[pe_mitev]

Good evening,
I have had this problem for a long time but I always postpone it and do not do anything to solve it. The situation is:
Last summer, I went to Italy for a month and I took the laptop with me. Some days before my departuring, I(as remember) installed Kaspersky Anti Virus because I was afraid of getting viruses why I am on holiday(it was known I won't have an internet connection but... something maked me install it). When I started the laptop for the first time, I worked as normally as ever. After 2 hours work, I had to go out quickly and maked the pc turn off as normally (Start->Turn off->Shutdown) and I ran out without checking if the event is done or not. When I got back, I found out the computer had freezed on the ending screen(additionally, it was on the "Saving your settings") and it continued staying at that position. In nowadays, this computer does not have normal turn off. I have to press the Power button in order to turn it off properly. I am sure it isn't a hardware problem because when I enter Safe mode and try to turn it off from there, no problems appear. I would like to receive a piece of advice from you, how to analyze which program(.exe or other extension) causes this disgusting problem. Moreover, I forgot to say that I downloaded the "Autoruns" from the Microsoft's site and succeed to find out the application, which start together with Windows. I am opened to different kind of ideas. Thank you in advance!

[Nykc]

I have been experiencing a similiar issue. When I go to restart Ubuntu (I have a dual boot) the screen will go black as if it is prepping to reboot and nothing - it stays at a blank screen until I manually press the power button.

This is some sort of software issue, pipointing it is the next step but pe_mitev our experiences are similiar so I sense it has something to with bios, software, bootloader or something similiar.

[pe_mitev]

I do not quite agree with you. As I said, I can turn it off without problems during safe mode. And I forgot to say that, when I noticed the problem for the first time, I returned system restore(interesting fact is that the restore point I used was created because of installation of an unknown driver -> I hadn't installed anything, moreover a driver). When I returned to this point, the pc worked for several hours and the problem appeared again(it these several hours, I could turn it off, turn it on again, and again turn it off, but it seems the virus is activated by another application by time.

[Nykc]

I can turn mine off in safe mode also. How is the problem so different?


-- You say virus activated by another application. Are you sure you have a virus? I know for a fact mine is not a virus. namely cause I just bought the laptop brand new and it happened once I installed Ubuntu - The Windows side functions as normal.

Well I guess I will be curious to see what your outcome is, as I do not feel yours is a virus either unless yours explicity says so in a virus scan and if that is the case you will be able to easily take corrective actions.

This post has been edited by Nykc: 10 March 2008 - 01:07 PM

[pe_mitev]

But man... if I restore to a restore point, before the "installation of unknown driver" all is normal, so is it a boot problem, don't think so. So there is some kind of badware(if I can say it this way) which restores the bad effect.

[Nykc]

Maybe a faulty install that when you go to power down the program is still running causing it not to shut down properly.

I am kinda grasping from here. One of the experts will have to take over.

But it sounds to me like a faulty install.

[pertheusual]

It sounds to me like a windows system service is locking up when it tries to shut down.
Since you said that it happened when you installed, have you tried to uninstall the antivirus to see if it fixes the problem?

Right click on My Computer and click Manage.
On the left, click Event viewer. Then look in Application or System for anything that had an error. Usually problems like this don't get logged, but it's worth a shot.
Your next option is to go Start -> Run -> type "msconfig". Then go to the "Services" tab and check "Hide all Microsoft Services". Then proceed to uncheck everything in the list. After this, I'd reboot twice. These changes won't affect until after the first reboot, you reboot once for them to take affect, and again to see if it shuts down correctly.
If it doesn't shut down correctly, post back.
If it shuts down successfully, then go back to msconfig and start enabling a few at a time and rebooting.(Enable in Binary search order for fastest results )

Good Luck.

Per

[pe_mitev]

It was hard for me to understand the situation in the Event Viewer. I tried the second advice and unfortunately, after disabling all non-Microsoft services, and rebooting 3 times, the problem still appears. Any other suggestions?

[pertheusual]

Well that's unfortunate.

In msconfig, go to the General tab and select "Diagnostic Startup". Then reboot twice again.
If you can shutdown correctly, then it is confirmed that it is something in your startup items. If it works, you'll have to go through everything in "Services" and "Startup" and try them a few at a time until the error happens.

Also, one thing to check quickly. Go to My computer -> C ->Documents and Settings -> whateverusername
There should be a file called "ntuser.dat" in there. If it doesn't show up, you may have to make it "show hidden and system files" in Tools -> Folder Options -> View
How big is that file?

Per

[pe_mitev]

ntuser.dat is exactly 13 056 KB.

And now the interesting part... I ran WinXP in Diagnostics Mode and only main processes appeared. I tried to turn it off and windows got very fast to the last message(Windows is shutting down) but again stayed there. I decided to go again in safe mode and try there. So I clicked Turn off and the pc's power was "lost" in 3 seconds. This is pretty stupid. Thank you for the idea, I think we are close, if you have any other ideas, please share. I am going to bed now and I think I would answer tomorrow after 1 o'clock pm GMT.

[pertheusual]

Huh, so it passes "Saving your Settings" but then freezes at "Windows is shutting down" now? You should keep playing around with msconfig. There should be a few more things in the "Services" tab that you can disable. See what happens.

One thing to try if you have your windows disk around, run "sfc.exe /scannow". It will scan the windows system files for any corruption and copy them from the CD if they have errors.

You also never answered my question. Did you uninstall the Antivirus?

Per

[pe_mitev]

I am sorry for my absence these days, I was out of the town. So, I understood, I have lied you a bit. Windows have been stopping on Windows is shutting down even by the first try time. Yes, I had uninstalled the antivirus some days after I returned.

[pertheusual]

No problem, mistakes happen.

My advice still stands though. Play around with msconfig and sfc.exe.

Per