[Coco] OT -- PC needs TWO Shut Downs

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/3/06 10:45:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
robert.gault at worldnet.att.net writes:

>Power Management could have an effect on this as could the BIOS  shutdown 
>entries. As these vary from system to system, your on your  own here. Just 
>make sure the entries seem  reasonable.

Funny you should mention this.  The two-shutdown problem *may* have  started 
when I twiddled some of those settings to *disable* power saving, back  when I 
thought my HD was having problems spinning back up after a standby or  
hibernation.  I may have the BIOS and Windows set for conflicting  approaches to 
shutdown.
 
But these wouldn't cause the two-attempts problem, I don't think.

>There is a program that is better than CTRL-ALT-Delete for  displaying what 
>is running in the background. EndItAll   http://www.pcmag.com/utilities/
>displays much more information on what  is running and has the ability to 
>shut stuff  down.

OK, thanks.  I often wonder just what's going on (and why my modem  lights 
are blinking when I'm not reading mail, etc.).
But Ctrl-Alt-Del window does have the ability to shoot down hung programs  
(like AOL on occasion -- poorly written thread code galore).

>I've  seen occasional problems on my system which seem to stem from  
>combinations of nVidia drivers and DirectX versions relating to  shutdowns. 
>No real solution but some games aggravate the  problem.

The DirectX probably got updated last time I hit the MS site.  I don't  run 
any action games on this box -- just slow stuff like Spider and  backgammon.  I 
do sometimes play DVDs on it.

>It  is interesting that you can power off and not require a ScanDisk run. 
I hope I didn't misspeak here -- I mean that, after my two shutdown tries,  
when sometimes the PC doesn't power off, I can power down OK.  Windows has  
synched the file systems, so in its own mind the PC is shut off.  If I  power 
down the UPS after just the first shutdown attempt, with the Windows  desktop 
still showing, for sure I'll get dchecked.

>That  indicates the drives powered down correctly but the video did not turn 
 
>off. Could be a video driver problem and you could try and  update.
The video is shut down to the extent that only a text cursor shows on the  
screen.  Keyboard is dead.

>You could also look at msconfig/Advanced make sure that fast  shutdown is 
>disabled.
I know I've twiddled with that mode.  I thought it was better to have  it on. 
 I think you're saying it might improve the power shutdown  phase?

> You  should certainly try several shutdowns without having run any 
>programs  to see if that makes any difference.
Yep, might try that tonite even.

>  Microsoft Knowledge Base has 
>some suggestions for troubleshooting shut  down problems that are worth 
>looking at.


The question is whether I should be worried enough to bother wading thru  
those web pages.  Some of you think I should be verrrrry  scared! Thanks, Mike K.