Genealogy Chat

sometimes when i switch my PC off,it goes through all the procedures and when it comes to the screen where it says 'windows is shuting down' nothing happens! it seems to freeze, so i switch it off at the wall socket, i don't like doing this as i don't know if i'm doing right? can anyone tell me what i should do when this happens. thanks, chris.

There isn't a lot more you can do really. Sometimes Windows (particularly 98 and less commonly XP) hangs when shutting down. This is usually due to a running process that cannot be stopped - very often anti-virus software can cause this problem. Occasionally it may be caused by a virus so always run your anti-virus software on a regular basis just to make sure but in theory you will not be doing any harm by switching off at the wall if you have already saved open documents anyway.

thank you Errol, my anti-virus runs everyday when i switch on so i know there are'nt any virus's, i had my PC repaired a few months ago,had to have new hard drive and windows re-installed, so now when anything happens i get a bit panicky. chris.

It sounds like it is a background process then. Basically, either Windows is shutting down before the process has a chance to fully close or everything has closed but Windows thinks something is still running. Really nothing to worry about.

thanks Errol, you've put my mind at rest! chris.