Why does my PC keep taking longer and longer to shut down?
 

It's running Windows XP, I had to do a complete OS reinstall a couple months ago and it was pretty quick at first, but for the past week or so it seems like it's taking longer to turn off each time.

It did this with my prior installation as well, until it got the point where I would wait 2-3 minutes for it to shut down.

It seems to be booting up quickly enough though.

check for spyware.

defrag. Do you ever get rid of your temp files?

Have you done and disk defragmation, check for spyware and get rid of temp files that might be in your computer.

How many plugins and gadgets do you have running? Does it ever complain that a program isn't responding when you try to shut down?

My SATA monitoring app sometimes goes AWOL, at shutdown XP gives me 10 seconds to click on "end now" and then just waits anyway if I don't. Not sure what the point of that is, sometimes I come back 6 hours later to find the PC still powered on with the close program dialog box up. :1orglaugh

Also is there a lot of HD activity while it's shutting down or is it like it is waiting for something?

Hmm, ok I always thought that setting the 'history' in IE to only one day would delete all the temp files after one day, but now that I'm doing that manually and listening to the HD grind away, I guess it doesn't...

Shouldn't be any spyware on here, I have Norton Antivirus running and let it update automatically & scan frequently. Not to say that something couldn't have slipped past it that it doesn't detect.

I do have a copy of disckeeper I could install for defrag, which I haven't been using either.

Thanks for the tips.

not many. two external HD and two printers. nothing out of the ordinary.

I used to get that all the time prior to doing the OS reinstall a couple months ago. It hasn't been doing it since then though.

well it usually seems like it's just waiting for something. once in a while there will be a very short burst of activity but not for very long.

yeah scan your computer man!

You could always try loading Windows Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del on XP) and try to figure out which process is causing the delay at shutdown - if you're lucky it may stick out and show a high CPU load...

No deleteing history doesn't do that.

Porbally not an issue. But never assume ONE anti-spyware program is enough. Nothing ctaches everything. Download the free version of Ad-Aware. And run that about once a week.

You could defrag right from windows.

Control Pannel-Performance & Maintenence-Rearrange items on your hard disk

Seems like you haven't defragged yet and I bet this is the main problem.

Also how much shit do you have in your start-up? Everything you start-up has to be shut down. Also instead of shutting down completely try using "stand by". Sometimes you have to shut down completely in certain circumstances, but if your just getting off the computer for awhile just use the "stand by" mode.

You can also do it like this...

Start->My Computer->Right click on HD->Properties->Tools->Defragmentation

If the HD isn't thrashing at shutdown then I doubt it's a fragmentation issue anyway.

I think I know where we can lay the blame:

George W. Bush

No lie.

because Windows sucks

LOL :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

That was funny ....

A liile help:

Fast Shut Down Icon in XP

Buried deep inside Windows XP lurks a little-known program called shutdown that shuts down your system in a very fast ? but orderly ? way.

Here's how to put an icon on your desktop that'll shut down your machine quickly:

1. Right-click any empty location on your desktop.

2. Click New, Shortcut.

The Create Shortcut Wizard appears.

3. In the Type the Location of the Item box, type shutdown -s -t 0.

It's important that you put spaces before each hyphen, that you have no spaces after each hyphen, and that you use a zero at the end.

who shuts their computer down anyway? i only restart mine when installing/uninstalling shit... other then that, its on 24/7/365

heh, well I guess I'm comparing it to when I had twin external CD burners, an external DVD burner and an extrenal HD hooked up. with 3 printers. I didn't always just do affiliate sales you know :winkwink:

thanks for the info, that's the first I've heard of it

Eh, I run OS X on my Mac, and Linux on my PC -- I only boot Windows to play games.

So, in that case, I don't reboot/shut down much myself.

I'm using your computer to send out my damcash spam.. I really wish you would take this advise as it's quite annoying when you shut down. :winkwink:

I always shut down after use..you probably have many programs running in the background and takes awhile to shut them down

I think it's ok now. just had a shitload of temp files I didn't realize were there, drives needed defragged, no spyware though.

there's a program running that won't shut down. you should download a program to see what EXACTLY is running on your machine at all times. or use ctrl+alt+del to see what's running.

spyware!