I've had this problem with 95, 98, 98se, and 2k. I've never been able to figure out what is wrong. Usually it happens about a year or so after a format. I think Windows might get cluddered and have problems.

That's my best guess.

I've also had this problem on my Win2K system that runs VV but it has had lot of stuff installed and then uninstalled. I found that windoz was still trying to love stuff from Pinnacle Studio 8 etc.

My other PC is also Win2k but on a 500MHz PIII, its never developed this problem despite running for years without a reformat.

My VV system has just been reformatted and reinstalled after RAID0 dramas and now it shutdowns in a few seconds. Have to watch how it goes over time.

Many things can cause Windows to hang or take forever to shutdown. Check Microsoft's Knowledgebase for some known issues.

I will. Thanks and I'll report back. John

I've found that about every 5th time I shut down, Norton AntiVirus stops responding, and the computer waits for it to close before it can shut down. I'm this close to taking it offline completely, but, just can't.

I removed Norton after running my check up and finding no threats. The MS Knowledge base listed many possibles, all of which did not fit my PC situation. Device Manager has no conflicts, no error messages displayed, App and Event log ok, Service Packs ok, other updates ok, etc. I'm trying to avoid a disc wipe, maybe that is the way to go. Thanks again for your attention. Let me know if you have success at quick restarts on yours. John

If you have XP, you may want to check event logs and see if Windows is reporting anything. Sometiimes it takes trial and error to find it. Note when it happens. Like only when Vegas was running or something else. Then shut down reboot, start just one of your often used programs, see if Windows shuts down OK when only it was running, repeat to you run through your most commonly run applications.

I've seen it when to no real surprise one of Windows own applets is at fault. A suspect would be Windows Exploer. I've seen it hang up shut downs. I've also seen it with some legacy software where if the application was minimized, but not closed when you attempted to shut down that would stall Windows.

I've found that about every 5th time I shut down, Norton AntiVirus stops responding, and the computer waits for it to close before it can shut down. I'm this close to taking it offline completely, but, just can't.

You hit one of the nails on the head ~~ Yor AV program may be waiting to do something that is why it seems to hang. One of the issues that I noted a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG time ago is that an AV system can be set to "Scan Floppy Drive" on shut down.

If you have no floppy drive in your system - it just hangs.

You may want to check that to see if that is the issue.

On some of the other replies - you may think nothing is running, but there is always something running.

I would suggest right before you do your next shut down - look at your task list to see what processes are running. Write them down, and then research what they are (if it is not immediately clear by the name).

Then, if something is listed that really should be there (like BargainBuddy or WebDialer)...then you know to get rid of those through your Add/Remove programs or take a run through the Registry (if you are up to it)