Extended Vista Shut Down

[Ender07]

Good evening, I encountered a computer today that takes well over 5 minutes to shut down. My parents called me asking why their computer was taking so long to shut down, so I did a basic optimization on it. The only new programs that were added recently were iTunes, SuperAntiSpyware, and I replaced their current anti-virus with MSE. It still continued to take 5+ minutes to shut down

I then went to regedit and made the wait to kill timeout to 5000 instead of 20000, and that did nothing to help. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit and its an ACER with an AMD dual core, which is about 2-3 years old I believe. I don't have the exact specs on hand but I can get them if they are needed.

Also I shut it down after optimizing it briefly and it showed it was running at 90C after shutdown in the BIOS, which is insanely hot! I need to go back and clean out the inside of the case from dust and whatever else made its way in there, and maybe replace the heat sink and the thermal paste.

If you know anything about figuring out why it's taking so long to shut down, I would appreciate some help.

 

[TimJacobs]

What are the running processes? It might be trying to kill a process before it shuts down.

 

[PaulJD]

Have you had a look at event viewer?

 

[timmymacs]

Yep could be trying to kill a process, but I would also check the hard drive. Can be a sign of bad sectors and failing.

 

[iisjman07]

Sometimes certain services can take a long time to close; try Safe Mode (it'll use basic services) and see if the symptoms are still present

 

[Tekguy]

I see the random 5 minute shutdowns on Vista all the time on different pc's, I thought that was a built in feature. It seems to mainly happen after you install or uninstall a program. What exactly is it doing?

 

[Methical]

Start with Safe Mode. Thats your best bet for moving forward. If it works ok there, then its an OS configuration somewhere.. If not, it might be hardware related, like a bad HDD.

Some services/processes could be delaying the shutdown speed, as processes need to save data before they are terminated.

Also, check what is happening at shutdown. I've come across Windows being set to do certain cleanups on shutdown; clearing of certain caches, quick defrag, scheduled tasks operating.. etc etc

Shutdown the computer, record the times, reboot and have a look @ Event Viewer. Hopefully you have your answer there.

@OFF-TOPIC
Maybe someone knows of a more advanced 3rd-Party Event Viewer that is more detailed..

 

[Ender07]

Thanks for all the input. I worked on the computer this weekend and it turned out to be that installing Auslogics Disk Defrag was making it hang up. When I would start the program and it would use all the resources and bring the CPU usage up to 100%. I then removed the program and it shut down like normal within 20 seconds or so. So something about Vista on their machine didn't get along with the defrag program.