I've done pretty well with most versions of Windows, making sure that there isn't a ton of crap installed that makes the OS have problems at startup or shutdown.

But since installing Service Pack 3 on this Win2k box, it now takes a long time to shut down. Before SP3, when I clicked "shut down", the OS closed and the PC turned itself off in just a few seconds. Now, it takes (what seems like) minutes before the PC turns off.

Anyone have any tips on how to troubleshoot which POS service/driver/software is slowing the shutdown?

It's probably a service causing the problem. You can try stopping all the services you can before shutting down and seeing if you get the delay. Then shutdown again, stopping one less service. Keep doing this until you find the service in question.

If you find a service that refuses to stop cleanly while doing this then it may well be the problem one.

There is a registry setting that determines how long Windows waits for rogue services, so the other approach is to change the registry setting to a much shorter number.

At one point during NT4's life the value was 60 seconds, I think it got increase to five minutes when Exchange appeared. The increase was just a slimy hack on MS's part because Exchange's service could appear to be rogue for several minutes at shutdown...

Can't remember the registry key I'm afraid.

Okay, I'll check through those. Any other tips?

Yes "Patience, Grasshopper"...

yeah put sp3 on mother pc and it don't switch off it comes to please switch off pc type screen

yeah put sp3 on mother pc and it don't switch off it comes to please switch off pc type screen

WTF?? in english please...

I think he meant:

Yes, I installed Windows 2000 servivce pack 3 on my mother's personal computer and now when I try to switch it off it comes to a screen saying "Please switch off this PC"

It think.

okay its late i installed sp3 on my mums pc and it does not switch off it comes up with the switch off your pc now type screen

if that makes it any easier

Not too sure what to do about it

ah...much clearer. sorry...us yanks are a little slow sometimes. Do you have "Plug and Play OS" set to yes in the bios Power Settings menu?

The actual turning off of machines tends to be done by the ACPI power stuff that is found on laptops and now on desktop PCs. So you could try fiddling with the ACPI settings in the BIOS.

I have a machine with the same problem, I just deal with it by switching it off when Windows tells me to...

Or if your machine is pre-ACPI then look for the APM settings. Some older machines which have ACPI actually get forced back into APM mode because their ACPI implementation is buggy. Doubt it would be this as it's worked in the past.

- Trevor

I found a solution to this problem but I don't have it with me right now!! It has to do with a particular post-SP3 hotfix and unloading the user profile at shutdown. I will post it tonight when I get home or you can look for the answer on anandtech because that's where I read about it.

If you would, please... I am experiencing the same trouble, and I have not been able to resolve it otherwise. I will also search for a Q number - I might be able to locate it, now that I know there is a bug / fix...

There is a registry setting that determines how long Windows waits for rogue services, so the other approach is to change the registry setting to a much shorter number........Can't remember the registry key I'm afraid.

Can any one confirm the existance of this key?
Or even better know what it is?

[edit]
found it thanks to google groups, thanks andy for bringing the existance of such a key to light.
anyway found this, might be of use
You can also decrease the time NT waits for a service to stop before
terminating it by performing the following:

Start the registry editor (use regedt32.exe not regedit.exe)
Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Double click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout (REG_DWORD) and change to the
number of milliseconds after the logoff/shutdown before displaying the Wait,
End Task and Close dialog box, e.g. 10000 for 10 seconds, the default is
20000
Add HangAppTimeout (REG_DWORD) and change to the number of milliseconds to
wait before displaying the Wait, End Task and Close dialog box after trying
to close an application.
Add AutoEndTasks (REG_DWORD) and change to 1 to avoid the dialog asking to
Wait, End Task and Close.

as always wear a radiation when dealing with the windows registry

Ok so I had time at work after all, here is the post from anadtech I referred to that works perfectly and does not involve editing the registry directly.

"As I suspected, this is a bug that was supposedly fixed in SP3 but apparently has been re-introduced in one of the latest MS updates as others appear to be seeing the exact same problem. The problem (MS KB Q285192: Userenv failing to unload profile on shutdown) is mentioned here and of course I was seeing a ton of these in the event viewer: Q285192

The workaround that I applied for anyone interested:

Run gpedit.msc: Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc

Then: Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon -> Maximum retries to unload and update user profile (right click and select Properties). Then select Enabled and set the value to 0.

Both of my 440BX-based machines now shutdown within 10 seconds after selecting a shutdown... "

Thanks to HeinekinMan on anandtech.

