Hello,

Got a odd windows XP Issue:-

Basically it goes to shutdown or restart and comes up with screen saying shutting down.

And just sits their, only way to shut it down or restart is to pull power lead out, when it gets to that stage.

Please help

Thanks

There could be so many causes for this:
1. Malware
2. Hard drive going bad
3. Faulty memory
4. Windows file corruption

If it shuts down properly from SAFE MODE, then it's likely something running in regular mode that's causing the problem. Do that test.

I'd bet on 1 or 4 though. Given that:
0. Make sure you don't have two anti-virus products running
1. CCleaner: remove all temp files found
2. CCleaner: clean registry until no more errors. Save REG file each time before fixing. Reboot
3. Run TDSSKiller (reboot as required/prompted)
4. Install and update MBAM and run a FULL scan (reboot as required/prompted)
5. If items are found, run a full scan using your anti-virus product that is UP TO DATE.
6. Run a CHKDSK and schedule for next reboot, then reboot and let it run.
7. You can run an SFC /SCANNOW to make sure windows files are okay. Reboot.

Verify shutdown after each instance of "reboot" above. Report back if no joy. Then we have to start looking at hard drive, memory and items that start when windows start. You can do the hard drive diagnostic and memory diagnostic first if you want. If you don't know how, then do the items I have listed first.

Another problem may be a service or process not stopping. If I open Window help, PExplorer.exe starts but never shuts down. I have to open the task manager to manually stop it. It only happens on one XP box.

James P. Cottingham
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

Is advanced power management turned on? Here for directions

There was also an old issue that was fixed with SP1, what service pack version do you have installed?

Can also try the User Profile Hive Cleanup Here

Have you looked in event logs to see if their are any errors during the shut down procedure?

You want to start with a clean and non-infected PC, so I would try my suggestions first for a general PC health check and then what rclarke250 said:

"User Profile Hive Cleanup"

Adobe Type Manager will cause it to not go into standby mode. Just delete it from Add/Delete Programs.