cant shut down

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cant shut down

ChokePoint

7:08 pm on Sep 4, 2010 (gmt 0)

i need some help here.

all of a sudden i am unable to shut down my computer. i have windows XP.

i also cant save like when i wrote a few paragraphs into notepad and wanted to save to my desktop i click save and the screen just flashes but doesnt save anything anywhere-

this is the same for when i try to shut down - screen flashes and no shut down so the only way to "turn off" the computer is to hibernate.

i'm pretty sure that i dont just want to hibernate forever so if anyone could please tell me what i need to do to fix this i would really appreciate it.

ive run all kinds of spyware, malware, virus scans and everything came up clean, but my system is running super slow and i cant shut down.

thanks

tangor

8:49 pm on Sep 4, 2010 (gmt 0)

Have you looked at Event Viewer or checked the running services/processes (Task Manager)?

ChokePoint

1:15 am on Sep 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

not sure what event viewer is and yes i checked the task manager but i'm not sure what processes if any to turn off. i dont want to do any irreversible damage.

tangor- could you tell me what i need to be looking for in the task manager that could be the cause of the problem or give me any advice on how to sole this?

tangor

2:58 am on Sep 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

Shut down each in order (largest memory use first). Eventually your computer will shut down and reboot. Take note of when that happens.

ChokePoint

4:29 pm on Sep 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

thanks tangor - it was the explorer.exe that was jamming me up.

when i stopped that process i was able to shut down.

question answered : case closed.

kaled

1:46 pm on Sep 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

Explorer.exe provides the desktop and taskbar amongst other things. If the problem reoccurs, it is most likely caused by a shell extension - typically this means a utility that adds some sort of dynamic functionality to context menus.

That said, forcibly closing Explorer could affect many things so it might not actually be the cause of the problem.

Kaled.

cmendla

1:56 pm on Sep 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

One possibility, and use this at your own risk, is to use the system restore tool to try to restore your machine to the state it was in prior to when the problem started.

System restore should not cause you to lose data but you might have to reinstall apps that were installed after the date of the restore point.

Your mileage may vary. BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA INCLUDING MAIL FROM THINGS SUCH AS OUTLOOK PRIOR. I've never had a restore go bad but.....

If the problem persists, try logging on as another user to see if it is a machine wide problem or something specific to your user account.

cant shut down

ChokePoint

tangor

ChokePoint

tangor

ChokePoint

kaled

cmendla

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