Reading the details on this setting it looks like just setting it to zero might be a bad idea. If you set it to zero you are going to get recent changes to the current user's registry settings discarded if something else has the registry locked when you go to shut down.

"Determines how many times the system tries to unload and update the registry portion of a user profile. When the number of trials specified by this policy is exhausted, the system stops trying. As a result, the user profile might not be current, and local and roaming user profiles might not match.

When a user logs off of the computer, the system unloads the user-specific section of the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER) into a file (NTUSER.DAT) and updates it. However, if another program or service is reading or editing the registry, the system cannot unload it. The system tries repeatedly (at a rate of once per second) to unload and update the registry settings. By default, the system repeats its periodic attempts 60 times (over the course of one minute).

If you enable this policy, you can adjust the number of times the system tries to unload and update the user's registry settings. (You cannot adjust the retry rate.)

If you disable this policy or do not configure it, the system repeats its attempt 60 times.

If you set the number of retries to 0, the system tries just once to unload and update the user's registry settings. It does not try again.

Note: This policy is particularly important to servers running Terminal Services. Because Terminal Services edits the user's registry settings when they log off, the system's first few attempts to unload the user settings are more likely to fail.

This policy does not affect the system's attempts to update the files in the user profile.

Tip: Consider increasing the number of retries specified in this policy if there are many user profiles stored in the computer's memory. This indicates that the system has not been able to unload the profile.

Also, check the Application Log in Event Viewer for events generated by Userenv. The system records an event whenever it tries to unload the registry portion of the user profile. The system also records an event when it fails to update the files in a user profile."

But since installing Service Pack 3 on this Win2k box, it now takes a long time to shut down. Before SP3, when I clicked "shut down", the OS closed and the PC turned itself off in just a few seconds. Now, it takes (what seems like) minutes before the PC turns off.

I'm having this very same problem with my win2k setup. Before the PC would shut down in say 10secs or less, now it takes about one minute or more.

I haven't found the answer as to why yet. But I do believe I didn't have this problem when I first installed SP3. I believe it popped up it's ugly head when I installed one of those pre-SP4 hotfixes that MS asks you to install now and then. (you know, with the little globe on the taskbar)

I've got eight of those pre-SP4 hotfixes installed, but I still don't know which one is the culprit. Havn't really had time lately to look into it either...
In my case it's certainly not a matter of old hardware since I've just installed a new mobo with an i845PE chipset.

Maximum retries to unload and update user profile (right click and select Properties). Then select Enabled and set the value to 0.

Puck, you da man. That was it.

I'll say it again: Is there any question that can't be answered by this BBS?

Three cheers for the empeg BBS!

I had the EXACT same problem! I looked in my error log and I had about 20 entries saying that it coulnd't unload my registry. I am going to have to try this *work around* because Microsoft doesn't seem to care...

I take back what I said. The solution posted in this thread solved half the problem.

Windows 2K shutdown goes through two distinct stages: 1) Shutting down apps, unloading the current user profile, and logging off that user. 2) Terminating all of the background services, clearing the caches, and shutting down the system.

Stage 1 is recognizable because your desktop wallpaper is still visible as it logs you off. Stage 2 is after your wallpaper disappears and you're staring at a blank light-blue screen with only your mouse pointer.

The solution posted to this thread so far fixed stage 1 of the slow shutdown. Stage 2 is still a problem on my system. It used to be just a couple of seconds, but it's currently something like 10-15 seconds now. Total shutdown time is not as bad as it was before the fix, but not as good as it was pre-SP3.

Anyone have any more ideas? I don't see any services that are being funky, but I really don't know how to check logging for system shutdown timing. How does one troubleshoot what's the slow link in the chain?

I hate to say it, but sometimes the best thing that can be done for Windows is a nice format and re-install.
Yeah, I know high PITA factor but it really makes a differance.

I agree that a dustoff-and-nuke-from-orbit would likely solve the problem. However, in the past, I've been able to find ways to fix these sorts of problems without the larger hassle. I'm hoping there's a way to do the same here.

Reinstalling Windows won't do a thing of good for this problem since it's actually the most recent version that's causing it!
I've just re-installed my system last week and have the problem too.

Just thought I'd say that I just installed service pack 3 via Windows update, and for now, at least, my computer is booting up and shutting down faster than before. I suppose it varies from PC to PC.

Have you also already installed the pre-sp4 updates? For me the problem also started to occur when I installed one of those, not with SP3. I just don't remember which one triggered the problem.