdown till the shutting down windows sign comes up

[OMGLIEKWTFBBQ]

Well from the time I hit shut down until the shut down window sign comes up its about 2 minutes and 20 seconds approximatley. (I timed it the other day)

[battra]

Maybe you have a lot of services running in background? E.g. httpd, sqld, etc

[Iain]

before you shutdown go into task manager and close all un-nessessary applications ect.

see if that helps, If it does (or even if not) go to start > run > and type in msconfig and try dissabling some startup things. Also, right click my computer, click manage then services. go threw stopping things you dont want to run.

[OMGLIEKWTFBBQ]

Thanks I'll give it a try.

[jhobbs]

Suggestion: Boot into Windows' Safe Mode (keep tapping the F8 key while Windows is booting) then shut down Windows. I'll bet it doesn't take more than about 15 seconds, even on a slow computer!

If it shuts down quickly from Safe Mode, your problems are caused by something that gets loaded during Normal mode.
Run Ad-Aware and maybe SpyBot to see if there's junk cluttering your computer.
Then click Start/ Run/ msconfig and eliminate any non-essentials.

[markblair]

Also, has anything been installed/added lately? If a new hardware device was installed and the drivers didn't install properly, that could do it. Or, even something you've had installed for awhile. If you notice by closing things out first (and especially if Safe Mode runs better) then it might just be a driver that needs to be reloaded.

[jhobbs]

I've also noticed slow shutdown when there is media in a removable drive. Has any hardware been added recently?

[xAngelx]

Check the norton settings. Looks to me like you have it configured to scan things at shutdown which means it'll be going over the system files etc before shutting down. Turn that part off.

[rarvin]

I bet I know what it is. I've run into that problem in the past. It's most likely that your "clear pagefile at shutdown" is enabled. Check regedit.com for the extact registry key. It happens because XP by default sets up the page file to be as large or large than the amount of RAM you have. Since you have 1gb, it takes your PC a long time to clear the page file.

Hope this helps

[Iain]

Also if your prefetcher folder is full-to-busting it could affect shutdown, try deleting the contents.

[Jim Rapp]

you computer is infected with spy wear software cookies are affecting your op system you need to install a spy wear filter which you can get as ferware on a site like safenetworking.com imstall this and run it it will identify and eliminate al of these problems

[WHW-Justin]

I enabled the clear page file at shutdown option and my computer slowed considerably when shutting down. Disabling this brought my computer back up to normal shutdown times.

[Toolz]

XP-AntiSpy, xp-antispy.org, has an option "enable fast shutdown".

[Tropical Tundra]

Same thing with Windows 2000 Professional. I hate that when I'm trying to get home. I have to shut down and I need to wait so I can un-dock my laptop from the docking station so I can go home.

[ineed99]

I ran into this same problem. I went to the event log and found that around the same time that i was trying to shut down, I would get errors dealing with ESENT.
I found a solution and was able to fix the problem. Try this

Click on Start -> run -> type command "cmd" (without the quotes) and
command prompt will appear.
After you are in command prompt type the following commands.

1) net stop wuauserv
2) cd /d %windir%\SoftwareDistribution
3) rd /s DataStore
4) net start wuauserv

Then try to run windows update.

Hope this helps

[hans123]

Generally many unwanted networking services are automatically started each time you boot. So, it takes time to STOP all those. You may try this
CONTROL PANEL -> Administrative Tools -> and open SERVICES
Here you can see a list of services and few of those are set start automatically or running. STOP all services you dont' need. But be careful, SKIP if you're unsure about any such services.

[vibesh]

just open task manager and stop unwanted services it will reduce the time for shutdown also do disk cleanup and disk fragment time to time.