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Improper shutdown detected

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7 replies

by jason.kiracofe

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I shut down my pc the normal procedure. The pc turns itself off after it is safe to do so. The problem occurs when I boot the pc. I get the improper shutdown detected, scandisk then kicks off. I have visited the MS Unknowledgable base. I have done the fixes it states in "ScanDisk Runs After You Shut Down Your Computer Normally (Q290668)" and "ScanDisk Runs Even Though Windows Shut Down Correctly (Q273017)". Which was disabling APM and reinstalling the Window IDE Hard Drive Cache package from MS. The fixes did not work as usual. Any help before I format the hard drive and rebuild?

7 replies

by daz'n'ash

Well, having tried everything Microsoft can tell you, maybe the best thing to do is to reformat and start again. Have you checked the drive for errors using the Maxtor utilities?

by thechas

Do you stop scandisk? Or, allow it to complete?
Once the flag to run scandisk at boot has been set, it is not reset until scandisk has completed a scan at boot.

There is a switch in MSDOS.SYS that you can set to force scandisk to not run.
I advise against this until all other options have been exhausted.

Have you disabled fast shutdown?
Another possability is that your system needs more time than the IDE hard drive cache package sets. All the IDE cache package does is place a delay between when windows finishes it's shutdown tasks, and when it tells the motherboard to turn off the power supply.
Watch the HDD activity light the next time you shut down. If it has not gone off before Windows shuts down the system, you need a longer delay.

I don't currently have an Me box up, so I can't check the exact registry setting.

Check out the shutdown trouble shooting section at www.aumha.org

Chas

by jason.kiracofe

I finallyu had to reformat the drive. It started shutting the comp down on its own. Virus scan did not pick up anything nor did the trojan scanner.

by jason.kiracofe

I allow the scandisk to copmplete, but sometimes it will just hang, HDD stops responding. It does a complete scandisk. I was wondering if the settings need to be longer for it to shutdown. I will try that out. Thanks to all that have answered, it is greatly appreciated.

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