XP Pro is saving my settings...

[KLC]

I've got a home built system:

Asus P5K-E motherboard
Intel Q6600 CPU
4 gb AData RAM
Nvidia 8600GT
Win XP Pro
Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite

Starting about two weeks ago, when I shut down the sytem I get the Win shutdown splash screen that says "Windows is saving your settings" for as long as 3 minutes before I get the "Windows is Shutting Down" message. From the time I built the system in January until now the saving settings screen would flash for a few seconds.

I haven't added new software but Windows update tried to install SP3 and failed, could that be the cause of this? Can anyone help me find out what is taking so long to save my settings?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Edit: I just installed SP3, it doesn't change anything.

 

[KLC]

Anybody?

 

[Zbox]

it could be a tumor.

but more seriously, check if you are using this setting:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320423/en-us

 

[KLC]

Zbox, thanks for the reply, I was away from the computer for a few days or I would have replied sooner. As far as I can tell that setting is disabled, that page explains how enabling that setting can slowdown shutdown. So, I'm still in the dark about why this is happening.

 

[will889]

Yes, the failed SP3 could do it - go to a system restore to before the SP3 attempt. Create a new system restore called something like " new SP3 att" -- whatever - then retry manually again to install SP3.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Go to your system sounds in Control Panel, find the Windows exit sound and turn that to none. Save. Then try to shut down and see if that doesn't help.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have a win2k machine that does that very same thing. Stays at "saving your settings" for a good 5-10 minutes. I don't know why. I remember setting up roaming profiles on my network. It solved the issue (oddly). But I found roaming profile to be overkill for 2 users and 2 computers (in fact, a domain is LOL). So I reverted back. Then it started taking long again. Never really digged too deeply for the cause though. But its been through several profile rebuilds, so its not the profile.

This kind of brings me back to something I always wonder about windows, why does it even take any time at all? Profile stuff happens on the fly. You put a file in my documents, its there. You make a change in the registry, its there. So whats with this "Saving" in first place when logging out? Everything already got saved.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I believe the hanging up on the exit sound bug was introduced in Win2k. It started hanging on shutdown after a service pack update and XP started doing this too.

 

[KLC]

Will, I finally did install SP3 but it didn't change anything. GrumpyMan, unfortunately disabling the windows exit sound did nothing.

The maddening thing is that no new software was installed, nothing had changed as far as I could tell on an 8 month old system, but suddenly this happens out of the blue.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It sometimes happens after your user profile (the registry USER.DAT) gets corrupted. Then it takes forever to save properly.

 

[ed21x]

this may be a far off answer, but have you uninstalled any programs recently? it sounds like windows is forced to kill off an unresponsive program everytime it has to shut down. try running ccleaner on the registry.

 

[KLC]

I downloaded ccleaner and it found 221 items, most residue from program unistalls. I cleaned up with the program and....

No change. It still shuts down as slowly as before.

VirtualLarry, would ccleaner fix the user.dat problem you talked about? I don't know much about this subject, so if there is something else I can do I'd like to know what it is.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to reply and offer suggestions.