"Andrew Hamilton" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 08:40:51 +0100, "Pegasus [MVP]"
wrote:


"PRIVATE" wrote in message
news
I am running Windows XP SP3 + all MS patches via auto-update. I am a
VERY experienced PC user.

In the last few days, my system will not shut down once it has been
running for a few hours. Nor can I end an application by "X"-ing on
the window or selecting FILE | END in the application's main window

The usual way of forcing an application to end via the Task Manager
also doesn't work.

Searching the web, there are lots of web pages devoted to Windows
Shutdown, but none apparently to Windows End Application beyond basic
instructions for using Task Manager.

Can anyone help? I hate to have to do a Windows re-install.

Thanks.

Unexplained behaviour of Windows is in the vast majority of cases
explained
by interference from malware or viruses. Time to give your system a full
check-up, e.g. via an on-line scan from he www.antivirus.com. Look for
the "House Call" button.

I have Norton Internet Security 2009 installed, with definitions up to
date. I just did a full system scan. No issues.

Note that the problems only occur after the system has been sitting
idle for 3-4 hours. Are there memory leak issues? Is there any way
to determine that? I would have no problem installing and using a
sysinternals tool if you recommended that course of action.

x509

About virus scanning: I suggest you get a second opinion by doing a free
system scan via www.antivirus.com. Look for "House Call".

About memory leaks: The Task Manager will tell you. I had a similar issue
the other day where the Paging File Usage (visible under the Performance
tab) climbed from an initial 300 MBytes to 800 or 900 MBytes, causing a
dramatic drop in performance. In my case the problem was caused by
repeatedly putting Windows to sleep and waking it up again.

About killing a task: What happens when you use this command from the
Command Prompt: TaskKill /f /im NameOfApp.exe?

Also: Some virus scanners are very intrusive and both NAV and McAfee score a
frequent mention in this newsgroup. I would physically disconnect the
machine from the Internet, then use msconfig.exe to disable all virus
scanner-related tasks and services. Since your problem occurs after 3-4
hours of idle time, this is an easy test to perform. If you have other
third-party programs that are resident (e.g. certain background backup
programs) then you should disable them too.