# Vista takes forever to shut down



## Wox (Jan 10, 2007)

So. I got Vista Ultimate on my computer.
It's great, smooth and everything, but there's one problem: it takes forever to shut down.
Every time I have to force-shutdown - press & hold the power button for 5 secs.
Once I had to go to this class, I shut it down before leaving, and when I got home, it still says "Shutting Down".
What's the problem, and how to I fix it?
Thanks!


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

If you happen to be running zone alarm firer wall I have seen reports that it causes problems with vista, even though its the version thats compatible with vista,one of the problems was a slow shut down


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## Wox (Jan 10, 2007)

Doby said:


> If you happen to be running zone alarm firer wall I have seen reports that it causes problems with vista, even though its the version thats compatible with vista,one of the problems was a slow shut down


I use Eset Smart Security.


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## wild wizard (Aug 23, 2004)

Same problem here. Just since yesterday, out of the blue, while I have been using this laptop without any problems for two months now. My Vista Home Premium came with the laptop (VAIO N21 E/W).
I honestly have no idea what changed.
At night I just shut it down, the next morning I booted it, shut it down again (I thought), but when I got it out of my bag at thge university, it was still shutting down.

Actually it isn't doing anything then, there is no light blinking. Only the 'hourglass' is turning, nothing else is happening. When forcing it to shut down and booting again, there is also no error that it did not shut down properly. So the only thing it does not seem to do anymore is physically power down.


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## wild wizard (Aug 23, 2004)

Addendum:

System Restore doesn't work. For SR to work, it needs to be able to restart on its own, which is part of the problem...


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## Wox (Jan 10, 2007)

Well for those having problems with anything, this is how I happened to get rid of it..
When shutting down, normally you would click on the arrow in the start menu, select shutdown.
This time, try the big "power button" which only puts it to sleep. When it's in that mode, move your mouse or whatever to get the thing back to life.
Try shutting down again.
This sounds stupid, I know, but sometimes lucky is better than good.


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## wild wizard (Aug 23, 2004)

I got rid of it, but don't know how.
I only tried to install iTunes for my iPod, which crashed my laptop immediately after installing (blue screen). After rebooting, I tried to run iTunes, crashed upon opening.
Then I checked Apple support, did as they said: uninstall Quicktime, reinstall iTunes + Quicktime. Didn't work.
Uninstalled both iTunes and Quicktime, reinstalled Quicktime only.
Now it can shut down again...
Somewhere in the middle of this, Acrobat also had some trouble, but it went away after getting rid of iTunes. God, I hate iTunes...


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