Can't shutdown from Start button

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I’m another senior newbie to the world of Forums and trying this way to find help.
Sometime I did something that now makes it impossible for me to shutdown
or restart my computer by clicking the Start button and selecting Turn Off Computer.
I now have to use Task Manager and sometimes even that doesn’t work quickly
or work at all as I discover the next morning!

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What actually happens when you try to shut down by clicking the Start button and selecting Turn Off Computer? Try to give us as much detail as you can and somebody will probably be able to help you.

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I’m another senior newbie to the world of Forums and trying this way to find help.
Sometime I did something that now makes it impossible for me to shutdown
or restart my computer by clicking the Start button and selecting Turn Off Computer.
I now have to use Task Manager and sometimes even that doesn’t work quickly
or work at all as I discover the next morning!

This is sometimes caused by an “over active” Windows Explorer. When this happens next
1) Go to the Task Manager
2) Click the Process tab
3) Click explorer.exe
4) Click End Process
5) Agree to it being stopped

Now try to close Windows with the Start button.

If that works try doing a Full virus and malware scan

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Unable to find the fix for your default shutdown ‘button’ at the moment, but this sort of thing is usually account specific. I suggest that you create a new Admin level User Account and switch over: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Of course, this begs the question of the system’s failure to shutdown and power off completely. The most common cause of long/failed shutdown is that the system has been directed to “Clear Page File at Shutdown.” http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314834

To stop the process, set the value to .

Since I just mentioned the Registry, I must mention ERUNT: http://www.5starsupport.com/ipboard/index.php?showtopic=12526
Please install and run a backup before modifying your Registry. I recommend allowing the “Autobackup at boot” feature during installation.

Other basic optimal shutdown settings are described here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/speed-up-the-shutdown-of-your-windows-system/

For an exhaustive investigation of various known shutdown issues in relation to software and hardware see: http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.php

While often offered as a panacea for shutdown troubles, I have never found the “User Profile Cleanup Service” to make a measurable difference. It certainly does no harm besides installing a Service and running continuously- which is the main reason I don’t like it. Find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B286E6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582&displaylang=en

If it does nothing for you, you can always set it to “Manual.”

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Thank you Jezza for your suggestion. I tried that but it didn’t resolve the issue for me.

When I press Start in order to shut down, the computer just hangs. I have a dual monitor set up and everything disappears except the desktop image.
VERY occasionally, just as I am having to resort to the power switch on the CPU to close down, it works – and I swear at it for being just plain cussed.
But mostly it just hangs.
I have surfed around for ideas about what to do and some sites tell me that the cause could be absolutely anywhere – which is just plain frustrating.
I notice that 101.doc has posted some ideas which I will look at. Thank you.

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Have you tried Wizmo? I find that it is the quickest way to shut my machine down.

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Sometime I did something….

Sometime recently?

I’d guess you have some programme or service running that doesn’t want to let go.

Anything mentioned in Event Viewer?

Run something like msconfig to see what is starting at start-up (and may have been recently added). Check which services are set to start up automatically (and again which you can recognise as being recently added).

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If you are comfortable working in the registry, you might try this suggestion from here….
“Start Regedit and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon
Set the value of PowerDownAfterShutdown to 1.

If the value isn’t present, add it by creating the string value PowerDownAfterShutdown and setting the value to 1.

Note: The success of this registry edit is dependent on Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) support.”

There are several other possible solutions and links to other information on the page. HTH

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You can turn the computer off by also doing this.
Click Ctrl Alt Del and you will go to Windows Task Manager.
Click Shut down on top and then click Turn Off on the drop down menu.
Good Luck

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Answers and responses are due you guys.

Alfred C. – Thanks. That has been the only way I could shut down for quite a while.

Al C. – Tried Wizmo but it never installed as it said it would. Or I misread something!

Leif – there is heaps of stuff in Event Viewer – Application; a lot of warnings and error messages.
Same in Security too. I have not the skills to tackle those – yet!

Doc Watson – tried your suggestion and seem to have bought a heap of trouble.
I made the suggested change, closed everything and tried to Restart via the Start button
and Turn Off Computer. IT WORKED! BUT……I was informed that significant changes
had been made to my computer and I would have 3 days in which to reactivate it!
Then I had a Systems Configuration Utility window open telling me I had made changes
to the way Windows STARTS????? It was also in the Diagnostic and Selective Startup
mode which needed to be changed to Normal Startup and the initial change I had made was to be undone.

