Why does my computer take like 2-3 freaking minutes to shut down?

[SouljaAC]

When I press shutdown or restart, it waits for like 2-3 minutes, then shuts down.

I have Windows XP Home, by the way.

 

[Detselom]

could be virus's affecting your computer. I had slow shut down times. Used 4 different virus scanners and then after that shut down was fast.

 

[fatbaby]

maybe you have a LOT of programs running in the background?

 

[GTaudiophile]

Both my machine and my dad's (both running Win2K) now take longer to shutdown since installing a MS Windows update. First "side effect" I've had from using Update.

 

[GnomeCop]

maybe get rid of some services you don't need.

I disabled "nvidia driver help" service or something like that on my system when I had a GF3 and it helped shutdown times a lot

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

My computer too takes longer than I would like it to to shutdown... I'm using Win2k Pro SP3. Doesn't take minutes, but maybe 30 seconds. It takes a long time at the shutdown screen that says "Saving your settings", whatever it does then.

I don't want to have to pay for a virus scanner or deal with one on my PC... I'm smart enough to stay away from virus-type junk, but that doesn't mean I'm virus free I suppose.

I think I'll keep an eye on this thread.

 

[JellyBaby]

The first computer I owned started and shut down instantly. We've come a long way, baby....not.

 

[DARRIN]

There was a setting in the registry that you can change to make it shut down faster. I forgot what it was though.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete
My computer too takes longer than I would like it to to shutdown... I'm using Win2k Pro SP3. Doesn't take minutes, but maybe 30 seconds. It takes a long time at the shutdown screen that says "Saving your settings", whatever it does then.

I don't want to have to pay for a virus scanner or deal with one on my PC... I'm smart enough to stay away from virus-type junk, but that doesn't mean I'm virus free I suppose.

I think I'll keep an eye on this thread.

Pretty sure it has something to do with SP3. Mine didn't start taking longer until I installed that (same with my dad's machine...both upgraded on the same day with the same result).

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: DARRIN
There was a setting in the registry that you can change to make it shut down faster. I forgot what it was though.

Yes, I remember this as well, something about deleting the pagefile during shutdown. I think it was on a tweaks for XP thread at ARS or maybe I saw it in MS Knowledge base...

 

[DARRIN]

Originally posted by: Antoneo

Originally posted by: DARRIN
There was a setting in the registry that you can change to make it shut down faster. I forgot what it was though.

Yes, I remember this as well, something about deleting the pagefile during shutdown. I think it was on a tweaks for XP thread at ARS or maybe I saw it in MS Knowledge base...

Seems like it was a built in delay to make sure that all programs had time to shut down before the computer turned off. The delay is way too long though.

 

[Mossman]

Seems like it was a built in delay to make sure that all programs had time to shut down before the computer turned off. The delay is way too long though

I had this problem on W2K SP3, fixed it with the Group Policy Editor (maybe it's the same for XP?)

Run GPEDIT.MSC

Computer Config > Admin Templates > System > Logon

Modify "Maximum retries to unload & update user profile". By default it was set to 60 (seconds), try reducing it to say, 15 (seconds)

HTH

 

[Wiseguy69]

If you don't want to buy virus software go here and scan from the internet. You would have to do this anyway if there is a virus on your system because some viruses can get past the installed software if it is installed after you've been infected.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

I had this problem on W2K SP3, fixed it with the Group Policy Editor (maybe it's the same for XP?)

Run GPEDIT.MSC

Computer Config > Admin Templates > System > Logon

Modify "Maximum retries to unload & update user profile". By default it was set to 60 (seconds), try reducing it to say, 15 (seconds)

HTH

Wow, that worked. I just set it to 0. Says it tries to save a paging file every 1 second or something...

Any downside to setting this to 0? (If there is I haven't noticed it yet).

Also virus scanned on that website Wiseguy69 suggested, no viruses found but it was good to scan anyhow. Free is nice .

 

[billyjak]

I just read there is a Bug in microsofts memory controller with SP1, it will be fixed in SP2, you can get it now by contacting Microsoft.
It will take up to 10 times the amount of time to run programs on some machines without the fix.

You can read more Here

You mabe affected by this problem.

 

[NokiaDude]

Make sure you haven't enable a "tweak" to clear the page file at shutdown. I found out the hard way with my original install of XP Pro. Took about 2 minutes to shutdown!