annoying problem

[CaterpillarAssassin]

yeah this just started happening and i cant figure it out. When I go to shut down (start shut down [same with restart and log off]), it just does nothing. It puts me back to the desktop. All my programs (in taskbar) shut down. When I go to open a program it says that it failed to initilize because the workstration is shutting down. But it just sits there. SOMETIMES it will just give me a blank blue screen and hang there till i hit the power button then it gives the "windows is shutting down" bit. Specs are below

Does this on Win2k as well as XP (just did a simple upgrade)
updated 4in1's, video drivers, and everything.

Athlon XP 2000+ (not oc'd)
Shuttle AK32A mobo
512mb PC2100 ram (infineon?)
IDE WD 80gb HD
no floppy
cd-rw
Radeon 9500pro
400w power supply

The machine does run a little warm (like 49C) using the retail cooler that came with the chip but it's never really been a problem.

I've also been having a problem with soldier of fortune 2 just freezing and giving me garbage on the screen.

Any help would be appreciated.

And this just started happening. No changes were made.

[dadx2mj]

Have you done the basics? Like runs System File check, Check Disk ?

[FlyingPenguin]

Likely culprits are either a background app or driver that is refusing to shut down. Happens less on XP than other OSes because XP usually can force a shutdown of an errant module.

Can you think of anything you changed before this happened? Installed anything? Changed any settings? Updated drivers?

Go through your Startups in MSCONFIG - see if there's anything running in the background you don't need.

Run Spybot & Adaware to clean out any spyware that might be the culprit.

Are you overclocking? If so, don't and see if that helps.

When you shut down and it dumps you back to the desktop, bring up the task manager and list all the processes running in the background. Post 'em here, and maybe we can spot something.

[Demrok]

I agree with FP same thing started happening with my comp a long time back
I msconfiged until I was blue in the face and that did the trick...
it was something I installed that was refusing to shutdown...

there is also a tool that you can use, bootvis I think it's called

after you do the msconfig and check disk etc etc
you can give this thing a run, it'll optimize your hd for start up and shut down
I didn't notice much gain on my comp at the time, but you may notice something

I think you can get it staright off MS website!
good luck!

[CaterpillarAssassin]

well i disabled a bunch of startup stuff and it seems to have worked. Which is very good

thanks for the idea guys.