Startup and Shutdown Issues
Lately, the Intel/ASUS P-111 machine I have has been showing issues during Start-up and Shut-down…
It began as taking a long time to shut-down…
and…
then progressed to “Hanging” at start-up…
Now this machine is getting to a point when I’m done using it I just hold the Power Button in for 4 seconds and Power-it-Down…
At start up, it becomes a different workaround…
Yesterday, I Googled the problem and found pages of FIXES that the users are posting that appears to resolve their problems…
If I press cont>alt>delete and find more than 38 items running on the operating system I’m gonna have trouble shutting the computer off…
The Hard Drives and maybe the power supply shuts the Hardware down
but…
the Main Board and Processor-and-Processor Fan continues to run and I believe the System “Hangs” and does not get any more commands to complete the “shut down” process…
I know that if I pick up a phone…
the line is still open meaning the modem has not closed…
At “start up” I believe that the Graphics Card drivers begin to load… but…
at some point the driver loading process system “Hangs” and does not reach the point where the “Desk” appears…
SO…
maybe sometime after the Graphics Drivers begin to load the machine just Hangs… I don’t know how to look for the “ORDER” of the driver’s loading, to know just where the boot-up “Hangs”…
The workaround for the start up is to load the Operating System in “Safe Mode” and then hope that the restart will take the machine to the Desk…
It may have begun sometime after installing updates to SP 3…
It’s hard to know the exact date that things began going Down-Hill… I tried backing the restore date for several months…
only to find that the same thing happens at that restore point…
Then at odd times the machine decides to re-boot just when an important “n-Track” EDIT is being processed…
or any other important process is under-way… I might be uploading an FTP File somewhere…
Who Knows.
?
Is there a Computer Geek out there that might know where to look to resolve the issue this machine shows.
?
Bill…
Bill…I would look in the processes to see if any strange things are running. If a process looks unfamiliar, google it and see what comes up. It sounds like you use that machine for “internet” access, so you might have picked up a hijacker which can hang your PC at shutdown and startup.
You can also go to Start>Run>type in msconfig >enter
On that screen, the last tab along the top is “Startup”. Click on it and you can go down the list and look for weird or unfamiliar things in the listing. You can then google them to see what they are and if they are a necessity. (there will be some weird things there, but you have to start somewhere).
I’m no expert, but slow shutdowns and startups can be an indication that something is up…
cliff
Could be some software loaded on Bill (maybe a third party or something you’ve installed from the internet)(my headache came from that stupid Adobe reader crap, kept trying to access the net to upgrade while I was recording), not familiar with XP, does the msconfig have the hide all microsoft services check box in start up programs, in Vista you can check that then disable everything from starting, then if not needed it won’t be running in the background. Not sure how XP handles that,
Anyone got a fix or solution on that?
That stuff is usually related to BIOS stuff, under power management. Look and see if the BIOS settings got changed. May need a BIOS update for that motherboard. Even if it never had a problem before, that might have been a luck issue. This has been a problem with many older motherboard.
That said, it’s usually a shutdown problem only. Since you are see startup issues as well, it may well be something else, or it may be a manifestation of the forced shutdown you’re having to do. See if it starts up properly after any time it does shut down correctly.
Could be another hardware failure getting ready to happen. May of your problems could be contributed to a flaky power supply, and this is another one. Yes, I know we talked about that, and your power supply should be more than adequate.
(As a side note, I’ve got a machine that would spontaneously just turn off. I switched out the power supply in an effort to rule out some things. It worked fine for a few weeks after putting the “new” PS in it (came out of another machine that’s been working fine), then yesterday it started shutting down again. It’s better than it was but not totally fixed. I discovered the shutdown was DIRECTLY tied to extended hard drive access. Try to copy a large file and poof. It could be the hard drive or the HD controller, or motherboard.)
The third issue that can cause startup/shutdown problems is drivers. The OS tries to shut them down nicely but they don’t. Drivers or WAY more likely to hang than any running applications. The OS can kill most apps, but not always at the driver/kernel level.
Try booting into SafeMode and see if it happens. If it hangs before you get to that point in startup then it’s very likely hardware or a driver to core hardware component - HD, CDROM, controller, video card unless the initial startup stuff shows up (but it could still be video when it tries to switch to S-VGA for the bootup screen) — could even be unused onboard stuff that has been previous disabled.
Thank You Gents:
I’m gonna try to get on top of this and see how-it-goes… I’ve got lots of things to address from your replies…
I’m gonna miss this old P-111
if it has to go…
If I didn’t have this P-111…
I wouldn’t have anything to complain about…
If I gotta dig to the bottom of it…
I hope I come up with a 10 carrot diamond…
or something…
If I find the diamond I’ll get the kitchen knife out and divide it up so everyone will get a chunk of it…
Bill…
p.s.
