Win 7 laptop can't shut down properly

[nicksuave]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure what the problem is and don't know what info you even need to figure this out, but my laptop is only able to properly shut down about 20% of the time. The rest of the time, it shows the Shutting Down screen and waits forever, then either restarts itself (and gives me a "Windows encountered a serious error" message when it boots back up) or I get the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death that tells me that drivers or hardware is probably improperly installed on my computer. It's a Windows 7 computer. Some of my ideas are:

-I've been updating my AMD drivers from their website. There's an AMD driver update available when I use Windows Update, but when I installed it, it's impossible for me to see pictures anymore, so I used System Restore to undo that update and just do the updates right from AMD.

-Shockwave & Flash videos are constantly giving me problems when I use Firefox. I use Firefox because I can never even see videos in IE (it's just a black box where the video should be). This could be an unrelated problem.

Does anyone have any ideas? Your feedback/advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

[rubberman]

The fact that it can shut down properly about 1x out of 5 (20% of the time) tells me that this is probably not a driver problem, but some process or other service that is out of control. Look at the services running and see if there are any that look suspicious. Another alternative is that you have a virus which is causing this problem. What A/V software are you using?

[tobyITguy]

Im inclined to think it's a driver issue. One must have been installed that's not for your operating system. If you find it and uninstall it. It should solve your problem. Check the recent drivers you installed and check that they were made for your os

[nicksuave]

rubberman: I use Vipre Antivirus. Sometimes when I click Shut Down, right before it goes to the Shutting Down screen, there's a split second where it shows that a program called Raptr needs to be forced to close (sometimes it shows 3 icons of Raptr that need to be closed) so if it is a program screwing things up, that would be the one. That's the program that AMD forces you to install when you install drivers from their webpage, which is what made me think the problem is related to my AMD drivers.

[rubberman]

@Nick - you may be right. I don't think it is the drivers, but this application. If you go to the add/remove software page, can you remove this application? If you do, does it also remove the drivers?

[ZER09]

you can try to look on to your event viewer.

also try to look at application and services logs->microsoft->windows->diagnostics-performance.

you can find there what is the program preventing you from shutting down

[nicksuave]

I went into Diagnostics-Performance and here's what my screen looks like. I have no idea how to interpret this so let me know if you want me to copy & paste some info from it.

Click Here

[tobyITguy]

I think you need to click on the shutdown performance monitoring

[ZER09]

You can check shutdown performance monitoring at task category column.
then at the general tab on the bottom, you can see there what program causing the shutdown delay.

just let me know if you figured it out.

[nicksuave]

Well I tried a couple of things but landed out screwing things up worse :S First off, I ran a deep scan of my computer with Vipre anti-virus, which found nothing wrong. Then I went to the Diagnostics-Performance thing, clicked on one of the Critical results, and clicked on "Event Log Online Help". They said that I should open up System Configuration, click on the Services tab, click "Hide All Microsoft Services", and remove the checkmark from all the boxes, and one at a time, check one then try shutting down and see if it shuts down normally to see what caused the problem. Well I did that and even with nothing checked, my laptop still can't shut down. The bigger problem? After un-checking everything and shutting down, about 8-10 of them have disapeared and now whenever I turn on my laptop it gives me an error message saying that "HP Connection Manager Service has stopped responding" - that was one of the unchecked boxes that disapeared. I tried doing a System Restore only to be reminded that it refuses to work for some reason <facepalm>.

Hey something positive came from this: I finally see what ZERO9 is trying to get me to look at! So going through all the reports from Shut Downs that didn't work, they're saying that "This application caused a delay in the system shutdown process:" for these 2 apps:

-HP Message Service (there were error messages before I messed it up by unchecking it)
-Microsoft Management Console

I also got "This driver caused a delay during standby while servicing a device:"
-ACPI Driver for NT (lots of these messages)

Not sure what the next step is, and how to fix or bring back those lost Services. Any advice?

[ZER09]

try this to restore the default windows services to default
Click Here

then you can, right click the diagnostic-performance then click "Save all events as". then you can upload that and let me see it.

just a little advice, if i were you, then my laptop screwed out for a long time, i will just gonna reformat my laptop. but be carefull, just backup first your important documents.

[nicksuave]

Yeah, I've been thinking of reformatting it. It's funny, but I don't have a bunch of downloaded stuff (like movies or songs) that I'm worried about losing, I'm actually worried because I hate the newer versions of iTunes, RealPlayer, etc and haven't updated them on purpose. If I reformat my laptop, it might be tough to find the "good" versions of programs that I like :) I have no idea why iTunes stopped letting you back up your songs onto a disc. Anyway, I'll look into your suggestion first.