T42p Problems Shutting Down

[kjarrett]

Hey guys,

My new toy has started acting up. It's not shutting down when I tell it to. I click Start | Shut Down, some of the icons in the tray go away, but the system remains "up" and responsive - I can still navigate the start menu, for example. Any idea what this could be?

Thanks, kj

[lfeagan]

Any Winders experts around here...as if one could be an expert of that insipid OS of vile filth. I have seen this behaviour before, usually something like a buggy driver not unloading right. The task manager might be able to provide some insight. There should be a way to get a shutdown log too. Can't remember how to do it though.

[lvlolvlo]

did u chk yer taskman to see if anything is haging the app? try starting up in safemode and shutting down. if it works fine in safe mode then there is def. a driver/app that is causing the hang.

quick fix would be to use windows sytem restore to restore to a point prior to that happening, but let's not do that b/c frankly....i don't trust it

[kjarrett]

Thanks guys. I don't trust System Restore either. I believe the problem has to do with a driver hung up due to Hibernation, and I have all the ones I need to install right here. Was waiting for my backup HD to come so I could Ghost the system one more them, then go willy-nilly installing updates ... maybe I'll just do 'em all now.

I know that if after a clean start up, it ALWAYS will shut down, so I'm pretty sure it's related to a driver not re-initializing properly after waking from Hibernation.

I'll keep yez posted!

-kj-

[rocketman]

This is such a typical "Windows" problem, if only Windows was as reliable as Mac OS X. I know this doesn't help you but when I see posts like this it just annoys me. Sometimes it's esaier to do a reformat than to hunt down a bad driver. the proverbial "needle in a haystack".

[kjarrett]

Not to worry. Needles can't hide from me...

[Elhabash]

rocketman, a GameBoy is even more reliable than OSX. You just don't have that much possibilities...
Windows would be much more stable and reliable if it would only have to be oprimized for one hardware manufacturer with just a few models...

BTW, I used system restore a few times already, and it worked well. But I may have been lucky.

[jdhurst]

There are several things you can try (but they will take some time):

1. Hunt down a copy of Startup Cop or Startup CPL, install it, and disable likely candidates for preventing shutdown. Evaluate the list, don't disable Microsoft services, disable what you can, and see what happens. The nice thing about Startup Cop is it is not "temporary" the way msconfig is, and doesn't hassle you.

2. Shut down items in the system tray manually before you shut down. See if that alleviates your problem. If it works, it reduces your searching.

3. Make sure you have installed each, every and all IBM driver and application updates including BIOS and embedded controller. Then install or re-install Service Pack 2 for XP.

4. Obtain a copy of Registry First Aid (Rose City Software). This is one of the better registry cleaners, and it worked on my ThinkPad T41 when I had a startup problem related to networking and Access Connections. I ran Registry First Aid and the problem disappeared permanently. The machine works great.

For those who don't like Windows, don't use it. No one else cares. But please stop telling us that Windows doesn't work. Properly installed, it works great, and can be secured just as well as *NIX. It just takes a little effort.

... JDHurst

[rocketman]

rocketman, a GameBoy is even more reliable than OSX. You just don't have that much possibilities...
Windows would be much more stable and reliable if it would only have to be oprimized for one hardware manufacturer with just a few models...

BTW, I used system restore a few times already, and it worked well. But I may have been lucky.

System Restore is an awful way of getting Windows to function properly in several areas. Just check out how fragmented your hard drive is after doing a system restore, and you can't defrag it completely afterwards either.
It degrades performance substantially.

[Elhabash]

If you have the right defrag tool and try a few times it's no problem. Of course you need some free disc space for proper defragmentation...

So if it saves my installation for the price of a defragmentation run or two, I gladly pay this price. What I am much more worried about is that some things that happened after the restore point don't get deleted and junk the system up.

[erasmus]

Kjarrett,
Now that I saw you other post "18 updates for brand-new T42p?" I realized that you might not have the newest Access Connections installed! Had the same problem, but it were solved by updating Access Connections. Hope it works! (note: WIFI card driver have to be updated too).

[kjarrett]

Cool, thanks! It's on my list!

[kjarrett]

I'm about to reply to my other thread about updates ... see you there!

[Steve007]

This is such a typical "Windows" problem, if only Windows was as reliable as Mac OS X. I know this doesn't help you but when I see posts like this it just annoys me.

When I see responses such as yours it annoys me. If Windows was optimised for just a few hardware configurations it'd be more stable than it already is.

Windows 2000 & XP has always been a very stable OS for me (particularly XP) because I know what I'm doing. A Windows OS crash is almost always caused by the user throwing something alien at it, or the user tinkering around with settings & drivers that would work perfectly fine if it was left alone etc.

I have thrown everything possible at WinXP on my ThinkPad's & my IntelliStation and when it has crashed it was because of something I had done. It’s very easy to blame Windows all the time, but to use it as a scapegoat all the time for your mistakes is [censored] quite frankly.

Sometimes it's esaier to do a reformat than to hunt down a bad driver.

.....If you're technically inept.