Windows XP freezes on shutdown

On shutdown, it just stays at the blue screen that says "Windows is shutting down.."

Now I know one of the drivers I installed did something to it because it was working perfectly before I installed the sound driver. (I THINK, not completely sure if this was the one.) I have uninstalled it and ran CC Cleaner and it is still freezing on shutdown.

Any other ideas how to fix this?

Thanks

 

What version of XP are you running? Also, what driver was it that you installed, and then uninstalled?

It may also be a problem with the system not being able to unload the registry due to an app or process failing to let go of a registry key. It's called User Profile Hive Cleanup Service, you might install it and run it through a few times to see if it helps with anything; however, it can be a bit of a time hog, so I wouldn't keep it installed permanently.

Also, Microsoft has a knowledge base article, KB308029, that summarizes a number of the more common shut-down problems with XP - perhaps something on that page might be of help.

 

It was my audio driver. Realtek Audio Driver v6.0.1.541_R167 is what the zip was called from Acer's website. I'm using Home Edition SP2.

And what exactly does that Hive thing do? Does it install a program or what?

 

Ok, I think that Hive thing worked, lol. I restart and XP didn't freeze.

Edit
And how is it a time hog? What would it do if I kept it installed perma?





AVG detected something that installed as a Trojan. =/

 

When I was running it, I ended up getting slower shutdowns, although it may have been due to the configuration I had set up for the logging function.

Was the trojan "hit" related to UPHCleaner, or to something else?

 

Well, I'm not sure if it was from that but it happened right after I installed it.

D:\DOCUME~1\User\LOCALS~1\Temp\UNYT_P~1.EXE (Whatever that is.)

 

So do I have to use that every time before I shutdown / reboot Windows? I just tried to reboot again and it froze.

 

Seems like that only worked once. Now it keeps freezing again. =/

 

Use the system configuration utility for a clean boot. Instructions are available with in the utility for this.
Disconnect from the internet when doing this.

 

Have you ever downloaded or installed anything related to a yahoo toolbar or taskbar? Google doesn't bring up much on it, but nothing that seems related to UPHCleaner, so my guess is that it's not related to UPHCleaner.

Have you tried scanning that particular file with your A/V? There are very few items that come up on a google search, but those that do all seem to suggest that it's a virus or other malware.

EDIT: If none of that rings a bell, download SysInternals' Process Explorer, unzip it, and then run it (it's a stand-alone exe so it doesn't need to be installed). See if UNYT_P~1.EXE, or anything that starts with "unyt_" shows up as a running process. If it does, see if you can track down what it's doing through process explorer.

 

Ok, I did that and the infected exe wasn't on there. Yeah, I think one of the programs I installed did install Yahoo Toolbar. (I uninstalled it.)

It's still freezing even after I installed that program. The Hive profile thing. It worked the first time but after that first time it started freezing again.

 

Do you mean that the exe UNYT_P~1.EXE isn't showing up as a running process? Also, how long ago did you uninstall the program that installed the Yahoo toolbar? Did you scan the file in the temp directory with your A/V software?

If it's still freezing, then the problem may be something other than a hanging user registry that's preventing Windows from shutting down.

EDIT: Unfortunately, there are a lot of other things that could be causing a shutdown hang. For now, go into the administrative tools window (Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools) and from there check in the performance logs at the time of the failed shutdown to see if the system logged anything about the failure to shutdown properly.

Also, read through this webpage and see if anything there sounds applicable.

 

It was last night that I uninstalled the tool bar. I'm not sure what installed it. I did a full virus scan with AVG, I defragged (Said I should do it.), I did a CC Clean, Disk Cleanup, and a Spyware scan, and everything was clean. AVG put that exe in the virus vault.

 

Ok, then I'd wager it's not being caused by that odd little exe (how big is it in KB?). Check your performance logs, and see if anything on that webpage has any relevance, and we'll see where that takes us.

 

The logs doesn't say anything went wrong.

I just went into safe mode on XP and it rebooted perfectly fine.

I have no idea how big or small the exe was and AVG won't show me how big or small it is unless I release it from the vault.

 

Well, I reinstalled XP and I'm going to start installing the drivers. After each driver, I'm making a restore point. That way I'll make sure that if this happeneds again, I can just restore and have it fixed, lol.

 

Ok, I just installed (in this order) the: graphics driver, gigabit ethernet port, wireless driver, chipset driver, sound, and then the card reader driver. I rebooted after every driver that was installed twice and did a system restore point after every working reboot. I just installed the card reader driver and it froze. So, I did a restore back to before I installed it (After I did the sound.) and it is still freezing. =/

Edit

I restored to before I installed the sound driver and it's rebooting fine now, lol.

Stupid drivers.

 

My hat's off to you - that's very good diagnostic work, and now you've discovered the source of the problem. Congrats!

 

Thanks but why would my sound driver be making Windows freeze on shutdown? I need sound, lol

 

give this a try.
go into sounds/audio - into sounds tab - set sound theme to NO SOUND. This will not affect your normal sound, only windows related signal or warning

cheers ...

 

I actually got it.

It wasn't my sound driver that was messing windows up but the audio bus. After I installed the sound driver, every time I rebooted windows detected new hardware (bus) and I was letting it search for the software itself. Instead, I downloaded the audio bus or whatever it was my own instead of letting windows do it. It was stupid windows corrupting itself in the first place, hah.

Everything works fine now. Thanks!

 

Congratulations!