Laptop hangs during shutdown process

Hi,

During shutdown windows closes and ends all the systems application, then you will see a small window prompting "Saving your settings...". This is normal for windows while shutting down right? But, it gets stuck there. Everytime I shutdown my laptop and it reaches that point, its like my laptop is continually reading the hdd and it does not turn off. What I do is remove the adaptor and the battery just to turn it off. Need your help.

Thanks in advance.