No auto turnoff after XP SP2 upgrade

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave

After downloading from microsoft.com and installing the XP Service Pack 2
upgrade to my XP Pro, I found my fairly new Dell very sluggish (1024 ram)
and that I lost 2 gig of hard disk space. Additionally when I selected shut
down, the computer no longer turned off automatically. Instead it goes to a
screen that says it is "now safe to turn off the computer" - never had that
before. I prefer it to turn itself off. Hated the way the computer was
running after this upgrade so I ran the uninstall. (Already have a good
firewall and antivirus running). Now the computer is somewhat better, not
completely back to it's usual speed but better. I regained about 1/2 of the
space I lost (maybe a gig back) but I still get that screen and have to turn
off the computer manually.

Does anyone know how I can get the computer to resume shutting itself off
and not go to that screen? Also, any idea why I lost so much space from
this installation/uninstall? Anyway to reclaim it?

To respond directly, please delete "Remove" from my email address
(e-mail address removed)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

-Dave
 
If your system uses Advanced Power Management, this problem is usually
caused by APM systems on which XP is installed because APM (Advanced Power
Management) is not enabled by default in XP.

Right click a blank space on your desktop, select properties, go to the
Screen Saver tab and click the Power button under Monitor power. Go to the
APM tab and select "Enable Advanced Power Management support."

If you see no such tab, go to Start and right click My Computer, select
Properties, go to the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button under
Device Manager.

In device manager, select the View menu, and turn on show hidden devices.
In the device manager window, you will now see an entry for NT Apm/Legacy
Support (If you see no such entry, skip to the bottom of this message and
try the suggested link), expand it, and bring up the properties for the
node.
In the device usage drop down list, select Use this device (enable)
Hit the OK button and then close the device manger.
You may need to reboot, but now it should shut your computer completely off
on shutdown.

If none of the above applies, or helps, try the following site:
http://www.aumha.org/a/shtdwnxp.htm
 
Michael,

Thanks for your advice. Unfortunately neither APM nor NT/ Apm/Legacy
suggestions were applicable to my computer. I'm trying to find a specific
solution to my "poweroff" problem at shutdown at the site you suggested but
so far haven't found the right one. If you come across any other solutions
that might solve this XP SP2 bug please let me know.

Thanks,
Dave
 
First, be sure your antivirus software has the latest definitions and run a
virus scan.

Second, download, install and run Ad Aware:
www.lavasoftusa.com


Open Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, open Event Viewer, look for
errors corresponding to the crash, double click the error, the information
contained within may give a clue as to the
source of the problem. If you don't understand the information inside, the
third button down in that dialog box will copy the information,
you can then paste it into a message and post it here and maybe we can
figure out what is going on.

This section and the section below, in my opinion are the most likely in
finding the source of the issue. The most likely culprit are either drivers
that need to be updated or some misbehaving application that may not be
getting along with SP2 or even an incompatible application that may have
been borderline until SP2 installation.

Assuming you have an XP CD and not a recovery CD, place the XP CD in the
drive, when the setup screen appears, select "Check System Compatibility,"
the report it generates may point to problem hardware or software on your
system. If you do not have an XP CD, you can download this application
known as the Upgrade Advisor from the following site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp
Note: If you have access to a broadband connection it might be best to
download using that as this is a rather large download.

Check for the latest drivers for your hardware, especially your graphics
card and soundcard and all peripherals connected to your system. Do not use
Windows Update for this, go to the device manufacturer's web sites and if
you install updated drivers, ignore the message about drivers being unsigned
by Microsoft. *Before installing any drivers, be sure you are well backed
up and it's probably a good idea to manually create a restore point in
System Restore in case you have problems as a result of the driver update
and note, System Restore is not a substitute for a backup. Start\All
Programs\Accessories\System Tools\System Restore

Another possibility would be an IRQ issue. The only way to change an IRQ
used by a device in Windows XP is to move the card to a different slot.
Modems, soundcards and add-on Network Interface cards being the most likely
culprits. Since your graphics card likely occupies an AGP slot, it can't be
changed but that doesn't mean it is not the culprit under these conditions.
Hence, if a device is sharing an IRQ with the graphics card, changing the
device to a different slot and putting a different device in the slot
formerly occupied by that device should result in changing the IRQ used by
the device. ***NOTE: in some instances, all or most of the devices are
sharing the same IRQ. This can be done in XP but I'm dubious it would be
the source of this issue and the method above would not likely change the
IRQ used by a device or resolve your issue.
 
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