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Troubleshooting a Windows XP Pro shutdown problem.

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KillrBuckeye

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2005
Location
Livonia, MI
I am wondering if there is some way to log the progress of the Windows shutdown process to determine where an error might occur. I have a computer ("Gray" in sig) that has always suffered from an intermittent shutdown problem in which Windows starts to shut down, but stalls on the blue screen that says "Windows is shutting down", OR it will shut down and kill the video signal, but the fans and such are still running inside the case.

This has occurred on multiple installations of Windows and with various video/PCI cards installed. At this point I am trying to determine if there is some hardware issue, or whether there is a possibly driver/software conflict problem. The system is perfectly stable for 24+ hours of Prime95, and the video card is at stock settings. The next thing I will try is returning the computer to stock settings (133x13 instead of 166x12.5).

So, in regards to my original question, does anyone know how to log progress of the shutdown process? I have looked in the Event Viewer and there are no errors being reported in any of the categories. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
dawei213 said:
Thanks for the link. As far as I can tell, none of the information there pertains to my specific problem though. My shutdown problem is intermittent, not consistent like most of the software-related issues.

After returning the system to stock settings (133x13, still overvolted to 1.75V), the shutdown problems seem to have disappeared. So, I deduct that the overclock was somehow interfering with the system's communication to the power supply. Whether it was preventing Windows from issuing the command to the motherboard, or possibly the motherboard not being able to send the signal to the PSU, I don't know. As I mentioned before, the system was perfectly stable at the overclocked settings of 166x12.5. Heck, before it became my wife's computer, I was running it at 172x13.5. It was 24+ hours Prime95 stable. Very strange...
 
Okay, I spoke too soon. My socket A rig is still experiencing this shutdown problem at stock settings. I'd estimate that 1 out of every 4 shut downs is incomplete, i.e. Windows shuts down properly, the video signal is killed and the monitor goes black, but the fans in the case are still spinning. I have to hold in the power button for 3 seconds to complete the shut down.

The problem has cropped up now on multiple fresh installations of WinXP Pro and with 2 different video cards (one ATI and one nVidia). I use pretty much the same suite of software on this machine as I do on my socket 939 rig, which is fine. At this point I'm guessing it's hardware issue, because the problem is intermittent and I can't find any errors in the event viewer. Has anyone experienced a similar issue? I'm not sure what to do other than try a new PSU or start replacing hardware.
 
My first guess was the motherboard, and whether APM is/is not enabled, as well as checking for a bios update for your board.
 
Pinky said:
My first guess was the motherboard, and whether APM is/is not enabled, as well as checking for a bios update for your board.
Thanks, I'm thinking it might be the motherboard as well. The A7V333-X is a "budget" board, and there were only 3 BIOS revisions released. I'm using the latest one. Regarding the power scheme, I remember something funny about the board: it won't let me enable hibernation within Windows XP. When I try to check the appropriate box in Windows, it gives an error, although I don't recall exactly what it said.
 
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