Problem shutting down windows XP

[DirkStarscream]

Hello there.
My next door neighbor (honestly, not me) is having a problem shutting down windows XP since having automatically downloaded Windows XP service pack 2, or something like that. Apparently, a screen informing her that XP is shutting down appears, and then does nothing. She does have norton firewall and antivirus installed, and I know a lot of people have had problems with this. Other than this I really dont have a lot of information, nor do I know a lot about XP, my usage having been minimal. Can anyone hazard a guess as to how to fix this? I know there's not a lot to go on, but any answers much appreciated.
thanks,
Dirk

[Wamplet]

Have them remove it from the network (physically) while checking if Norton is the cause.

Disable norton from running. I'd suggest just uninstalling it, if you are not confortable with editing the startup entries. (MSCONFIG startup and services tab)

[Jeff]

Wamplet's right. That program suite has screwed me over lots of times. My brother and myself do a re-install of Windows every 6-12 months. However, this might be dangerous for you, and irrelevant to the issue at hand. Do NOT re-install Windows, unless you know what you are doing. Looking out for your best interests http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif. IMO, keep NSW 2004 or whatever, because, although it may be a resource hog, it can save anyone's ass if they are not fully fluent with Windows.

I had the similar problem that you had. You might also want to go into the Administrative Tools, and look in the event viewer. There might be a listing for the program which may have caused the shutdown freeze. The software errors are listed with a red icon. All the other ones are perfectly normal and harmless. If you can remember when you shut down the system then you can reference the time with the program that was last opened/closed/used before the machine went haywire.

[DirkStarscream]

thanks guys, I'll give it a try