Question : Dell Latitude Laptop - Will Not Shutdown, Startup Slow

Hello,
Troubleshooting typical OS problems is usually my strong area, but this one has me.
For whatever reason, a new Dell Latitude E6400 laptop, with a new Windows XP pro SP3 installation will not shutdown. When shutdown is selected, the “logging off” and “shutting down” will disappear, leaving only the blank blue screen and movable mouse cursor.

This is the primary problem, but it also has a startup lag or hang that's troubling too.

A side note is that I’m remote support for this computer, so it’s difficult to do offline troubleshooting steps.

I’ve tried:
- Full virus scans from multiple AV programs
- Uninstalling all AV software
- Disabling all non-Windows services and processes using MSCONFIG
- SFC / scannow and CHKDSK /r
- Checking Dell’s site for advisories (didn’t find much)
- Windows NT Hive Cleanup Utility
- Uninstalling all unnecessay software such as goole desktop, etc...

Any other ideas?
Better yet, anyone know a particular problem with these Latitude laptops? (it really seems like a quirky driver issue or something…)

Again, at this time I cant rebuild/reimage/reinstall Windows or really perform offline hardware diagnostics, as I'm remote. So any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Answer : Dell Latitude Laptop - Will Not Shutdown, Startup Slow

A good tool to troubleshoot slow boots and weird shutdaowns is to enable Verbose Logging mode. Once enabled, the system will display a window during boot/logon/logoff/shutdown that displays all the apps, etc.. that are being loaded/unloaded. There is a good chance that there is a single underlying problem affecting both. During boot, you should see the offending software/app/etc sitting in the display until it completes. Same applies to shutdown.

This can be configured via group policy or the registry. Below is the Group Policy method. The other instructions are on the webpage if needed.

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System.
In the right pane, double-click Verbose vs normal status messages.
Click Enabled, and then click OK.
Close Group Policy Object Editor, and then click OK.

Note Windows ignores this setting if the Remove Boot / Shutdown / Logon / Logoff status messages setting is turned on. If it is enabled, turn it off.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325376