My Dell Dimension XPS450 locks up at shutdown regularly. It was just occasional, until Dell tech support told me it was locking up because I needed to load the Intel PIIx4 update. Now it's constant. The PC was fdisked and reloaded after we got it in (to remove Win98). Is there some specific order the drivers need to be loaded in? the setup is as follows: 450mhz Pentium II 128mb SDRAM Crystal 3D 64V sound card Matrox Millenium II AGP video card 10GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive IBM Token Ring Network card the video card was not factory installed, it came with the STB nVidia card, but we run AutoCAD, so we had to switch.

Microsoft USBsupp.exe, then the PIIx4 patch, and finally the video driver. Do not install Intel busmaster support, as Win '95 OSR2 and later has it's own built in.

Oftentimes, it's a program running in the background that's causing the problem. To determine if this is the case, hit Ctl-Alt-Delete to see what is running. "End task" on everything but Explorer and Sys Tray. Then see if it shuts down properly. If it does, just restart and "End Task" on just one of those running programs and try shutting down again. If you lock up, restart and "End Task" on the next one in the list and try shutting down again (remember - leave Explorer and Sys Tray alone!). This process of elimination should help you determine which one it is. Once you know which one is causing the problem, just get rid of it. If this doesn't do it, try going to the websites of your device manufacturers and download the latest drivers. This might do the trick!

Usually, on my machine, it is caused by a file called MSGSRV32.exe. This runs in the background and is in use by Windows constantly. You know if this file is the poblem because the mouse pointer will continue to flicker between the default and busy pointers. The only way I can shutdown is by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and ending all tasks apart from EXPLORER and SYSTRAY. This should then stop the mouse pointer from flickering and you should now be able to stop MSGSRV32.exe fom running by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL again and ending the task. Windows SHOULD shutdown normally now. Alternatively, try disabling the shutdown sound by going to SOUNDS in the CONTROL PANEL.