What steps to take to resolve shutdown problems?

I am running win98SE and have down loaded all the patch's to do with shutdown problems but these have not solved my problem. When I shutdown my pc after having been on the internet it restarts immediately. When I shut down after no internet connection it shuts down ok. It also starts up by itself at any time of the day or night. I have disabled "wake on LAN" in the BIOS settings and have no scheduled tasks programmed but this has made no difference. I have tried shutting down all running tasks except explorer and sys tray before attempting to shut down after internet use but it still restarts. I let it do a full restart and then shut it down with no problems. It even restarts sometimes after having held the power button in for 7 seconds. I have the latest drivers installed for my US Robotics PCI modem. This problem has been ongoing for the past two years and I have tried many different sources to find an answer but so far no one has been able to come up with anything new to try. I use Norton anti virus and zone alarm for my firewall. If you can solve this very annoying problem I would be extremely grateful (and extremely amazed) Thankyou Andy C

This question was answered on February 20, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Shutdown problems in Windows 98 can be caused by many factors, including (but not limited to an incompatible, damaged, or conflicting device driver, a damaged exit sound file, incorrectly configured or damaged hardware, conflicting programs running, or other factors In order to systemmatically rule out each of these in turn try these four steps.

FIRST STEP: DISABLE FAST SHUTDOWN

In Windows 98, click Start | Run (or, on an expanded feature keyboard, type Win R) Type MSCONFIG Click OK When the program comes up, click Advanced Make sure there is a check mark in the box next to "Disable fast shutdown." Click OK, then OK again Reboot the computer if you made a change.

This will solve the problem in most instances If this doesn't solve the problem, go to the next step.

SECOND STEP: STARTUP/SHUTDOWN TROUBLESHOOTING WIZARD

Microsoft has an online Startup/Shutdown Troubleshooting Wizard at: http://support.microsoft.com/support/tshoot/default.asp You may want to try this as your next option; or you might want to proceed with the manual steps following.

THIRD STEP: RULE OUT PROGRAMS LOADED FROM STARTUP FOLDER

You should restart Windows without any of the programs in your Startup folder loading There are several ways to do this.

In Win98, go back into MSCONFIG as above Click Selective Startup Remove the checkmark from in front of "Load startup group items." (NOTE: Unlike the method given next, this removes not only Startup folder items, but also items loading from the Registry.)

After doing this, click Start | Shut Down | Shut Down the Computer, then click on Yes Wait three minutes for Windows to shut down If Windows shuts down properly and does *not* hang, a program being loaded in the Startup folder may be causing the problem (If Windows still does not shut down correctly, go to the FOURTH STEP below.)

To determine which program is causing the shutdown problem, rule them out one by one, by one of the following methods:

In Win98, launch MSCONFIG as above, click the Startup tab, and click to place a checkmark in the box next to the first program item listed Click OK, then OK (You will repeat this for each item in turn as you progress through your troubleshooting.)

After doing this, click Start | Shut Down | Shut Down the Computer, etc as before Wait as before for Windows to shut down If Windows shuts down properly and does *not* hang, then the program you left in the Startup folder is not causing the problem.

Repeat the above steps, clicking on the Programs folder instead of the Startup folder, and in each case dragging *one* of your startup program icons from the Programs folder back to the Startup folder In each case, restart Windows after doing this, and, when it comes back up, shut Windows down a second time to test it Repeat until you find the problem file (NOTE: There may be more than one.)

Once the program causing the shutdown problem has been identified, contact the program's manufacturer for assistance, or ask for online help on the Microsoft peer support newsgroups.

About the author

Posted by Enyenihi of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on February 20, 2003

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