It might be something that got in under Panda Antivirus 2008
Radar…
Well…
I was thinking about going into the Registry and extend the Shut-Down Time-out Time for the DESK-TOP…
I read somewhere that it’s a trade-off
and could cause Side Effects by playing with those things…
[EDIT] I’m beginning to look at this old modem… Maybe, it’s telling me to get a Hi-Speed Internet Connection…
Hey Yaz:
You know, I’ve recently been playing around with that Adobe stuff… Why… ? It’s beyond me to answer that… Maybe, that’s the malware…
Bill…
On the Msconfig screen there is also a tab “services”. If you click it, all of the services running are listed. At the bottom of that window is a box “Hide all Microsoft Services”.
Looking over this thread…good grief - there sure are a bunch of things that can go wrong…good luck, Bill
Quote:
On the Msconfig screen there is also a tab "services".
If you click it, all of the services running are listed.
At the bottom of that window is a box "Hide all Microsoft Services".
Looking over this thread.....good grief - there sure are a bunch of things that can go wrong...good luck, Bill
You know it..
I'm gonna flounder around this machine and I'm gonna finger the very thing that's gonna spell the end of this Operating System from ever boot'in up... OR...
shutt'in down..
I hate going into the BIOS of any machine with a passion..
However,
I went in there phoo..
It looked to me like everything in there was like I think it should be..
or as much as I can remember it looked like..
Then a finger pointed at me from the monitor screen..
and it said
AaHh
Don't touch..
I gave it the middle finger back
and went in there and screwed it up
Big Time..
I pushed the save and exit button..
I don't think I caused any change to what I played with in there..
Bill..
[EDIT]
That Services Tab
looks fasenating..
After playing in there for a while I got the machine and modem to a point where I couldn't dial out to the server..
I think that's where this machine is Hanging at the shutdown command..
The modem isn't dropping the phone line..
I think..
I don't know why that is..
OR..
what to do to get it drop the line..
It's an ASUS CUSL2c Mother board.. I think it has an 815 chipset.. I don't remember the BIOS Version.. but does 1006A mean anything..
? I'll need to check to confirm that stuff.. I think it posts all that stuff at Post-Up Time..
Bill,
If you installed SP3, then you surely didn’t do this using dialup. My recommendation is to do a complete OS re-install, assuming that you can do that. Then apply SP3.
You could do a system repair by booting your WinXP Disk. If the option is available to you in the windows setup process, (on some installs the option to repair will not be available), I would give that a try. You will not loose any programs or installs by doing a repair, however if the system fails to repair you could loose everything so back up any crucial files before hand.
This page may also assist you in re-installing XP
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/compute…windows
Hope this helps
PACO
Hi Mr Soul and Paco572:
These past few days have been busy for me…
So much so that I haven’t been able to spend any time tracking down this P-111 issue that has struck this machine…
I have discovered that at Boot-up time
If I wait ling enough that the boot does complete after some 4-5 minutes…But, the shut down issue hangs after the Hard drives stop spinning
and then the shut down stalls at that point…
the screen says the Windows is shutting down…
and the cursor hangs When-in-Fact I don’t think there should be any cursor at that Point-in-Time…
Yes Mike…
SP 3 was downloaded by this machine that has a dial-up and modem…
…
along with all the security updates and everything that brings Windows XP Home up to it’s current/latest Builds and Files and all…
There are several 100’s of megs of files maybe even gigs of files…
who knows…
It’s so depressing to spend all the time to download this stuff just to toss it out and rebuild the Operating System from scratch…
AgAiN…
I think it was close to the end of June when I got HiT with the Virus/Trojan and I rebuilt the system…
only to have to re-build it again …
and…
then again…
I ran into a format issue where several of you great computer guys managed to get me past that Hurtle… Only to have to rebuild the system from scratch yet again…
I stand corrected…
I believe the SP 3 file download is some 70 + meg. worth of files…
let alone all the security updates and the SP2 and SP 1 and the list goes on…
I’m not so sure that I want to rebuild this P-111…
It may have seen better days…
I hear that phoo has an unexplained issue with a machine he says quits and reboots for no reason…
This machine is showing the same issue…
It may be power supply related…
maybe, Ram…
It’s tough for me to diagnose something I know nothing about…
I’ve been lucky, when, in the past when I’d show little if any respect for this machine and it would bounce back from any abuse I seemed to give it…
Now… I’m beginning to learn just how fragile these machines really are when using them and installing applications and trying to keep them current with Microsoft security… updates…
and all…
I think what I might do is…
Write My Documents to a DVD and save anything I think I might need and then do/try a system repair…
If that don’t fix this thing…
I’ll format the drive and do a re-install…
Just thinking about it stresses me to No-End…
You know…
When I do a Cont>alt>delete…
I see 40 processes running…
at-one-time…
All along and when this setup worked correctly, there was only 37-38 processes running at one time…
I don’t know why that is…
If I remember.,
there was a young fellow that posted up here saying that his machine ran some 44 processes at one time and he reported an unstable/unpredictable operating machine…
Then he got his machine operating stable and he replied back saying that his task manager now reports something like 36-38 processes working at one time…
I could investigate how many processes are operating on this P-4 Studio machine… and make a list of them…
Wouldn’t it be nice if it were something simple…
?
Bill…