Windows 7 Windows 7 Cant Turn off The PC

DJ-Specter

New Member
Hi, my copy of windows 7 doesn't seem to be able to turn off or restart my pc, as when i tell it to restart or shut down it just gets stuck on the shutting down screen and stays there untill i manually press restart or the on/off switch. I know its windows 7 as my copy of vista has no problems. I think it might be the fact that I dont have any dedicated windows 7 drivers for my mobo. I have used the vista 64 drivers released but it still doesn't turn off the machine. any other ideas? as currently my only solution is to wait for Asus to get their asses in gear and release some proper windows 7 drivers! Cheers
 
thats a pretty heavy over clock to be running without proper MOBO drivers! Does this problem exist as soon as you start 7 or is an application refusing to kill? what exactly happens when you select shutdown from the start menu?
 
but surely the overclocking is dealt with exclusively in the bios which is perfectly up to date? its definately not an application that's stopping it from shutting down as my current procedure is to click shut down and then watch the cpu activity light to display zero activity which always takes the same amount of time, and then manually press the button. other than that, the shutdown procedure is completely normal.
 
Windows 7 Fails to Shut Down

I have the same problem with Windows 7 RC1 build 7100, 32 bit system dual boot. Vista on the same PC and same devices has no problems.
I get the Screen and Message System shutting down but it never completes. It is a minor irritant but I hope the final version will fix it.
 
OC probably not related but with bad mobo drivers the OS may not be able to react to any problems as well as it should and with any overclock problems become more likely.Are there any flags in device manager and did this problem appear from the first time you shutdown after install? Your post says it's hanging on the "shutting down" screen how are you monitoring CPU usage from here? This screen is where a hung application will leave you and if seven is able to give you the "shutting down" message then it IS capable of killing the system just something is refusing to close. I would try a selective startup : go to search in the start menu type in msconfig, select the services tab check the hide all microsoft services box then click disable all. Now select the startup tab and deselect everything restart the system then after everything is booted up attemp a shutdown then post back your results.
 
I have a similar problem, it takes a full 3-4 minutes for 7 to shut down. It will eventually if you wait long enough. So I give it plenty of time, around 2 minutes, then push the button. 7 has always done this. However compared to XP it loads like a sports car taking off from a dead stop. My XP takes around 2 1/2 to 3 minutes to load, 7 around 50-70 seconds. XP shuts down in about 70 seconds, so the two systems are completely opposite, go figure. :)
 
Ok, i've decreased the overclock and to correct myself, when windows got to the shutdown screen I was monitoring the hard disk activity and not the cpu activity by means of the light on the pc case. I tried the selective services shutdown by deselecting all non-microsoft services and then restarting but still no luck unfortunately - it still got stuck and I had to press the restart button manually.
 
Did you re start twice? the selective start up would only be in effect for the second shutdown.


(assuming you answered yes) definitely something hanging on us here then. Was this an upgrade or a clean install?
Is there anything in event viewer? (it's worth a look but often hangs that prevent shutdown don't get a chance to write in a log.)
Beyond any of this it is almost definitely an application hanging up did the system restart okay when installing 7?
If event viewer doesn't hold any answers the only thing I would try before a nuke and re install would be to systematically uninstall applications in an attempt to find the offender. (if you have many apps it may be easier to troubleshoot on re install)
 
I didn't originally try the restart twice but have now to no avail unfortunately. It was a clean install from the beginning. i've only just discovered the event viewer, where would it list any potential programs stopping the restart process? cheers. incidentally, i've had to 'nuke' my system 3 times since getting windows 7 and i've always had this problem- i've installed windows from a virtual drive every time though, not from a dvd - might that have anything to do with it?
 
I have a similar problem, it takes a full 3-4 minutes for 7 to shut down. It will eventually if you wait long enough. So I give it plenty of time, around 2 minutes, then push the button. 7 has always done this. However compared to XP it loads like a sports car taking off from a dead stop. My XP takes around 2 1/2 to 3 minutes to load, 7 around 50-70 seconds. XP shuts down in about 70 seconds, so the two systems are completely opposite, go figure. :)

To the OP:

Have you waited an extraordinarily long time as in this post and will it actually shutdown?
I don't think booting the installer off of a virtual drive would cause a problem. I'm also pretty sure if there was something in event viewer you would notice.In windows logs or the next folder (something about applications i can't remember) you should see full blown errors and or warnings saying application hang corresponding to the times of shutdown.

To both posters:
Are both of you sure this behavior starts as soon as seven is installed and doesn't begin after installing a particular app?
If that is the case it is a windows component that is bugged and (PROBABLY) wont exist in the retail version but who knows if i was sure it started with the install i would attempt to disable some windows features in add remove programs (starting with the semi beta test WMP12) Also windows media player indexing service has caused a couple of hangs on my system shutdown do you guys have it turned on? The service is called wmpntwksvc or the like, also sidebar.exe is known to be buggy.
 
How to use the event viewer

Ok, I do remember that when I was installing the OS, the machine didn't have any problems turning itself off and on again during the installation procedure, but by the time I'd entered all the first time use information it was doing it. So, I've kinda come to terms with the fact that as its not an enormous problem, I'll just have to wait until I get a proper copy in july next year. incidentally, asus have now released windows 7 drivers for my mobo so its defo not them.

I just wanted to pursue a previous possiblity of using the event viewer to watch the shutdown procedure happening and to eliminate any possiblity of it being an application thats just getting stuck. I've played with it a bit but i dont know how i could use it to view anything that might be stopping my pc as I had it loaded on a different screen and then shut down the machine but it closed it almost straight away? am i doing something wrong? is there a special way to open the event viewer to make the pc not terminate the process until the last minute?

Cheers Guys
 
No it's just a log where data would be written after a crash or hang. The problem is when a hang causes the system to not shut down nothing gets written sometimes. Look for an entry whose description or timestamp coincides with a recent shutdown.
Just out of curiosity have you verified if this behavior manifests in another user account?
 
Windows 7 wont shut down

mine wouldnt shut down untill I figured out it was a win 7 program called "Defender". once I turned it off I had no more problem shutting PC down.
 
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