Having to click my "Turn Off" button twice

For the last several weeks or so, I've been having to click on my "Turn Off" button twice to turn off my computer. The first time that I click on it, nothing happens and my computer just sits there and I have to click "Start" again to bring up the "Turn Off" button so that I can click it a second time. Does anyone know what this could be an indication of? Thanks.

 

I'm leaning to something (prog? service?) that's not shutting down like it should..

Here are some other ideas for you, RC.
The first one, you have to go waaay down to the bottom for the answer..
ya only get one fast look!

http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Q_23042582.html

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11184-0.html?forumID=49&threadID=167948


PS..You didn't say what OS you are using or what kind of puter?
That would help others help you!

HTH~

 

I'm not sure whether we're talking about the same button (hardware?), but on my system I have to press and hold for a few seconds the Reset button. Then I'll get the same Standby-Turn off-Restart dialog-box as if I'd gone through the normal Start/Turn Off routine.

 

Hi, Marja. For your first link, I did go way down to the bottom for the answer, but didn't see anything. I just saw a lot of prompting to start a "7-day free trial." But from your second link, there were a lot of interesting answers. Also, I forgot who it was, but in another thread, someone said something like, 'whatever was the last program that you installed onto your computer, that program is most likely the culprit.' And being a RoadRunner customer, we are able to download the full CA security suite for free, and after I had downloaded and installed the full security suite, I started having problems with my computer running sluggishly. However, I uninstalled the entire CA security suite with the exception of the CA antivirus, however, my computer still seems to be responding somewhat slower than it had been before I had downloaded any of the CA programs.

Also, I've noticed that my a-squared Free program now takes about 5 or 10 minutes to come up after clicking on it, and it seems like everything runs a bit more sluggishly when the a-squared Free program is trying to launch.

P.S. BTW, I use the Windows XP Home Edition OS and I have an eMachines computer.

 

That's a good question, MikeBCda. But, no, I was not referring to the Reset button and I hope that I didn't post my thread in the wrong place. But if I did, I'm sure that the moderators will move this thread into the correct forum.

BTW, MikeBCda, do you have to press your Reset button everytime that you turn off your computer?

 

Hi RCGuy,

Can you have a look in your Task Manger and see if anything is using your cpu cycles. It's sounds like something is running in the background slowing your machine.

You might also look if CA has a removal tool and give it a try. Sometimes uninstalling software goes wrong and you may need to uninstall what you have and try installing it again. You might also have to kill CA's processes and then try uninstalling. I had a problem once where I had to boot into safe mode and kill a process with Process Explorer and then uninstall the software. I was great battle but I won .

 

I noticed that since last week, when I click on Turn off my PC restarts instead of shutdown.

Another thing, very often DrWatson kills BCWipe.

 

Not normally -- if everything's running right, once the shutdown cycle is complete then it kills power to the computer. The monitor's still powered, in standby mode since there's no input signal, so I have to turn that off manually. Guess it depends on the particular hardware, I think on my old system it did also kill power to the monitor.

Once in a great while I'll get a total lockup for whatever reason, and in a case like that typically my only recourse is to kill the power switch in back and then turn it back on. Fortunately that's one area where NTFS format shines in comparison with FAT, I can't remember ever having to go through the Chkdisk after doing that.

(Edit - guess I didn't quite answer your question ) The only time I use Reset is if there seems to be a software lockup, as when "Now shutting down ..." seems to take forever (more than a minute or so). Obviously the power-switch thing is an absolute last resort, if Reset doesn't seem to be responding.

 

I don't mean to sound ignorant, but do you mind telling me how I would go about doing that? Also, should I look at my Task Manager when my computer hangs after trying to turn it off...or can I look at it anytime to see if anyting is using my cpu cycles?

I might try doing that if that is what is needed, innerpeace, however, what I did with this free CA suite via RoadRunner was to open it's console and disable the Anti-Spyware and Personal Firewall parts of this suite. But the security suite looks intergrated, therefore, it doesn't really look as if I could uninstall parts of it while keeping other parts of it.

 

MikeBCda, from what you described, I believe that I once had a computer that had a kill switch in the back of it, however, from what a repariman once told me, if my computer ever locks up, I should never turn it off with the kill switch in the back. But instead, I should press and hold the button that turns the computer on, which also functions as a Reset button and will turn off the computer if it ever locks up.

 

Hi RCGuy, Click Ctrl-Alt-Delete once to bring up the Task Manager, then click the Processes tab and have a look down the CPU column. See if there is a process that is using more CPU than the others. The System Idle Process should be a high number and is normal. Write down any processes that are using the CPU and Google them or post them here. It also should be ok to bring up Task Manager while trying to shut down and have a look then. You can also use Task Manager to shut down the computer by clicking Shut Down at the top and selecting Turn Off.

I understand what your saying about disabling parts of the suite. Right now I'm guessing that CA may be conflicting with your setup but to find out lets see what we can find in the Task Manager.

 

Well, let's see if I can get these image attachments to work.

 

Well, it looks like iexplore.exe is using most of the memory usage along with a few other processes that are in the 10,000 K or above range. Also, goodnight.

 

That looks ok. Was your computer running slow when you were taking the screenshots? If not, have a look at the CPU column when it's running slow and see if we can find a possible culprit. Write down the .exe and we'll look it up.

I also see that Dr.Web has found a few things on your machine in the AV forum. Have you ran any scans with your other anti-malware tools. I see you have a few nice ones . Keep us updated on how the Dr.Web results turn out.

P.S. You can take a screenshot of only an open window/app by holding the Alt key and then pressing Prt Scrn.

 

Thanks, understood. If it wasn't clear from my posting, I agree that the order of priority is and should be:

(1) The normal Start/Turn off;
(2) Press and hold Reset, if the above doesn't work; and
(3) Power switch (as absolute last resort), if neither of the above works.

 

Interestingly, the other day CA Spyware(which is suppose to be deactivated) was performing a "scheduled" scan on my computer. Therefore, I may uninstall the CA Security Suite to see if my computer runs differently.

 

Innerpeace, my computer was not running slow when I took screenshots. Also, I think this is the screenshot of when my computer was stalling when I had tried to turn it off. However, the screenshot below isn't one of the CPU column. I will have to take a screenshot of that later.