Another Win XP Taking ages to shutdown problem

Finn Dub

Hi,

I'm having a problem with my Desktop PC, Win XP SP2, Celeron 2.4, 512 MB RAM. System boots fine and fast. If I try to shutdown immediately after startup has finished loading everything it works fine, but if leave the PC on for about 30 mins without running any additional programs and go back to shut it down it takes about 5 minutes just to get the prompt Turn off computer (Standby, Turn Off, Restart) and then a further 5 minutes if I choose to Turn Off or Restart.

I have killed all processes apart from essential ones and the problem still persists.

I have the same problem with slow shutdown if I use the computer for any length of time over about 15 minutes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Finn

daywalker

In disabling processes have you tried disabling any security programs( e.g. AV, firewall) ? It might be that the security program is checking files in the background and eating up system resources, they sometimes dont kick in until the pc has been idle for some time. Before you attempt to shutdown do a CTRL+ALT+DEL and check to see if any process seems to have a large memory/CPU usage.

Finn Dub

Yep, I've tried disabling the AV (AVG) and firewall but it still takes ages just to prompt to confirm shutdown. I've noticed that if I kill the following process I get prompted to confirm the shutdown straight away and it shuts down fine:

Process Image Name:
svchost.exe

Services:
AudioSrv, BITS, Browser, CryptSvc, Dhcp, dmserver, ERSvc, EventSystem,FastUserSwitchingCompatibility, helpsvc,
HidServ, lanmanserver, lanmanworkstation,
Netman, Nla, Schedule, seclogon, SENS,
SharedAccess, ShellHWDetection, srservice,
Themes, TrkWks, W32Time, winmgmt, wscsvc,
wuauserv, WZCSVC

Can anybody see anything in there that could be delaying the shutdown?

Anti

Its the fast user switching that is causing this to slow down. Disable it and your away and a hack !

Sorted

stovelid

My helpsvc sometimes goes mental and started chewing up CPU.

Killing the process seems to solve the issue.

Ruu_Old

The above file, I have disabled altogether. It has to do with Windows Help and Support services. What version of Windows are you running and what service pack installed, stovelid? Instead of killing it all the time, you can disable it by going to Start->Run->services.msc in the box then scroll down to Help and Support Services, double click to enter the properties sheet. You can select Automatic, Manual or Disabled as the Startup type and just stop the process.

stovelid

Will do that now.

Cheers Ruu!

Finn Dub

Thanks for the help lads, after a few hours of killing various services and sitting waiting ages for the PC to shutdown I narrowed it down to the Automatic Updates service. I don't know why this was making it hang, but I have disabled it now and the PC shuts down as normal. I just have to remember to check for updates myself now!