Z13 boots fast, often shuts down slowly

I have a nearly brand new Z13 (see sig) and it is the fastest one I've ever had in all respects, including 25 sec boot time - with 110 processes! - but it sometimes takes nearly a minute to shut down. First, it can take up to 30 seconds with the "Shutting Down" screen showing, then the screen goes black but the power light remains on for as much as 30 or so more seconds (I am probably exaggerating the times; I haven't clocked them, just by feel) before turning off, then powers back up as normal, after a few seconds.

Sometimes it powers down in 10 seconds or so. I know this is somewhat related to how many programs are open when I shut down, but is there anything else I can do to speed up shutdown?

Thanks.

 

Hibernate?

 

I sometimes experience this when I use temp/hardware monitoring programs like HWMonitor. Brightness controls freeze up and then as you have said: "then the screen goes black but the power light remains on...then powers back up as normal, after a few seconds."

Not related to lovelaptops' issue, I've noticed that Hibernate is really slow to do on my Z1.

edit: Just timed it - 6GB of RAM. 50 seconds to go into hibernate. 2:20 to resume back to Windows (including about 10 seconds for BIOS and before the Resuming Windows screen).
If it matters, memory usage was as such: http://puu.sh/f3v3

 

You could create a shortcut on your desktop that contains the following command. "shutdown -s -t 00"

There's also a registry hack that can be done that stops windows waiting for programs to terminate. Used under XP though many moons ago.

 

Alas, no.

Ran the command and it did seem quicker, took about 25 seconds with "shutting down" screen, but went dark then power-off quickly. Thanks. Hate to show my ignorance, but how do I make that into an executable that I can just click on?

EDIT: FWIW, even when I just boot up (85 processes) and shut right down without loading any applications, the "shutting down" screen still takes 20+ seconds. If that gives you any ideas.

Love it if someone knew the registry hack.

 

Right click on your desktop and choose "New Shortcut" option. After that type shutdown.exe -s -t 00 into the file, click "Next" button and name the file whatever you like. After that click "Finished" button.

Right click the icon again for properties to change the icon to one of your choice.


Registry way link in your inbox

 

i must be doing something wrong. When I follow your advice and run the program it quickly flashes a dos screen with a long list of commands too fast to read, but does not execute a shutdown. Thoughts?

I had already implemented your registry suggestion, but not much effect.

I did find that by closing certain apps I usually have running I can shorten the shut-down back to 10 seconds or so. Seems like there should be a more automated way. None of these apps need saving to shut down.

Many thanks.

 

I've just replicated this and works fine for me. You may have to refine it by setting thhe target location. the fill command line for your shortcut is as follows.

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00

Remember to make sure you have "-s -t 00" on the shortcut link.

 

I believe that command needs to be run as administrator.

 

Well, I've answered the mystery. Unfortunately, the methods you so helpfully provided did not appreciably speed my shutdown. So i painstakingly went though applications to find the culprit, which was this, a nifty little software audio enhancement program from SRS. It makes a huge difference in audio quality, whether through internal speakers, headphones or a wonderful little bluetooth speaker i have - Creative D100 if you're interested.

Seems that unless I completely shut it down (in Task Manager, Services) I get the very long shutdown. When I turn it off in Services (and not when I just turn it take it down within the program), the shutdown is less than 10 seconds - from 30! The annoyance is that I have to go into services, double click on the SRS service and manually stop it, or it doesn't speed up the shutdown. - ie, you can't just close down the program from its own setting. Then, to bring it back up, I just set it to "load with startup" which, again, is more convenient, and I still have to re-start it again to get it operating. Thing is, I use it 90% of the time I'm online so it doesn't really help me to disable it and again go into services and re-start it when I want it running.

Seems like an awfully klugey way to take care of the problem. Any more "elegant" solutions in mind. BTW, when I go to shut down, it is not one of the programs that hangs waiting to shut down. I have the problem licked for now, but would be grateful if you have any other suggestions. Thanks for all your help.

 

This may work:
Take a note of the name of the offending process in task manager and replace "processname" with its name (without quotation marks) in the following.
Create a file shut.cmd
contents:

Code:

@echo off
taskkill /f /im "processname" >NUL
shutdown -s

Create a shortcut to shut.cmd, and set it as "run as administrator" (I think you need this). Not amazingly elegant but clicking the icon should do the trick.

The other option is to run "shutdown -s -f" which just forces everything to close.

 

So, I've been a lot of experimenting with this very helpful info and I can report the following:

1) this command, invoked by the shortcut, works perfectly, shutting Windows down in 7-9 seconds from the time I run it as an administrator - providing I first shut down the "offending process." It seems to work a bit faster than if I shut down that "offending" process first in task manager (actually, I have to shut down the service, not the prociess) and then do a conventional Windows "shut down/restart." Unfortunately, it doesn't save any time if I don't first shut down the SRS Audio Essentials Service - ie, the "shutting down" screen runs for 25 secs or so, just as long as it takes if I just use the Windows shut down/restart.

