XP Pro won't shut down

[ColdWarBaby]

Hello all. First time poster so bear with me.

I have a very old PC, 12 years, and can't afford a new one so I'm always messing with it, trying to get more out of it.

I have used Uxtheme patcher so I can use my own custom msstyles but I've been using it for a long time and never had a problem. Same with ResHacker and wfps10.

I'm suddenly having a problem with the shutdown utility in XP Pro.

When I go to "Start" & "Turn Off Computer", the appropriate utility / dialogue box appears. When I click the shutdown or restart button, nothing happens. The utility / dialogue box disappears as if I had clicked "cancel".

I've tried creating a shortcut to shutdown.exe on my desktop and that did nothing.

I disabled all my startup programs to see it one of them was the problem. No change.

I checked the local security policy for shutdown to make sure the user was correct and it is.

I can't figure out what I did or what the problem is and wonder if there's a registry tool that might find it or if anyone here might have encountered this problem before.

I really don't want to reinstall my OS. I'd rather just keep shutting down manually than go through all the reconfig of apps and personal preferences again.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[MidnightDistort]

Do you have a malware and virus scanner? If so i would use them in safe mode (hit F8 continuously on your PC's logo screen) to enable and then run a virus check. If you don't have any virus protection get Avast and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware software.

 

[Hawkeye22]

If the computer passes the virus scans, you can try doing a system restore to a date that you know the shutdown still worked.

 

[ColdWarBaby]

Do you have a malware and virus scanner? If so i would use them in safe mode (hit F8 continuously on your PC's logo screen) to enable and then run a virus check. If you don't have any virus protection get Avast and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware software.

Thank you midnightdistor. I've got the paid version of Avast and I've already done the deepest possible scan, which took hours. Nothing.

However, that and what Hawkeye22 said below has reminded me of something. See my reply to his comment below.

Thanks again for responding so soon. I appreciate it.

 

[ColdWarBaby]

If the computer passes the virus scans, you can try doing a system restore to a date that you know the shutdown still worked.

That's an interesting point Hawkeye22. It reminds me that this all started because of system restore!

I don't have a restore point from before this happened. I never let them build up to more than three in any case but this is what happened.

A few days back I did an Avast scan and something showed up in the system volume information / system restore files. When I deleted it, my PC totally crashed. I had to reinstall my OS and go through all the reconfig of my customisations and preferences.

Everything was OK for the first day but on the second I reinstalled Auslogics BoostSpeed and started going through the system tweaks to restore them to the way they had been before. One of the tweaks is an option to speed up the shutdown process. I had used it before with no problem so I enabled it again. It seems to me that it was after this that I couldn't shut down.

Now, I didn't try to shut down immediately after the BoostSpeed tweak. I could have done something else afterward but, that day, when I did try to shut down, I couldn't.

Maybe I should remove BoostSpeed and see if that will solve the problem?

 

[MidnightDistort]

Not sure if this would help but get CCleaner and run the registry check on it, fix any errors. Back up your registry before doing so (it may not prompt you so you'll need to check the settings).

 

[ColdWarBaby]

Not sure if this would help but get CCleaner and run the registry check on it, fix any errors. Back up your registry before doing so (it may not prompt you so you'll need to check the settings).

Thanks again midnightdistor. I've got the free version of CCleaner and I use it pretty regularly. Hasn't helped in this instance.

 

[Hawkeye22]

It can't hurt to test by uninstalling bootspeed.

 

[ColdWarBaby]

It can't hurt to test by uninstalling bootspeed.

Couldn't hurt but didn't help.

So, I took another step, just short of reinstalling the OS and ran sfc/scannow from the command prompt. Here's the message I got;


Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Chimaera Imaginarium.ACMETHX1138>sfc/scannow
Windows File Protection could not initiate a scan of protected system files.

The specific error code is 0x000006ba [The RPC server is unavailable.
].

C:\Documents and Settings\Chimaera Imaginarium.ACMETHX1138>


Now, both the Remote Procedure Call services are enabled so I don't know what's up with that.

I think what I might do is go get the biggest internal ATTA hard drive I can find and set it as the master drive, install my OS on it and start from scratch. I'll bump the existing drive, which is only 80GB, down to slave and move the stuff I need from it to the new drive. When everything is running the way I want, I'll format the slave and use it to store large files and whatnot.

If I can't come up with any other solution and I end up having to reinstall my OS anyway, I might as well get a little something extra out of it.

 

[Hawkeye22]

When reinstalling XP, make sure only the drive you want to put the OS on is attached so that the boot loader and OS end up on the same drive. Attach any remaining drives after the OS install. After the install and loading of all drivers, I recommend you image the drive so that if this happens again, you won't have to reinstall the OS, simply restore the backup image and you will be at a clean starting point.

 

[ColdWarBaby]

When reinstalling XP, make sure only the drive you want to put the OS on is attached so that the boot loader and OS end up on the same drive. Attach any remaining drives after the OS install. After the install and loading of all drivers, I recommend you image the drive so that if this happens again, you won't have to reinstall the OS, simply restore the backup image and you will be at a clean starting point.

Image the drive! What a fantastic idea! Why did I never think of that? Duh! I've got imaging software; MagicDisc I think. Rarely use it but I will certainly take your advice and use it for this project if I can't work out this shutdown problem.

And if I do work it out, I'll certainly image the drive then to preserve it for the next time I screw up!

Thanks for the kick in the brain!

 

[Hawkeye22]

Thanks for the kick in the brain!

No problem. Sometimes you just have to let the coffee soak in a little longer.

 

[ColdWarBaby]

Hey Hawkeye22! Still around?

Here's a new development. I finally discovered that Logon Studio, which I had been using for over a year with no problem, is what's been disabling my shutdown. I had it set up with my own custom graphic and it worked like a charm; until now.

So, when I found it was the problem, I removed it and restored the default XP logon. Shutdown worked just fine.

Reinstalled Logon Studio, with one of the graphics that comes with the installation; shutdown works, no problem.

But...if I reapply my original custom graphic or any download from Stardock, Wincustomize; it disables my shutdown!

Aaargh!

 

[Hawkeye22]

Bummer that an image can cause those kinds of problems, but at least you got it working again.

 

[ColdWarBaby]

Bummer that an image can cause those kinds of problems, but at least you got it working again.

Yeah, I can get either the startup screen I want working or I can get the shutdown working but not both.

That just ain't gonna cut it!

I'll be digging into this myself and scouring the web forums for answers.

I'm like a rat-terrier. When I get my teeth into something I just hate to let go until I'm sure it's good and dead! :lol: