Trouble Xp shutdown

Everyone that has used Windows XP has spent some time looking at the screen that says "Saving Your Settings" - waiting for it to finally decide that it's saved everything it can and move on to shutting down the system. I'm not sure if it's by design or considered a 'feature' of XP, but the closer it is to quitting time the longer it takes this transition to occur. As an added benefit, when XP does 'hang' at this point in shutdown there is no response to the Ctrl+Alt+Del sequence so the user is effectively stuck.

Windows XP Stops Responding (Hangs) During Windows Shutdown Q307274

The safest thing you can do is to make sure all programs have been closed before shutting down. This alone may solve your problem. Don?t overlook programs running in the system tray. It?s easy to forget these are running as we become so accustomed to seeing their icons on a daily basis. As a general rule, if you don?t see some visible shutdown activity within 1-2 minutes of initiation, something is holding up the process. One readily identifiable sign that some application or process is not terminating properly is the appearance of the "Wait, End Task, or Cancel" dialog box. The program or process listed needs to be examined as to why it isn't terminating properly. Often times a visit to a company website will provide an update to address the issue.

Windows XP uses many processes that are built into the operating system that interact with outside vendor supplied programs. These interactions don't always flow as smoothly or quickly as planned and can account for shutdown delays. Extending the amount of time a process is allowed to close before invoking the "Wait, End Task, or Cancel" dialog box can sometimes be of benefit. To get a better understanding of what this involves as well as why not to overdo the time extension, the following article may be of value.

The cause of Windows XP restarting after a normal shutdown could be:

1. Hardware (HW),
2. Driver, or
3. Windows

First, make sure your Windows is current with Service Pack 1.

If this does not resolve the problem, disable ?Automatically restart? feature from ?Startup and Recovery? (System Properties | Advanced) by unchecking the box. This MAY allow Windows to show a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) that may explain the cause. Make sure you update all the drivers of your HW.

If you do not get a BSOD, the cause might be HW or Windows. Take out all HW components except the video card. Reboot and shut down the computer. If it does not reboot, reinstall the HW one at a time to find out the culprit. If it still reboots, do a System Restore to the last date when the computer shutdown normally. Otherwise, install Windows in a different HD (if you have one). This will tell you whether the cause of rebooting was due to Windows itself or not.

If you still have the problem, buy a new system.

You may also want to check your power supply.

I hope this helps