Help! Windows won't shut down

[JuniorT]

Hello all,

I recently bought a HP Pavillion ze4900 laptop that came preloaded with windows xp home.There is only the original software that came with the machine loaded plus I loaded Panda antivirus and sygate personal firewall.
Anyway,here's the prob....every time I turn off the comp it automatically restarts.Now I am 95% convinced it is not a hardware prob,but I am open to any advice before I send it back to Hp.

Ps.Did contact Hp on the phone,spent about an hour,but to no avail.

Thanks in advance.

[kurt_der_koenig]

How are you shutting it down? Buy the power button or the from the Start menu?

[XTC46]

how are you shutting it down? pressing a button? or do you go to start then shut down? have you tried shuttinig down right from the cmd prompt? if it works from the cmd promp but no other way then the link between how ever you are shutting down is probably looking at restart rather then the shut down file. give us a bit more info.

[gore]

I've seen this happen before. I've had it happen to me and my Mom's box. all versions of Widnows can do it and the only thing I can come up with is a software glitch as later on in thwe year after A format it stopped doing that, but this isn't always an option for everyone, but it gives you an idea that at least it probably is not hardware.

[MrLinus]

This might help you find out what the problem is.

Source: PCWorld

If you run Windows 2000 or XP and your PC reboots when it's supposed to shut down, the culprit is probably a system failure. These versions of Windows respond to system failures by rebooting, making it look like Windows can't distinguish between Turn Off and Restart. To get to the root of the problem, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Select the Advanced tab. In Windows XP, click Settings under 'Startup and Recovery', uncheck Automatically restart, and click OK twice. In Windows 2000, click Startup and Recovery, uncheck Automatically reboot, and click OK twice. Now you'll be able to see what's making Windows blow up in your face, and maybe you'll be able to fix it or find a workaround.

You may want to also check out this site. I haven't run into this personally (haven't had shutdown problems since I switched to XP).

[Und3ertak3r]

Control Panel-System
Advanced tab : Startup and Recovery: Settings:
Remove Tick from Automatically Restart

As mentioned it is most likley a software problem..
My suspicion is a VXD, device driver or prog is crashing during shutdown.. with that setting changed we should see our friend the BSOD
IF that is not showing the problem.. go into MSCONFIG and start disabling some of the startup progs..

[Egaladeist]

My first lame attempt at an answer...

I don't know if you can remove the battery on a laptop or not without losing data...but everytime my system freezes, or won't shut down, I unplug it...when I plug it back in the system works fine and no lost data...problem solved.

[the_JinX]

What's wrong with you Windows users,
first you complain about windows shutting down without you asking for it,
Microsoft fixes that problem and you start complaining about Windows not shutting down..

[Egaladeist]

I can't speak for him but I know I'm not complaining and it doesn't sound to me like he is either...if what you're suggesting is that the fix is available in updates...obviously in my case it's not because I update every week everything: Windows, Adware, AVG, Spyblaster, Firewall, all updated just yesterday.
He's just askin' a question...

[©opy®ight]

I think he meant that there was another thread recently about Windows shuttin down randomly.....