Common Problems - and Solutions

Just recently I've been having quite a few technical support emails arriving in my inbox so I thought I would pass on to you some (hopefully!) answers.

Problem: Windows refuses to shutdown properly

The problem here is that when you shutdown Windows you do not see the "It is now safe to switch off your computer" message. All you see is the "Windows is shutting down" screen. This forces you to "switch off" which means that when you next switch on, Windows insists on running SCANDISK.

This problem is caused by a program refusing to unload itself properly. When you shutdown, Windows sets about "closing" all active programs (usually those programs in your system tray - all those icons that appear at the bottom right hand corner of your screen). The result is that Windows "waits" for the program to close. You may or may not get "Do you want to shut this program down or wait" message. If you don't, the result is that Windows will hang.

Once the programs have shut down correctly, Windows proceeds to take a backup copy of your system registry and problems can lurk here as well.

I had this happen regularly on my machine and I discovered the culprit - Direct X. I DO play games on my computer at it is not uncommon for game installations to install Direct X as part of their installation process. This can result in files becoming out if synch with each other and the registry.

Solution: Download the latest version of Direct X and do NOT let games install their version of Direct X (which is often quite old).

Other causes for hanging are the programs in your system tray. The only way to find the culprit is to remove one program from your sys tray and shutdown - keep repeating until you get a clean shutdown. Some programs I've had problems with are...

1). Jet Direct - Used for network printers. 2). Programs that manage USB devices 3). Task schedulers - especially if they start up just as you are shutting down! 4). Virus scanners that sit in the background.

Often a reinstallation will cure these problems and/or checking that the devices the program relates to are set up correctly.

Illegal Program Function

This error is usually displayed just prior to the dreaded "Blue screen of death" and is caused when one program tries to use memory (or files) allocated to another program.

Solution: Try the following (in this order)

1). Run SCANDISK - this will check to see if there are any corrupted files on your system and correct them if there are. Programs will crash if the hard disk tries to use corrupted disk space.

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