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continuing from where I left off writing to Doc W. ……
When I retraced the steps you outlined first of all, I found that the change from 0 to 1 had already been reversed.
However, it seems I still have to go through the reactivate rigmarole over the phone.
But thank you for trying to help.

1101doc – I printed out all your suggestions to look at when I had enough time. Today was to be the day
but I opted to look at Doc W’s suggestion first. But thank you anyway. I’ll keep it all on file.

I’ll let you know what happens with the reactivation. Last time I did a full installation I couldn’t reactivate
over the net and finally ended up speaking to a very nice Indian lady in Bangalore

Cheers

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continuing from where I left off writing to Doc W. ……
When I retraced the steps you outlined first of all, I found that the change from 0 to 1 had already been reversed.
However, it seems I still have to go through the reactivate rigmarole over the phone.
But thank you for trying to help.

1101doc – I printed out all your suggestions to look at when I had enough time. Today was to be the day
but I opted to look at Doc W’s suggestion first. But thank you anyway. I’ll keep it all on file.

I’ll let you know what happens with the reactivation. Last time I did a full installation I couldn’t reactivate
over the net and finally ended up speaking to a very nice Indian lady in Bangalore

Cheers

I apologize for any problem my suggestion may have caused. It is alway my intension to first, do no harm, and I seem to have let you down. I am truely sorry.

I am not surprised that the registy edit worked. But the unintended consequence has me puzzled. Are you certain that HAL support was enabled ?? That little registry edit should not have created any major system change that would require reactivation. Please let us know what you find out. Again I apologize for the inconvenience.

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For now, until you are able to hunt down the real causes, I suggest that you paste this into the Run box when you’re ready to shut down next time: %windir%System32shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00

If it works, go ahead and create a shortcut with the above syntax as the info in the New Shortcut Wizard field: “Type the location…..”

I use it routinely. I place the shortcut in my Quick Launch right next to the Start Button and customize it with the red power button icon. One click and it shuts down.

I really think you should check the “Clear Page File at Shutdown” setting if nothing else.

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For now, until you are able to hunt down the real causes, I suggest that you paste this into the Run box when you’re ready to shut down next time: %windir%System32shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00

If it works, go ahead and create a shortcut with the above syntax as the info in the New Shortcut Wizard field: “Type the location…..”

I use it routinely. I place the shortcut in my Quick Launch right next to the Start Button and customize it with the red power button icon. One click and it shuts down.

I really think you should check the “Clear Page File at Shutdown” setting if nothing else.

this is an excellent suggestion. I use it myself. Just be careful, save everything before using this short cut. Also, as a suggestion to John H, i would ask if this has been going on for a long time?. If you do know when it started to the date (+ or – a couple of days, i would use the “system restore” app in all programaccessoriessystem tools. Go back if possible to the date when you noticed the problem and try to restore your configuration at that point.

I hope this helps

Cheers

Patrick

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Don’t beat yourself up Doc W. Tish happens as the backward say – and in the inner working of the computer i am quite backward.
I checked the HAL setting and found this –
ACPI Multiprocessor PC
Is that what I needed to see?

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I appreciate you being so understanding. If I do something to my own system, shame on me. But when I do something to someone else’s system to cause problems it will bother me, no matter how kind and understanding that person is.

In this instance, I can’t imagine what might have gone wrong. It was just a simple on/off switch in the registry and shouldn’t have done what it did. Please, let us know what the outcome is and if anyone suggests what might have happened to cause this.

Thanks.

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I must say that I am very impressed by Windows Secrets Lounge. The response to my problem with shutting down from Start has been tremendous. I followed up eventually on one of 1101doc’s suggestion that took me to MS Updates. I had declined to go for Automatic Updates preferring to have notification first but when I came to think about it, I had not had any for quite some time. So I let things take their course and alowed Microsoft Updates to do a catch up for me. And what was the result? For some reason that I do not, or ever will understand, everything is back as it should be. I can now shutdown from Start again.
No more going through Task manager. Lesson? Allow Updates to happen automatically.
But thank you guys for all you suggestions. It’s been a pleasure.

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Great news John.

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I just Love happy endings!

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