Can't shut down Home Premium

I tried to restart my computer and it is stuck on shutting down. It did this before and I hardbooted and had to wait over an hour for the computer to come back on. It was not reading my external drive so I hit restart and it is just sitting here doing nothing. I don't like hard booting but don't know how to get out of this. I obviously can't look at my event as I am stuck in shutting down right now. I have a gateway GT5628 quad core. The only stupid thing I did today was go into msconfig and click on tools, disable UAC and launch. It said reboot. My challenges began. do I hard boot or what here?

It shut down totally and then I turned it back on and now the screen is black. It started up but has gone black. don't know if it is working to start or not. Any suggestions.

It is 26 minutes since I wrote this and my computer is still trying to boot up. It is going through a correct the error routine. I don't know what has changed. I did not upgrade. Home Premium was installed on my computer. I have tons of room. It does not read my external hard drive on last boot up going through the same stuff here. Gateway said just wait it may take an hour. Everytime I boot? What is with that. HELP PLEASE I can't get into my passport for Microsoft from this computer on the network. This is a fiasco.

Sorry you are having trouble.

Before we can help you out, you will have to describe a few more details....so did this computer ever work or is it new right out of the box. If it's new out of the box there will be several interrations of unpack / install you will go through.

Did some one set it up on your network for you....?

Have you changed something recently ? See where I am going...hard to determine what is the issue ...

I have had several issues with Home Premium but one--by-one I have sorted through them and have a stabalized a machine from stalling on shutdown daily to never.... but it takes some time to work through some kinks....

Shutting the power off during shutdown isn't a good idea depending on if the pagefile is writing back to disk....you disrupt that creates many issues on the next reboot...

Tell us more of what you are seeing.....visit the event viewer and tell us about what errors you see listed .....etc.

Let me answer a few of your questions. I am almost out the door. This computer has been working like a charm. It would reboot with no issue going out or coming back. In fact, I loved how fast it was working. The only thing different I did today was go into msconfig, tools, disable UAC, launch, wait for cmd window. I then rebooted and it took forever and I finally hard booted. I know that was not what I wanted to do. I then tried to turn it back on and it started, got to the little gauge at the bottom where it shows windows. It then had big Gateway letters. Those left and nothing. I called Gateway. I am out of warranty as this is a refurb. He said do it again and wait an hour or so. It did come back on and things were fine. I stupidly decided to turn restart and I got the same gyrations. Except it never came back on even after more than an hour. It took at least 15 minutes to shut down. I called and paid the fee at Gateway and they had me take everything off--all items including the power cord. He had me hit the on button to get all power out of the motherboard. I then plugged in the power cord, keyboard and monitor. It was trying to repair itself. He went into f2 and I think f8 and did some adjusting. He then said call them back. He suggested a system restore. That was done. It is now up and running with mouse now added and speakers. Web is connected. However, I have not tried to shut down and reboot. It said it could not repair and it would send info to Microsoft. I am using the computer and will slowly add printers, etc. I have kept this computer very clean because I am noted for downloading stuff on my xp and causing issues. He thinks it could be the hard drive, of course. also I have an external drive attached to this and it was not picking that up anymore. There are tons of errors, etc for today. One is for a printer that would not work and I thought it was totally off the computer. It is on the xp only but that does not seem to be what Vista thinks. It is saying get a better driver. There are lots of things and so I would need to know what I might be looking for. I changed the msconfig back to enable UAC. Again, I haven't tried to shut down and restart. Not sure what to do. If I have missed anything let me know. This computer was bought in March, I think, or late Feb and has worked very well. It did have a shut down on its own a couple of times, but that has stopped. Is there anything I can send you?


PS. Network Magic helped me set up the network in the house. It is wireless. I can give you more errors later but have kind of had enough of this issue. It has been all day.

I took my external hard drive to the place I bought it. They tested and the hard drive enclosure was the problem with that. I purchased a new cover and that is fine now. I have not yet rebooted. Not excited about doing that. I know I need to but wonder if this external challenge caused the rest of it? Long off and way long back on. I have also stopped sharing a printer on another computer as it causes errors in the Vista because I can't load the Vista drivers. They loaded for a few days and then were messed up. I won't share that printer. I need to reboot to make the UAC change. No nerve yet today. Maybe later when I have more time to watch it.

CarolJoy said:

The only thing different I did today was go into msconfig, tools, disable UAC.

Click to expand...

Hello Carol, welcome to Vista forums!

This has been known to cause boot issues. UAC is an important part of Vista
and it's not a good idea to disable it!

Keep us informed.




Later Ted

I finally worked up the courage to restart the computer. I had gone back to the original of the UAC and that required restart. It came on like a champ!!! New attitude. Sure appreciate the help people put forth. My external drive is showing again and my next project is to get my really important things--pictures, Christmas addresses, etc.--on to CDs.