PC Will not shutdown - just restarts

Hi,
I have recently had a problem with malware resolved by your colleagues - please see the post here:

My previous problem

I have completed all the instructions and followed the advice on software to install (Online Armor, MVPS Host, McAfee Site Advisor, WinPatrol).

After all this I ran a defrag and my pc seemed to be back to normal - programs loaded quickly, Firefox/IE loaded quickly etc. However, when I shut down my pc (Start - Shutdown - Shutdown) instead of shutting down completely it restarted as if I had selected Restart. When it restarted (which took a long time), a message was displayed saying it suffered an error and would I like to send an error report. I did so, and when the report was sent, a browser window opened to Windows Error Reporting which stated "you received this message because a device driver installed on your computer caused windows to stop unexpectedly. This type of error is referred to as a "stop error". A Stop Error requires you to restart your computer."

I tried to shut down several times but each time the pc retarted and I received this message. But I did not see a blue screen at anytime.

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Regards,
Mike

However, when I shut down my pc (Start - Shutdown - Shutdown) instead of shutting down completely it restarted as if I had selected Restart. When it restarted (which took a long time), a message was displayed saying it suffered an error and would I like to send an error report. I did so, and when the report was sent, a browser window opened to Windows Error Reporting which stated "you received this message because a device driver installed on your computer caused windows to stop unexpectedly. This type of error is referred to as a "stop error". A Stop Error requires you to restart your computer."

I tried to shut down several times but each time the pc retarted and I received this message. But I did not see a blue screen at anytime.

Hi Mike, and sorry you are still having problems.

Unfortunately, we still need more information. Reading through your previous problem (I fixed the link, BTW) in the end you indicated you were going to "pop over to the MS team and search out some housekeeping / clearing up tips." - but in this thread, we are talking constants reboots and Stop messages.

What happened between then and now? When did the rebooting start.

Does it stop rebooting? If you can get it to boot normally, or you can get into Safe Mode, then disable Automatic restart. This will cause the system to halt at the infamous blue screen of death (BSOD) instead of continually rebooting, and hopefully display a useful error code and message. And it will allow you to look for errors in the Event Log. To change the recovery settings to disable Automatic restart:

1. Right-click My Computer and go to Properties > Advanced

2. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery settings menu

3. Under System Failure, uncheck the Automatically restart check box, then click OK as needed to exit out

4. Restart the computer and see what happens

At this point, when/if a fatal error occurs, it should not automatically reboot, but give you the BSOD. This does not fix the problem causing the fatal errors, but it does stop the endless reboot cycle and hopefully allow further troubleshooting.

We need to know the Stop Message and error code. It may point to clue. An example, it may look something like this: Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Hi there, thank you for fixing the link. I will be home in a couple of hours and will try to get the Stop Code as you requested - the pc boots up fine (albeit with an error message), it will just not turn off. In the meantime, to answer the other questions/comments: 1. Regarding your point ["pop over to the MS team and search out some housekeeping / clearing up tips." - but in this thread, we are talking constants reboots and Stop messages.] - I looked through the material on this forum and noted that one of the things I should do was defrag (haven't done in 6 months) before I raised a post to see what impact it had. I ran the defrag and it was after this that I experienced the automatic restart problems I have described. 2. As I mentioned before, the inability to shut down happened after the defrag completed. The pc will still not turn off unless I switch off the power (which I do just before POST). Regards, Mike

Sorry, I was not following. You do not need to do the above - that is for folks that get stuck in a never ending cycle of rebooting. So your computer works fine when it is running, but when you attempt to Shut Down, it reboots and comes up with a browser error message about some device error. Did you look in Device Manager any error symbols?

I just checked Device Manager and expanded to lowest level for all items - nothing to indicate any issues. (I think there is an exclaimation mark if some attention is required?). I'm thinking perhaps I ought to deinstall each of the new apps I installed in turn (WinPatrol, Online Armor etc.) and after each deinstall see whether I can shut down? Fyi I'm currently running a full backup of my drive - using Cobian 8 since it appears the MS/XP backup utility is limited to 4 Gb. Regards, Mike

Yellow exclamation or red question mark. Or before going that far, exit out of each application before shutting down and see if that helps you narrow it down.

OK. None of the red or yellow stuff. I'll try your suggestion when the backup is finished, however I can see Online Armour Patrol in the system tray. But not WinPatrol or MVPS Host or McAfee Site Advisor - how do you suggest I exit from these before shutting down?

MVPS does not run so you don't exit it. And if you are not running real-time components of WinPatrol don't worry about it, and Site Advisor, I believe, is an add-in so if your browser is not running, neither should SA.

Thanks for that. The good news is that when I exited and disabled Online Armor (and enabled Windows firewall in its place(, the PC stays shut down when I shut it down. I'll stick with the Windows firewall for now. When I get back home later today / this evening, I will check if the pc is sluggish or otherwise then get back to you. Regards, Mike

Great. I am glad you have isolated the offending program, though Online Armor (or any firewall, for that matter) normally does not cause problems like that - taking forever to shut down, yes, but not your problems. I would probably uninstall it, reboot, then install it again and see what happens.

