Hi Guys,

Below is a link to a XP thread, that I found when searching for solutions to my problem:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] background

Basically, running Vista on HP Pavillion DV6000, and it often refuses to shut down, or restart. I give the order, and it does nothing. If I wait long enough (hours) then I get a BSOD, no idea what it says as I'm never in the room when it happens because it takes so long, if I want it to shut down its for a reason ie. I'm going out! So the only solution is to flick the switch.

I seem to be having a problem with web browsers (IE7, Chrome, Firefox)(all latest versions) whereby they hang and wont restart even though the application itself has stopped running. In task manager theres nothing at all, but several processes still there, which I can't kill. I have downloaded other killing software to try and kill the processes but to no avail. I am therefore assuming Vista cant shut down because it too is having problems killing these processes?

I read a forum somewhere where someone recommended editing the registry to shorten the time windows waits before killing things on shutdown... but that won't help if it CANT kill it in the first place?
I'm in a silly student village, with a temperamental (sp?!) wireless that throws me off regularly (at peak times every 30 seconds or so) and I came to the conclusion that it was this confusing my laptop, constantly reconnecting etc. thus causing all the problems... but perhaps not as it happens also with microsoft Zune software for example (but this software still connects to the internet...)

Possibly unrelated but I'll mention it anyway... icons have started not appearing in the system tray, such as the internet/network connections, volume controls etc...

Oh and in reference to the other thread on XP, I'm running AVAST, Zonealarm firewall and Spybot (I find the free versions much better in terms of stability, user-friendliness and competance than commercial software, plus I can't afford it!).

Bit of a long one... but any ideas? would appreciate it...

Try shutting down the Zonealarm and Avast and then try the shutdown with them inactive and see what happens, thats just a test to see how those 2 programs may possibly be impacting your system.

Also I'd test the memory for errors, run a HDD diagnostic test on the HDD too, depending on to what security level you require you can run the Windows Firewall instead of Zone alarm, its much less system restrictive.

You can also restrict Avast to check incoming and outgoing Email only, where most virus are shared anyway, also could be the amount of system memory you're running may need to be increased.

Just a few possibilities.

Oh forgot! You do not have Windows auto update enabled do you?

Thanks, will try shutting down zonealarm and avast before clicking shut down... I have tried that before though, closed every program running in the background one by one to no avail...

Windows automatic update is now turned off I only let it do stuff once a week anyway, but I see how it could be doing stuff in the background etc.

But what about those processes that I can't kill and thus vista cant kill upon shutdown that I think are causing the problems? (web browsers mostly)...

The shutdown works usually, unless I've had problems with the internet and browsers... do I have to do that stupidly long process of disabling addons and reenabling them one by one? I hate doing that... I never have the time