2) Curiously, when I use the shortcut shutdown -s -f the "shutting down" phase is very short, the same 7-9 seconds it is without the SRS program running, but before it starts to shut down, it puts up a splash screen indicating that it is about to shut down, but the delay until it does actually shut down seems just about as long as the "shutting down" screen takes when the SRS is running - thus, no improvement. So I'm left with letting the SRS Audio stay in the start menu and have the service turn on automatically at boot, and, if I am in a hurry to get it to shut down and reboot, I exit out of the program, do shut off the service, and either use my spiffy new shortcut or just do a regular Windows shut down.

I know you believed that the cmd file would shut down the offending SRS program, but it doesn't seem to not until it takes its sweet time in the shutting down mode. Might I be using the wrong naming convention for it? I took the name of the application file that starts the SRS process up: "AudioEssentials."

Anyway, thanks for so the help and the education. Never imagine just one - of 80 some odd processes (I did succeed in getting it down from 109!!) could hold things up that long.

 

Try using "net stop [service name]" in the command file. That should stop the service.

 

Try shutdown -s -f -t 00

 

Friends,

Your kind advice overwhelms me! I am going a bit batty (some would say I didn't have fat to go!) trying all the permutations of what you have advised. The main problem I have is that any of the routines that shut down the offending process/service game me a splash screen telling me "your computer will shut down within one minute" and that it did, and most of the time was spent waiting for it to commence shutting down; once it did, it was very quick to go from "shutting down" to black. But regrettably that did not reduce the time from my request for a shut down and its ultimate completion. Given that there is both a process - "Audio Essentials," and a Service - "SRS Audio Essentials" - and any, all an none of the additional commands in addition to the process- and service-killling commands spared me that "will be shutting down" delay, I've found the easiest way is to:
1) exit AE by clicking on its window to shut down - quick, easy
2) going into Task Mgr, choosing the Servce, and double-clicking it too to stop.

No delays, then do shut down/restart in conventional way: lights out in 8-10 seconds and back on in 3-4 more (no doubt there was another command I could have added to the command file to have it re-start after shutting down.

I don't want to sound ungrateful - just the contrary, I'm bowled over by all the help - but is there a way to achieve the same result in the same time frame? It would be nice not having to manually kill the process and service, but for re-boots after installs, etc, time is of the essence and I can't find a faster way.

Many thanks.

 

You could write a tiny .bat file to stop the service and shutdown. I don't know all the code. Google the command prompt code to stop a service (something like netsvc stop servicename) and then the shutdown command. Hopefully someone more versed can step in or google can point you in the right direction.

 

That's what I'm waiting for. I'm very grateful for all the suggestions, but I need a .bat file that automates my manual shutdown of both the process and and service. Amazing how one app can add 20 seconds to shut down time - no discernable time added to start them up at boot. My brand-spankng new Z13 boots up in about 25 seconds, with or without the audio software. BTW, this is a really good product to make even the Z2 speakers barely listenable, and headphones and external speakers really nice, without a sound card dongle, especially since the Z only has 2 USBs and no EC.

 

Looks like you will have to go old skool and use a windows powershell command. Stop-process is what may assist.

Stop-Process

Sorry, but its been some time since I've used the cmd line so can't offer much more.

 

Yes, I forgot the t00. Two options may work

Create a shortcut, and in the contents, type:
shutdown -s -f -t 00

That should do a shutdown that does not wait for programs to respond.


Otherwise, try my original idea, but include the -t00 and stop the service instead of the process. i.e. the code is:

Code:

@echo off
net stop [service name] >NUL
shutdown -s -t 00

(with [service name] replaced with the name of the service that you can see in task manager)

 

Just modified my shutdown shortcut to "shutdown -s -f -t 00"

To test it I opened MS Office 2007 (full set excel word powerpoint etc) Internet explorer, chrome, ccleaner, MS Autoroute 2007, inSSider and nokia ovi suite.

ran the shortcut, system down in less than 20 secs.

Lovelaptops give it a try!

 

Eureka! You got it! Can't thank you enough for all the support. +1s all around. Hope I have the opportunity to return the help. You guys rock!

 

What was the final cure? please share.

 

It was pretty much your suggestion:

"Try shutdown -s -f -t 00"

which I incorporated with Asher's suggestion:

"Yes, I forgot the t 00. Two options may work

Create a shortcut, and in the contents, type:
shutdown -s -f -t 00

That should do a shutdown that does not wait for programs to respond.


Otherwise, try my original idea, but include the -t00 and stop the service instead of the process. i.e. the code is:

Code:

@echo off net stop [service name] >NUL shutdown -s -t 00</pre>

For some reason, when I used the "shutdown" line alone, I got a splashscreen that said, words to the effect: "your computer will shut down in one minute or less" and it did do so, but the delay while that message stayed up was almost as long as the delay during "shutting down" had been before.

It seems that first shutting down the "offending" process, then running the shutdown command, does it all. From clicking on the shortcut to shutting down takes 10 seconds start to finish, with no splash screens.

Happy guy!

 

Result! Sweet

 

Helpful members - really sweet!!