New notebook crashes during shutdown

[Canuck]

I just picked up a new notebook today, which I'm quite happy with so far but unfortunately I've encountered a problem where the comp crashes (or seems to crash) whenever I choose to shut it down. It goes right to the screen where it says "Windows is shutting down" and then thats it. The mouse pointer freezes and the power button doesnt work. I have to remove the battery to get it to turn off. Very frustrating.

I dont know what the problem could be. My roommate bought the exact same laptop and he seemed to have no problems whatsoever.

I bought it in Japan, and because it has a Japanese OS I installed an english version of XP Pro. I've done all the Windows updates and I have SP2.

I read somewhere that having the East Asian language pack installed can cause this problem so i reformatted and tried again without installing the language pack but it still freezes. I also read about how sometimes the USB powermanagement can cause some problems when shutting down so I followed the directions and that still didn't help.

Can anyone think of a reason why my computer doesnt like me? It would be much appreciated.

[Schrullenhaft]

Most shutdown issues seem to be related to a device that doesn't want to communicate and/or cooperate at shutdown. Did your roommate do the same thing and install an English version of Windows XP ? Would he mind if you temporarily swapped his hard drive to your laptop (asking him first before doing so of course) ?

You may want to run a CHKDSK C: /F on your hard drive to see if it comes up with any file system problems. If you know the brand of the hard drive you may want to go to the hard drive manufacturer's website and download any disk utility they may have and run a non-destructive surface scan.

Do you know if you have the same BIOS version as your roommate ? Occasionally some compatibility issues are fixed with motherboard BIOS updates. Do you know if you have your BIOS/CMOS configured differently from your roommate. There's a possibility that you have something enabled that he doesn't and that may be the source of the problem (though it may entail reinstalling Windows to "remove" certain functionalities).

Do you have any PC Cards or other peripherals installed/inserted that your roommate doesn't have ? Removing these may help narrow down the problem or you could swap them with your roommate to determine if one particular device is defective.

Does Windows give you an error message once you've booted up about a problem the last time you were running ? You may want to examine any files it mentions to see if there is anything discernible within that file as to what the problem is (though most often it may only be of use to a programmer or Microsoft specifically).

You can also examine the Event Viewer (Control Panel > Administrative Tools control panel > Event Viewer > look through System and possibly Application and Security groups) for any potential warnings and errors.

[ July 12, 2005, 10:01 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Canuck]

As far as I know we have the exact same computer. Bought them a month apart, and last time I went they didn't have any so I know this is from a new batch.

I don't know if this helps any but this morning I reinstalled the Japanese version of Windows and it shut down fine with nary a problem. That leads me to believe that it's an OS problem or at least a hardware compatibility issue with the OS. I looked at the event viewer for errors and copied someof them into Microsofts website diagnosis thing but I couldnt really come up with anything.

Is there anything wrong with leaving a laptop on all the time as long as its well ventilated?

I know thats not really a solution but I'm just really tired right now.

[Schrullenhaft]

If it is a well designed laptop you should be able to leave it on indefinitely without problems. However it seems so few laptops are truly well designed in this regard. You may want to make sure that there is some airflow underneath the laptop to make sure it doesn't overheat in that area, since that is often where the heatsink for the CPU dissipates its heat on many laptop models (or perhaps yours has thermal-monitoring fans).

Has your roommate also installed the English version of Windows XP ? I asked earlier since I suspected that there may be something specific to the Japanese version (especially if it is a disk image and not just a standard Windows install CD). If the manufacturer has a decent website you may want to check it for any driver updates/backups since there is possibly something there that may make English Windows XP a little more compatible (assuming that the driver/software would work with the English version).

[Redwolf]

Most likely there are some ACPI patches in the version of Windoze shipped with the computer.

You need to get ahold of the patches and apply them to the English Windoze you install.

Or use Linux

[Canuck]

I fixed it! You were right Schrullenhaft it was the drivers. But I didn't really realize it until I tried to hook up my digital camera and it wouldnt recognize it (Windows XP should be plug n play)

So I went to the device manager and there was a big yellow question mark next to USB. So I let it install the USB drivers and that fixed that. Then I thought to myself, hey, I wonder if there were any other yellow question marks around there, so i went back and checked and sure enough it was. I just got Windows to update the drivers itself and sure enough my computer shut down perfectly.

So perhaps if any other computer noobs like me have a question like that, perhaps the first thing you should have them do is go to the device manager and look for any really obvious big yellow question marks

I actually have a few more questions. I dont have auto update on and with this stupid service pack there is an icon in the sys tray displaying that fact and every time I start up the computer a little bubble pops up tellng me that I dont have it on as if I was some kind of retard. Is there any way to turn that annoying prompt off?

Also, I use a mouse and this touchpad is bugging the hell out of me. Sometimes i accidently touch it while im typing and i delete what im typing!!

The drivers for it is called Elantech. Is there any way I can disable the touchpad without installing any of the drivers for it? (I like to keep my systray as empty as possible)

[Schrullenhaft]

I'm not sure if you can completely disable that "idiot light" warning Microsoft flashes at you from the System Tray. There are two ways to Turn Off Automatic Updates:

Control Panel > Automatic Updates control panel > select the bottom option "Turn off Automatic Updates".

or

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services control panel > double-click on the "Automatic Updates" listing > in 'Startup Type' set it to 'Disabled'.

Again, I'm not sure if either method completely gets rid of the warning.

As for disabling the Touchpad, I'm not sure if that can be done or not. Is the device generically listed in the Device Manager under the 'Mice and other pointing devices' listing ? If it is listed as a unique device (and your other mouse is also listed), you could double-click on it and possibly disable it. When this is the last/only Mouse device this option isn't available. It's also possible that your Touchpad and your mouse might be considered the same 'device' driver-wise. I assume that the Touchpad may use the same driver as a PS/2 mouse. If your external mouse is USB, then it should be unique and you could disable the Touchpad. If you're really lucky there may be a setting in the CMOS/BIOS setup, but it is pretty rare for those to control touchpad availability.