HP dm3 hanging at "Shutting Down..." stage

Hi all,

I've been having some trouble with my dm3 hanging indefinately during Windows 7 shutdown at the "Shutting Down..." screen just before the machine switches itself off (therefore never switching itself off).

After quite a bit of experimentation, I have found a solution (sort of) and what I think was the culprit. Basically the problem occurred whenever I tried to shut down the machine when the wireless card was on (Atheros A9285). Switching the wireless card off before shutdown worked OK. This problem occured with every version of the driver I could find (the one pre-installed, the latest downloaded version from HP and the specific driver from Windows update). Basically I couldnt get it to work - at all. I had removed every trace of each driver and restarted before I installed the next one.
My machine at the point was a brand-new full system recovery and the only things I had installed were Kaspersky IS 2010 antivirus and all windows updates.

Then performed a minimized image recovery of the entire system using the recovery disks - this just installs Windows 7 and basic drivers (and a few HP specific items). After the recovery, I cleaned everything out that was HP related - HP MediaSmart stuff, Quick Launch buttons, Wireless assistant, everything except the Atheros and Bluetooth drivers.
Installed Antivirus and all windows updates - so far there is no replication of the problem and everything seems to be behaving itself. Just thought I would post this to help anyone else possibly experiencing the same issue.
Cheers.

 

Instead of doing an image recovery, I would just backup all your data on an external hard drive and do a fresh install of Windows (Not the recovery discs but an actual complete reinstall of just Windows 7 itself). The directions will be posted in the URL below.

If that doesn't fix it, call up HP.

Directions: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...7-clean-install-guide-hp-dm3-intel-based.html

 

I would second the recommendation to do a clean install, maybe update your bios to the latest release as well.

 

Thanks TSE and Nikeseven,

I forgot to mention that I was having this problem on both a completely clean install from my original Windows 7 Retail x64 dvd (ei.cfg removed and installed as OEM) on a completely clean hard drive AND having the problem on a full system recovery from HP. The only time I do not have this issue is when I used the minimized image recovery from HP.
I had already flashed the BIOS to the latest version (F28).
Cheers.

 

Call up HP then. Seems like a software issue but I'm not sure what else you can do.

 

A quick way to check if its hardware or software is to use a bootable linux usb, but I don't see why a hardware issue would present itself only at shutdown. Perhaps getting HP fix it under warranty is your best bet