I feel wide with options after reading that, dude.
How about when starting up the computer ... any problems in that area? Anything odd looking in the Device Manager, like multiple, nearly identical devices listed under an individual category? If you load msconfig from the Start\Run line, do you recognize everything that's loading during Startup ... and if so, do you need it all?
Try a couple of things for me. If you can get booted up, first, clear the Control Panel\Administrative Tools\Event Viewer Logs. Then try and shut down the system. If you get a BSOD, haul out a pad and paper and <i>write it down</i>. Don't describe it to me; be precise. If you get more than one BSOD each time you try and shut down, write them down, too. Post it all ... there's no such thing as information overkill, really, not when helping someone search for the source of an error second-hand.
Post everything new that shows up in the Event Viewer Logs that isn't an "information" or "success" type, which includes Event ID numbers, the source of the error (if mentioned), and the type of the error. As for the BSOD's, the first two sets of numbers are especially important, and if the error happens to mention a source file or driver, please include this. A good fifty percent of the time, if the BSOD identifies the source file, you can search for it on the system, check the properties of the file, and find out enough information to discover not just where it's located, but where it came from.
Afterwards, try and boot into Safe Mode, and then shut down again. See if the error occurs again. If not, it's almost a sure bet that the problem is due to a driver, or a program or file that Windows is having problems stopping during the shutdown process. That narrows down the search considerably, and basically excludes areas like the PSU, problems due to excessive heat, or malfunctioning hardware, like an IDE controller, bad mainboard capacitors, or damaged memory chips.
By the way, the only hardware driver that I have ever picked up from Windows Update was for a processor, and I was suspicious of that until I checked the system information. Despite assurances from Microsoft, installing a driver that is digitally signed is not a sure-fire guarantee of stability. I can recall times in the past when the smart thing to do was install drivers that were <i>not</i> signed, unless you wanted a host of problems ... mostly because of two things ... one, the length of time it took for a driver to meet their criteria and finally receive an okay (which meant the driver was usually outdated by the time of release), and second, because the driver was often rewritten to meet those same criteria, and that caused more problems than if MS had never seen it at all.
Old techs like me, we have a long memory, like elephants.
Question: When is the last time that you scanned your system for spyware? I'm beginning to come across increasing numbers of computers with problems from this kind of software sneaking onto the systems. There's over 6000 known types at this point, and the numbers are growing rapidly. I suspect that very soon, having an application running constantly to scan for this while on the 'Web is going to be just as necessary a maintenance tool as having a firewall or an anti-virus. And don't forget popup banners ... viruses love browser security holes that piggy-back on javascript or java applets.
Toey
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