laptop wont shutdown

Hi.
A friend has given me a laptop he's having trouble with but its got Vista on it and Im used to XP and I dont know if theres something wrong with it or I just cant find what Im looking for.

The main problem is when shutting down, it displays the screen saying, 'logging off' but doesnt get any further.
Also I cant seem to open the task manager. The green square appears in the bottem right corner but I cant open it.
Programs take ages to open.
This laptop has 1.73 celeron processor but only 512mb of ram. Could this be causing problems?

many thanks

Vista on 512mb? Bad move. Try turning down the shared graphics memory in the bios.

The main problem is when shutting down, it displays the screen saying, 'logging off' but doesnt get any further.

Try creating another account and see if it logs off properly

control panels > user accounts

Also I cant seem to open the task manager. The green square appears in the bottem right corner but I cant open it.

can you double click on the green square to expand on it ...

Programs take ages to open.
This laptop has 1.73 celeron processor but only 512mb of ram. Could this be causing problems?

Try to explain to your friend that the machine really needs 1gb of ram (bare min) and idealy 2gb!

How is he turning the system off? If he's using the little red button that looks like the power symbol, then all you are doing is trying to put the system in hibernate mode. To properly switch off the system, you need to click on the arrow next to the lock icon and select Switch off.

It is all explained here on the MS website.

I'd second the more memory requirement. Vista will not run properly with less than 1GB RAM. Upgrade to 2GB at least.

Andy

That behaviour bugged me but there is a way to change it in Control Panel somewhere. Sorry guys, for me OFF means OFF!

Ok, have brought and installed an extra gig of ram. From what I can gather off the net this laptop takes a max of 1.5gig, which it now has.

Installed, booted up ok. Turned settings down to 'performance' and did a defrag.

Now whenever I open a program or window the screen either 'glazes over' with a slightly dull look and the machine is unresponsive or the window opens but says '(Not rsponding) at the top. If Im lucky after about 15 mins the window will work and load up until I click on something and the process starts again. Logging off or shutting down still doesnt work.

I have run a virus scan. Alls ok. Is vista corrupt or something else running in background using resources? Still cant access Task Manager.

Any ideas?

EDIT- WORKS FINE IN SAFE MODE
Cheers

Edited by deleted (Fri 13-Mar-09 00:42:30)

In reply to a post by matty_hunt:

Ok, have brought and installed an extra gig of ram. From what I can gather off the net this laptop takes a max of 1.5gig, which it now has.

Installed, booted up ok. Turned settings down to 'performance' and did a defrag.

Now whenever I open a program or window the screen either 'glazes over' with a slightly dull look and the machine is unresponsive or the window opens but says '(Not rsponding) at the top. If Im lucky after about 15 mins the window will work and load up until I click on something and the process starts again. Logging off or shutting down still doesnt work.

I have run a virus scan. Alls ok. Is vista corrupt or something else running in background using resources? Still cant access Task Manager.

Any ideas?

EDIT- WORKS FINE IN SAFE MODE
Cheers

do a virus scan in safe mode in that case ... which AV are you using ?

Thanks. will try that.

Running AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.5.278

It also has Windows Defender which I have run but not sure what it does.

In reply to a post by matty_hunt:

Thanks. will try that.

Running AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.5.278

It also has Windows Defender which I have run but not sure what it does.

If nothing is thrown up - try an online Kaspersky scan...

In reply to a post by matty_hunt:

Thanks. will try that.

Running AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.5.278

It also has Windows Defender which I have run but not sure what it does.

Take a look through the 'Security' forum.

It would appear that AVG is a known resource hog that slows machines down - even those with a lot more memory than in this case.

Not used it myself, but the consensus would indicate he'd be better off with another AV programme.