XP will not shut down

[Dan]

When I click on the shut off computer "button" from the start menu, my computer will only restart.
I've scanned with antivirus but find nothing. My definitions are up to date.
any ideas how to fix this or what may be causing it?

I did contract a virus that wouldn't let me get to desktop (kept rebooting endlessly) but reformatted and did a clean new install of os. Checked boot sector, found no further infestations....

UPDATE:
I installed the desktop shortcut to shutdown, hoping I could at least shutdown from there. No luck, it roboots instead. This just started happening last night, can't think of anything that I changed that might've caused it.

[glc]

Check in the bios and turn off all "wake" events - such as WOL (wake on lan).

[tmathews]

Have you disabled Automatically Restart on Error? If not, you may be getting an error during shutdown and XP restarts for you.

Right-click My Computer->Properties->Advanced->Startup and Recovery Settings then uncheck "Automatically restart" and click OK. This will cause errors to halt at a bluescreen with a stop code you can use to debug.

[rjfvillarosa]

Have a read through this page:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.php

[Dan]

thanks all-
glc, I couldn't find any wake on lan settings....
tmathews, I followed this procedure and got the blue screen telling me that I may have hardware or software installed incorrectly...this was a clue.
rjfvillarosa, I thank you for this very helpful article. In it, was mentioned that Roxio Easy CDCreator was a real problem for XP...(I just installed it yesterday).
Sooooo, I uninstalled the software and rebooted, then shutdown and my system did just that...shutdown cold...
Thanks again all for all your ideas and help...I can always count on PCMech to get my backside out of hot water....(I'll be back!~!~)

[rjfvillarosa]

Dan.
Reinstall Roxio and check to see if it is starting with Windows or if it is running any background services that you can shut down. You don't need all that instant recognition or in-cd nonsense.

I agree, I run Roxio Creator 2009 and it loaded several items to my startup menu which I promptly disabled and I've never had any issues with the program.

[glc]

I just set up a new Dell laptop for my stepdaughter - it came with XP and Roxio up the wazoo. I used PC Decrapifier to remove all traces of Roxio and put Deepburner Free on for her. It won't burn movies but she doesn't care. It burns audio and data CD's and data DVD's. It was only a 2.7 mb download and its very simple and plain looking - exactly what she likes! She told me to set XP to full classic mode with no effects.

[Lord_Orion]

Is it possible for your registry branch concerning shutdown and logout to have a string, D_WORD, or binary value for a different key from a different branch. For example, could shutdown have a value for logout. Just a suggestion that this could be the problem, though I have no idea how your registry could become that way.