Windows Firewall is an able firewall, and far better than nothing, but the XP version only protects against unauthorized incoming access attempts. This is fine if you have a good anti-malware defense system (anti-virus, anti-spyware) setup, you keep your operating system and installed programs current, and you (and anyone else using that computer) are disciplined at where you go on the Internet, and what you download, and open - that is, all attachments and downloads are scanned before opening, and no illegal P2P filesharing.

If copyrighted materials are being exchanged without the required compensation/royalties, chances are good the files contain malicious code too. If we think about it, what better place do bad guys have to test and distribute their new code? It is not like someone can complain to the authorities that the pirated movie file he stole infected his machine.

With Windows Firewall, if some malicious codes does manage to find its way past all your other defenses, it will be free to send its cargo (your personal information, spam, malware, etc.) out to the Internet, and to any other computers that use the same Internet connection (gateway). This is because Windows Firewall assumes anything coming from your machine has already been determined safe.

Online Armor (or Comodo, ZoneAlarm, Kerio, and others) being a two-way firewall add another layer of defense, protecting you from identity theft, and protecting the rest of us from an attack from your machine, should it become compromised.

When I get back home later today / this evening, I will check if the pc is sluggish or otherwise then get back to you.

Well your initial complaint was that the PC was running poorly primarily when browsing the Internet. With a fresh boot, use the computer for everything BUT the Internet - how is that performance?

Also, you have now changed your whole configuration, and chances are you are loading up a lot more resource hogging drivers and applications (including graphics resources) than you did when the computer was new. Webpages today contain a lot more data that must be downloaded and processed before viewing in high resolution widescreen formats. Just saying that if our aging systems seem slower, that may just be because they are working harder to process the increasing demands of the ever-widening stream (river? deluge?) of data we throw at them.

Bad guys have forced us to load up our systems with resource hogging security software! It doesn't help the anti-malware industry keeps pushing entire suites crammed with more bloat on us!!! They are worse Microsoft! And that's hard to do.

You have a decent CPU and 2Gb of RAM is good. Graphics is very often the worst bottleneck and often the best place, in terms of bang for your money when you need to improve, not only graphics, but over all computer performance. If the CPU and RAM are waiting on graphics, that's a performance hit. What do you have for a graphics card? (I did not find it listed earlier - and I am too lazy to read it all again, ;))

How much free disk space do you have?

Two things springs to mind.

Profile User Hive (MS KB837115)

and

If there is Kernell Hooking programs which are "killed"
prematurely before uninitialized correctly. (Registry tweaks etc.)

Just some stray thoughts….

Abydos

Just some stray thoughts….

Good stray thoughts! Tweaks can do good and bad, and do not always result in improved performance.

How does the system behave in Safe Mode?

I suggest a good 3rd party Startup monitor like CodeStuff Starters - great for displaying what is started with Windows and provides intuitive interface to safely prevent loading any item during boots. For advanced users, AutoRuns for Windows provides more information than most people need.

Oh my goodness !!!! So much information and suggestions today. I'll try to respond as best I can. I noticed that I had Norton System Scan installed on my system so I removed it (I seem to have plenty of equivalent protection), rebooted and re-installed Online Armor. I rebooted, checked email, browsed internet, loaded a few MS programs and noticed fairly slow response all round. I then tried to shut down. Guess what? It rebooted. So I deinstalled Online Armor, rebooted, downloaded and installed Comodo. This seems to be working fine. Clearly there is something with my config or some other software (e.g. Scotty?) conflicting with Armor. No probs, I now have outgoing firewall and I’m not fussy about the vendor/software. Yes, I have MS auto update scheduled and occasionally manually start MS Update, particularly if I notice OS/Software updates taking place at work. BTW – do you think it worth downloading SP3, given that I have all the required available updates anyway? Regarding performance, the pc is now pretty good for non-internet usage. I still think internet browsing is sluggish bearing in mind the pc spec but this could be router settings, ISP policies etc. I’ll maybe take a look sometime but for the moment I can live with what I have. Graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT so should be fine for most jobs. C drive is 250Gb with 153Gb free. (I also have another (older) drive attached. It is 250Gb but Windows thinks it is approx 153Gb – I still some time in the past I tried to install Ubuntu and gave up. Can you recommend a freeware utility that can reformat and recover the lost space on this drive? - it is a WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0 I’ll definitely check out the Code Stuff Starters. Once again, guys, thank you for your help. Mike

As for SP3, I think every one should upgrade as soon as possible. The better disciplined you have been at keeping your system updated, the greater the chance of a seamless, trouble-free upgrade. However, considering how poor HP/Compaq and Norton have been at testing their products during the SP3 beta, if you have an HP/COMPAQ AMD PC, or use Norton AV, I would check each site for upgrades first.

Although it is quite possible SP3 will "fix" many broken machines, it is not designed to do so, so I make sure systems I upgrade are running fine to start with.

Can you recommend a freeware utility that can reformat and recover the lost space on this drive? - it is a WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0

Windows will do that nicely - as long as it is not the boot drive. In My Computer, right click on the drive (or partition) and select format.

Can you recommend a freeware utility that can reformat and recover the lost space on this drive? - it is a WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0

Windows will do that nicely - as long as it is not the boot drive. In My Computer, right click on the drive (or partition) and select format.

Might wanna backup data before format, if there is any on it, you want to keep.
If you have two partitions for example, and only one is formatted, I'm not sure if
windows would show the missing GB on the HD in MyComputer.

I might be wrong here…