Laptop not shutting done

[PurpleFloyd]

I have an HP DV7 laptop running Windows 7 and pretty much since it has been new it hangs up when shutting down and stays that way until I power it down manually.

When I either try to shut down or log off, I get a screen that pops up stating that background programs still need to close and whether to force them to close. At times Outlook or another program might be running but most of the time it doesn't display any program names. Then when I select for shutdown, it goes to the blue shutdown screen and just stays like that indefinitely. When I shut it does manually, when I restart it, I get prompted that windows did not shut down properly and whether I want to start normally or in safe mode. If I start in safe mode then I can shut it down and restart normally.

I looked at all the google searches and found no fix but some tried updating all the device drivers, which I did(especially the wireless). I also have one of the fingerprint readers on this laptop and it seems like often when the computer hangs up on shutdown, the light for the reader is flashing which means it is trying to read an fingerprint. Not sure if that could be an issue.

I looked into the task manager and the CPU usage is at 13% give or take so it doesn't appear to be anything a virus or anything like that. Also if I go into the applications tab and close all applications prior to shutdown it still hangs up.

Any ideas? I am thinking it has to do with either the wireless or the fingerprint hardware having an issue but I may be way off base.

[masoct3]

My Dell did that too. If you work with tech support, they will be able to reset some settings.

[upnorth]

Sounds like you have an app that won't close.

Try going to start, and in the search key in "msconfig" and see if there is any stuff in the start up that doesn't need to be there.

Also try a malware scan with your fav scanner. Could by malware/spyware that won't shutdown.

[delcecchi]

Or when it happens, go back to windows and fire up "task manager" to see what is running that might be causing it.

My desktop computer sometimes won't go to sleep, or wakes up. I think it might have something to do with the seagate backup program.

[PurpleFloyd]

Sounds like you have an app that won't close.

Try going to start, and in the search key in "msconfig" and see if there is any stuff in the start up that doesn't need to be there.

Also try a malware scan with your fav scanner. Could by malware/spyware that won't shutdown.

Did those things and can't find anything running that shouldn't be. Not that there might be something tucked in somewhere but I have done scans, ran malicious removal tools and pretty much everything I know of to find bugs and it comes up clean.

If it is an App hanging up is there anywhere else to look?

[PurpleFloyd]

Or when it happens, go back to windows and fire up "task manager" to see what is running that might be causing it.

Did that. Nothing shows up and there is nothing running out of the ordinary in the processes either.

[PurpleFloyd]

OK, I might have found the little nipper after all. I looked at the processes that were running and the only thing taking any memory was an application called PresentationFontCache.exe,which is a windows based program that runs in the .net framework. I did a quick search and found that it can hog memory, is not necessary to run the things i am doing, and that if a program needs it, that it can be turned on by that program, but that it may not turn off when you close the program that needs it to run.

So I killed it and stopped the process as well, then logged off and shut down and it was perfect. I restarted, went to the processes and it was back up, killed it and shut down without logging off and it did so quickly without the "Waiting for background programs to close" screen. So if this holds true I just need to figure out how to stop it from starting on it's own or whether I can just delete it and not have something not work.

[upnorth]

OK took a look and I don't have it on my windows 7 laptop, but a quick look up and found that it is a service and not a starting through the start, but starts as needed and called upon. If it is really a pain and not truly needed you can disable it.

Go to start, key in services.msc this will open up services management console. Scroll down until you find the PresentationFontCache service. Right click and go to properties. Once that is open you can the start up line. Click the down arrow and select disabled. But the drawback is that the app that uses the service may not function quite right. Just have to reverse the process.

If that is an issue, you can create a .bat script to stop the service before you want to shutdown. If that is the case I can post instructions to do that.

[PurpleFloyd]

OK took a look and I don't have it on my windows 7 laptop, but a quick look up and found that it is a service and not a starting through the start, but starts as needed and called upon. If it is really a pain and not truly needed you can disable it.

Go to start, key in services.msc this will open up services management console. Scroll down until you find the PresentationFontCache service. Right click and go to properties. Once that is open you can the start up line. Click the down arrow and select disabled. But the drawback is that the app that uses the service may not function quite right. Just have to reverse the process.

If that is an issue, you can create a .bat script to stop the service before you want to shutdown. If that is the case I can post instructions to do that.

Well, the problem was definitely with the PFM application. I have been stopping it every day and when I do that the computer performs flawlessly. I tried to do what you said in the services window but the PFM was not in there anywhere. I did notice that from the PFM if I clicked to go to services on the next tab it is linked to FontCache3.0.0.0 and I can go to that and stop the process, then at the bottom of the services tab there is a button that takes me directly to the service manager but from there I can't find the file that is associated with it. Any ideas? I would love to just kill the app so that it never runs unless I want it to.

[Whoaru99]

Saw some other reference to this - Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0.

I have both Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 4.0.0.0 services on my XP box and they're set to manual startup in services. I have not changed those settings to the best of my knowledge.

[Shack]

PurpleFloyd,

If you use Task Manager and locate it under the services tab, right click it and go to processes and right click the process which comes up highlighted you will be given an option to go to its file location.

[upnorth]

If it shows the name of the .exe in the process, you can stop it from command line. Which in turn would allow you to create a .bat file that can stop the process.

Try to see if you can find the name of the .exe that is running. When you do open a command prompt(start, run, cmd enter) and key in"

net stop (name of service/process) no parentheses and hit enter. If all goes well it should stop the process.

If that works open up notepad and key in:

cd \ (hit enter)

net stop (service/process) and hit enter

Go to file, save as, name it something like stopme.bat (name doesn't matter, just the .bat) and save it to the desktop. If you need to stop the process double click the file and it will stop it and you can restart/shutdown properly.

[PurpleFloyd]

Whoaru got it for me. I neglected to look for the file to begin with windows...... Killed it and now it runs cooler, the fan isn't pegging out all the time and it acts like it should.

Thanks.